Learn Chinese Characters

Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced e

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced e, including 阿 ā / à / a / ē, 恶 ě / è / wù, 额 é, 俄 é, 饿 è. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

For e, there is nothing in front of the vowel — settle the e shape cleanly and ride the tone from start to finish.

Initial e

Start the syllable on the initial e, then run straight into the final e — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.

Final e

Settle the final e into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (阿 ā / à / a / ē, 恶 ě / è / wù, 额 é, 俄 é, 饿 è) and lock in their tones. 8 common characters share the sound e, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

e turns up here with 4 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.

1st tone

Taking the 1st tone here: 阿 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 额, 俄, 哦… (4 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 恶 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 饿, 厄 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

Common Words With This Sound

Seeing e inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.

Characters

8 common characters in this group.