Learn Chinese Characters

Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced gao

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced gao, including 高 gāo, 告 gào, 搞 gǎo, 稿 gǎo, 糕 gāo. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

For gao, start on g and let it run into ao without pausing; keep the mouth moving and hold the tone to the end.

Initial g

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

Final ao

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

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (高 gāo, 告 gào, 搞 gǎo, 稿 gǎo, 糕 gāo) and lock in their tones. 5 common characters share the sound gao, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

gao turns up here with 3 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: 高, 糕 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 搞, 稿 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 告 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

Common Words With This Sound

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

Characters

5 common characters in this group.