Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced gua
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced gua, including 挂 guà, 瓜 guā, 寡 guǎ, 刮 guā. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
gua joins the initial g to the final ua in one motion — say it as a single Mandarin beat with the tone over it, not as English letters in a row.
Initial g
Start the syllable on the initial g, then run straight into the final ua — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final ua
Settle the final ua into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (挂 guà, 瓜 guā, 寡 guǎ, 刮 guā) and lock in their tones. 4 common characters share the sound gua, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
gua 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: 瓜, 刮 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 寡 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 挂 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing gua inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
4 common characters in this group.