Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced hai
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced hai, including 还 hái / huán / huàn, 海 hǎi, 孩 hái, 害 hài, 咳 ké / hāi. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
Build hai by sliding from h straight into ai; the tone rides over the joined sound, so treat it as one unit.
Initial h
Start the syllable on the initial h, then run straight into the final ai — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final ai
Settle the final ai into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (还 hái / huán / huàn, 海 hǎi, 孩 hái, 害 hài, 咳 ké / hāi) and lock in their tones. 5 common characters share the sound hai, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
hai turns up here with 3 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 还, 孩, 咳 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 海 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 害 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing hai inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
5 common characters in this group.