Learn Chinese Characters

Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced he

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced he, including 和 hé / hè / huó / huò, 合 hé / gě, 何 hé, 河 hé, 核 hé. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

he joins the initial h to the final e in one motion — say it as a single Mandarin beat with the tone over it, not as English letters in a row.

Initial h

Start the syllable on the initial h, 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 (和 hé / hè / huó / huò, 合 hé / gě, 何 hé, 河 hé, 核 hé) and lock in their tones. 11 common characters share the sound he, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

he 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: 喝, 呵 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 和, 合, 何… (7 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

4th tone

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

Common Words With This Sound

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

Characters

11 common characters in this group.