Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced hei
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced hei, including 黑 hēi, 嘿 hēi. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words, and example sentences.
How to Pronounce This Syllable
Build hei by sliding from h straight into ei; 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 ei — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final ei
Settle the final ei into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (黑 hēi, 嘿 hēi) and lock in their tones. 2 common characters share the sound hei, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
hei turns up here with 1 different tone; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
1st tone
Taking the 1st tone here: 黑, 嘿 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing hei inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
2 common characters in this group.