Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced hua

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced hua, including 话 huà, 化 huà, 花 huā, 华 huá / huà, 划 huá / huà. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

Build hua by sliding from h straight into ua; 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 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 (话 huà, 化 huà, 花 huā, 华 huá / huà, 划 huá / huà) and lock in their tones. 8 common characters share the sound hua, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

hua 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: 花, 哗 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

花huāflower; blossom; to spend (money; time); fancy pattern 哗huā / huácrashing sound; cat-calling sound; clamor; noise; clamor; noise

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 华, 划, 滑 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

华huá / huà(abbreviation for) China; (surname) Hua; magnificent; splendid; flowery; (surname)划huá / huàto row; to delimit; to transfer; to assign; to differentiate; to mark off 滑huá / gǔcomical; comical; cunning; slippery; smooth

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 话, 化, 画 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

话huàdialect; language; spoken words; speech; talk; words 化huàto make into; to change into; -ization; to ... -ize; to transform 画huàdraw; picture; painting

Common Words With This Sound

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

电话diàn huàtelephone; phone call; phone number 说话shuō huàto speak; to say; to talk; to gossip 打电话dǎ diàn huàto make a telephone call 变化biàn huà(intransitive) to change; to vary; change; variation 文化wén huàculture; civilization; cultural 现代化xiàn dài huàmodernization 花园huā yuángarden (for flowers, ornamental plants etc); (landscaped) park; yard with decorative plants 开花kāi huāto bloom; to blossom; to flower; (fig.) to burst 鲜花xiān huāflower; fresh flowers 豪华háo huáluxurious

Characters

8 common characters in this group.

Character#1 话 huàdialect; language; spoken words; speech; talk; wordsTraditional: 話 Character#2 化 huàto make into; to change into; -ization; to ... -ize; to transformTraditional: 化 Character#3 花 huāflower; blossom; to spend (money; time); fancy patternTraditional: 花 Character#4 华 huá / huà(abbreviation for) China; (surname) Hua; magnificent; splendid; flowery; (surname)Traditional: 華 Character#5 划 huá / huàto row; to delimit; to transfer; to assign; to differentiate; to mark offTraditional: 划 Character#6 画 huàdraw; picture; paintingTraditional: 畫 Character#7 滑 huá / gǔcomical; comical; cunning; slippery; smoothTraditional: 滑 Character#8 哗 huā / huácrashing sound; cat-calling sound; clamor; noise; clamor; noiseTraditional: 嘩