Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced jiao
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced jiao, including 教 jiāo / jiào, 交 jiāo, 觉 jué / jiào, 叫 jiào, 较 jiào. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
For jiao, the tongue is high and forward on j; run straight into iao and hold the tone, not English letters in a row.
Initial j
The tongue is high and forward. Do not add an English “d” sound.
Final iao
Settle the final iao into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (教 jiāo / jiào, 交 jiāo, 觉 jué / jiào, 叫 jiào, 较 jiào) and lock in their tones. 15 common characters share the sound jiao, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
jiao turns up here with 4 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: 教, 交, 焦… (7 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 觉 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 角, 脚, 缴 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 叫, 较, 校… (4 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing jiao inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
15 common characters in this group.