Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced kou
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced kou, including 口 kǒu, 扣 kòu. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words, and example sentences.
How to Pronounce This Syllable
For kou, push a small puff of air on k, join it to ou, and hold the tone over the whole syllable.
Initial k
Start the syllable on the initial k, then run straight into the final ou — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.
Final ou
Settle the final ou into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (口 kǒu, 扣 kòu) and lock in their tones. 2 common characters share the sound kou, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
kou turns up here with 2 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 口 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 扣 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing kou inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
2 common characters in this group.