Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced rao
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced rao, including 扰 rǎo, 绕 rào, 饶 ráo. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words, and example sentences.
How to Pronounce This Syllable
To say rao, set the tongue tip back for the retroflex r, then run into ao without a pause — one Mandarin block, with the tone laid over it.
Initial r
Mandarin r is softer than English r and starts with a curled tongue.
Final ao
Settle the final ao into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (扰 rǎo, 绕 rào, 饶 ráo) and lock in their tones. 3 common characters share the sound rao, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
rao turns up here with 3 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 饶 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 扰 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 绕 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing rao inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
3 common characters in this group.