Learn Chinese Characters

Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced xia

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced xia, including 下 xià, 夏 xià, 侠 xiá, 吓 xià, 辖 xiá. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

To say xia, lead with the forward, palatal x, slide into ia, and place the tone on top — one smooth piece.

Initial x

A light, forward hissing sound.

Final ia

Settle the final ia into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (下 xià, 夏 xià, 侠 xiá, 吓 xià, 辖 xiá) and lock in their tones. 10 common characters share the sound xia, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

xia 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: 瞎 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 侠, 辖, 峡… (5 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 下, 夏, 吓… (4 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

Common Words With This Sound

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

Characters

10 common characters in this group.