Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced zhe

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced zhe, including 这 zhè / zhèi, 着 zhe, 者 zhě, 哲 zhé, 折 zhé / shé. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

zhe begins with the tongue curled up and back for zh; let it slide straight into e and carry the tone across the whole sound, rather than spelling out English letters.

Initial zh

Put the tongue slightly curled back. Do not pronounce it like English “j”.

Final e

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

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (这 zhè / zhèi, 着 zhe, 者 zhě, 哲 zhé, 折 zhé / shé) and lock in their tones. 7 common characters share the sound zhe, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

zhe turns up here with 5 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: 遮 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

遮zhēcover up (a shortcoming); screen off; to hide; to conceal

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 哲, 折 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

哲zhéphilosophy; wise 折zhé / shébroken (as of rope; stick); tenth (in price); to break; to fold; to turn

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 者 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

者zhě-ist; -er (person); person (who does sth)

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 这, 浙 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

这zhè / zhèithis; these; this; these; (sometimes used before a measure word; especially in Beijing)浙zhèZhejiang

5

Taking the 5 here: 着 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

着zhecatch; receive; suffer; part. indicates the successful result of a verb; to touch; to come in contact with

Common Words With This Sound

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

这些zhè xiēthese 这里zhè lǐhere 这儿zhè rhere 接着jiē zheto catch and hold on; to continue; to go on to do sth; to follow 着急zháo jíto worry; to feel anxious; to feel a sense of urgency; to be in a hurry 有着yǒu zheto have; to possess 或者huò zhěor; possibly; maybe; perhaps 记者jì zhěreporter; journalist 作者zuò zhěauthor; writer 哲学zhé xuéphilosophy

Characters

7 common characters in this group.

Character#1 这 zhè / zhèithis; these; this; these; (sometimes used before a measure word; especially in Beijing)Traditional: 這 Character#2 着 zhecatch; receive; suffer; part. indicates the successful result of a verb; to touch; to come in contact withTraditional: 著 Character#3 者 zhě-ist; -er (person); person (who does sth)Traditional: 者 Character#4 哲 zhéphilosophy; wiseTraditional: 哲 Character#5 折 zhé / shébroken (as of rope; stick); tenth (in price); to break; to fold; to turnTraditional: 折 Character#6 浙 zhèZhejiangTraditional: 浙 Character#7 遮 zhēcover up (a shortcoming); screen off; to hide; to concealTraditional: 遮