Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced zhu
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced zhu, including 主 zhǔ, 住 zhù, 术 shù / zhú, 注 zhù, 助 zhù. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
To say zhu, set the tongue tip back for the retroflex zh, then run into u without a pause — one Mandarin block, with the tone laid over it.
Initial zh
Put the tongue slightly curled back. Do not pronounce it like English “j”.
Final u
Keep the lips rounded.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (主 zhǔ, 住 zhù, 术 shù / zhú, 注 zhù, 助 zhù) and lock in their tones. 19 common characters share the sound zhu, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
zhu 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: 诸, 朱, 珠… (5 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 逐, 筑, 竹… (4 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 主, 属, 嘱 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 住, 术, 注… (7 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing zhu inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
19 common characters in this group.