咳 meaning and stroke order
Cough
How to write 咳, stroke by stroke
9 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
Meaning of 咳
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- cough
- sound of sighing
- (interjection expressing surprise, sorrow, regret, disappointment etc) oh
- damn
- wow
How 咳 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Mouth.
口 gives the meaning and 亥 hints at the sound.
Radical: 口 (mouth), shared by 428 characters on this site.
How to remember 咳
咳 is a pictophonetic character. The mouth 口 on the left shows it is a sound made with the mouth, and 亥 (hài) on the right gives a hint of the sound, much like the noisy "hai" of a cough or a sigh.
As ké, it almost always appears in the word 咳嗽 (késou) for coughing, and in medical terms like 止咳 (zhǐ ké), to suppress a cough. For example: 他咳嗽了一整夜。(Tā késou le yī zhěng yè.) He coughed all night.
Common mistake: Learners often confuse 咳 with 孩 (hái, child) and 该 (gāi, should), because all three use 亥. Remember that only 咳 has the mouth radical 口, since coughing comes from the mouth.
Common words with 咳
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
咳 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 咳
How many strokes are in 咳?
咳 is written with 9 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 咳 mean?
咳 (ké) means cough. A common word with it is 咳嗽 (késou), meaning "to cough".
How do you pronounce 咳?
咳 has more than one reading: ké and hāi. The most common is ké, said in the second tone (rising).
What is the radical of 咳?
The radical of 咳 is 口, which carries the idea of "mouth". Dictionaries list 咳 under this radical.
Is 咳 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 咳 is part of the HSK 5 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
When is 咳 pronounced hāi instead of ké?
It is read hāi when it works as an interjection, like "oh" or "damn," showing regret, surprise or disappointment. For example: 咳，我又忘了。(Hāi, wǒ yòu wàng le.) Oh, I forgot again. In this use it is often written 嗨 or 唉 instead.
Can 咳 be used alone to mean cough?
In everyday speech people usually say 咳嗽 (késou) rather than 咳 on its own. Alone, 咳 appears mostly in set phrases and written or medical language, such as 止咳药 (zhǐ ké yào), cough medicine. Note that the 嗽 in 咳嗽 is usually said with a neutral tone.