喝 (hē) · to drink

Meanings

1 to drink

Characters

喝

hē

to drink

Examples

HSK 1

你想喝什么?

Nǐ xiǎng hē shénme?

What would you like to drink?

HSK 1

我喜欢喝茶。

Wǒ xǐhuan hē chá.

I like drinking tea.

HSK 1

多喝水。

Duō hē shuǐ.

Drink more water.

Tips

mistakes

Two readings. Primary hē (1st tone) is the everyday verb 'to drink' - 喝水, 喝茶, 喝酒. Secondary hè (4th tone) means 'to shout' and is bound in a handful of compounds: 喝彩 (cheer), 大喝一声 (let out a roar), 当头棒喝 (a blow-and-shout wake-up call). When the context is drinking, it's hē; when the context is shouting, switch to hè.

culture

多喝热水 ('drink more hot water') is stereotypical Chinese health advice for almost any ailment - period cramps, a cold, a broken heart. It's a running joke about both clueless boyfriends and meddling parents, but reflects a real preference for warm drinks over iced ones rooted in traditional Chinese medicine.

memory

Left 口 (mouth) - you drink with your mouth. The same radical works for the shout reading hè too: shouting is another mouth verb. Sound key 曷 supplies the rhyme for both readings.

Components

radical

口 kǒu

mouth

Left mouth radical - the indexing semantic. Drinking is a mouth action, so 喝 joins the 口-radical family of intake/sound verbs alongside 吃 (eat), 唱 (sing), 叫 (shout), 听 (listen). The radical alone signals 'verb done with the mouth' before the sound key resolves the rest. Same radical carries the shout-reading hè.

phonetic

曷 hé

how; why (classical, here phonetic)

Right 曷 supplies the sound - hé drifts to hē for drinking and hè for shouting. Same phonetic body produces 渴 (thirsty), 揭 (uncover), 竭 (exhaust) - all sharing the h-/k-/j- onset cluster from Old Chinese. The classical 'how/why' meaning of 曷 doesn't carry into 喝.