诵 (sòng): to recite; to read aloud

Meanings

学生们每天早上朗诵一首唐诗。

Xuésheng men měitiān zǎoshang lǎngsòng yì shǒu Tángshī.

Students recite a Tang poem aloud every morning.

他能背诵整篇课文。

Tā néng bèisòng zhěng piān kèwén.

He can recite the whole text from memory.

usage

诵 is reading aloud. 朗诵 is expressive recitation (often performance); 背诵 is reciting from memory.

radical

讠 yán

speech; words

讠 is the speech radical 言 in its left-side form, marking 诵 as an act done with the voice: speaking words aloud.

phonetic

甬 yǒng

a path; flagon

甬 supplies the sound element (drifted from yǒng to sòng) and contributes no meaning here, working as the phonetic part.

诵 sòng