好 (hào): to be fond of

Meanings

1 to be fond of
2 to have a tendency to
3 to be prone to

Characters

好

hào

to be fond of

Examples

HSK 2

他的爱好是打篮球。

Tā de àihào shì dǎ lánqiú.

His hobby is playing basketball.

HSK 2

孩子们对什么都好奇。

Háizi men duì shénme dōu hàoqí.

Children are curious about everything.

HSK 7-9

他好奇心很强，什么都想知道。

Tā hàoqíxīn hěn qiáng, shénme dōu xiǎng zhīdào.

He has a strong sense of curiosity - he wants to know everything.

Tips

mistakes

Don't confuse this hào reading with hǎo. hào (4th tone) describes a tendency or fondness - it's almost always bound inside a compound: 爱好 (hobby), 好奇 (curious), 好客 (hospitable), 好胜 (competitive). If the meaning is just 'good / fine / easy to', it's hǎo instead.

usage

hào pairs with a noun or verb to describe what someone is fond of or prone to: 好学 (eager to learn), 好动 (restless / fond of moving), 好斗 (belligerent / fond of fighting), 好色 (lecherous / fond of beauty). The reading flips to 4th tone whenever 好 expresses inclination rather than approval.

Components

radical

女 nǚ

woman; female

Sits on the left as the indexing radical - pictograph of a kneeling woman seen in profile. Combined with 子 on the right it forms the classic compound ideograph: a woman together with her child equals 'good', the most basic image of well-being in early Chinese thought. Same radical heads 妈 mother, 姐 elder sister, 妹 younger sister.

semantic

子 zǐ

child; son

Right side - pictograph of a swaddled infant with arms wrapped, a single curving stroke for the body. Combined with 女 it gives the compound ideograph 'mother + child = good'. The same child component appears in 字 character (originally 'breeding under a roof'), 孩 child, 孤 orphan.