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

他的爱好是打篮球。

Tā de àihào shì dǎ lánqiú.

His hobby is playing basketball.

孩子们对什么都好奇。

Háizi men duì shénme dōu hàoqí.

Children are curious about everything.

他好奇心很强，什么都想知道。

Tā hàoqí xīn 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.