读 (dú) · to read, to read aloud

Meanings

1 to read
2 to read aloud
3 to study (a subject); to attend (school)
4 to pronounce

Characters

读

dú

to read; to study

讠 (speech radical) + 卖 as graphic phonetic - speaking out written words.

Examples

HSK 1

你喜欢读什么书？

Nǐ xǐhuan dú shénme shū?

What books do you like to read?

HSK 1

我哥哥在北京大学读书。

Wǒ gēge zài Běijīng dàxué dúshū.

My older brother is studying at Peking University.

HSK 3

请大声读课文。

Qǐng dàshēng dú kèwén.

Please read the text aloud.

Tips

usage

读 often implies reading aloud or studying actively; 看 covers silent reading and looking at things in general. 读书 specifically means to study or pursue formal education, not just to read a book.

memory

Left 讠 (speech) + right 卖 (sell) - picture speaking written words aloud, like a market crier selling the text to listeners. The 卖 here is purely a sound carrier (simplified from a different historical phonetic), but the speech+sell image makes the meaning stick.

Components

radical

讠 yán

speech (radical form)

Left speech radical, the side-form of 言. Marks 读 as a verbal-act character: reading aloud, reciting, declaiming. The simplified speech radical compresses 言 into two strokes - a horizontal mark above an angled mouth-line. Same radical anchors 说, 语, 讲, and 课.

phonetic

卖 mài

to sell (graphic only)

Right-side 卖 supplies the sound: simplified from the traditional 讀, where the phonetic was an old hand-over graph reading yù. The shift from yù to dú is a large velar-to-dental drift, and the modern 'sell' meaning plays no role here - this is a graphic phonetic carrier only. The same phonetic anchors 续 (continue) and 犊 (calf).