Chinese Characters With Several Readings (破音字)

Some characters have more than one reading, and the word they appear in decides which one you say. In Taiwan these are called 破音字 (pò yīn zì, ㄆㄛˋ ㄧㄣ ㄗˋ); mainland sources usually say 多音字, “multi-sound characters”. The practical rule is that you learn the reading with the word, not with the character. 銀行 is yín háng (ㄧㄣˊ ㄏㄤˊ) and 行李 is xíng lǐ (ㄒㄧㄥˊ ㄌㄧˇ). The character is the same; the word fixes the reading.

Every reading below is from the Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary (moedict.tw). If you want to check a character yourself, the site’s dictionary search shows readings by word.

How big is the problem?

Smaller than it first looks. Most characters have one reading. The ones that have several tend to be very common, which is why they feel everywhere. And within a single common word the reading is almost always fixed, so a learner who studies words rather than characters rarely has to decide anything.

Two kinds of difference are worth separating:

• Different words, different meanings. 長 is cháng “long” and zhǎng “to grow, elder”. These are different ideas that happen to share a character.
• Grammar particles. 了, 得, 著 and 地 are full words with a full tone in one use and neutral-tone grammar words in another.

The common ones

Character	Readings (MOE)	Examples
行	xíng, háng, xìng, hàng	行李 xíng lǐ (luggage), 銀行 yín háng (bank), 品行 pǐn xìng (conduct)
了	le, liǎo	吃了 chī le (ate), 了解 liǎo jiě (understand), 不了 bù liǎo (cannot finish)
得	dé, děi, de	得到 dé dào (obtain), 我得走 wǒ děi zǒu (I have to go), 覺得 jué de (feel)
長	cháng, zhǎng, zhàng	長度 cháng dù (length), 校長 xiào zhǎng (principal), 長輩 zhǎng bèi (elder)
為	wéi, wèi	行為 xíng wéi (behaviour), 因為 yīn wèi (because), 為難 wéi nán (make things hard)
樂	lè, yuè	快樂 kuài lè (happy), 音樂 yīn yuè (music), 樂器 yuè qì (instrument)
重	zhòng, chóng	重要 zhòng yào (important), 重新 chóng xīn (anew), 重複 chóng fù (repeat)
好	hǎo, hào	好看 hǎo kàn (good-looking), 愛好 ài hào (hobby), 好奇 hào qí (curious)
還	hái, huán, xuán	還是 hái shì (or, still), 歸還 guī huán (return), 還錢 huán qián (repay)
會	huì, huǐ, kuài	開會 kāi huì (hold a meeting), 一會兒 yíhuìr (a moment), 會計 kuài jì (accounting)
都	dōu, dū	都 dōu (all), 首都 shǒu dū (capital), 都市 dū shì (city)
假	jiǎ, jià	真假 zhēn jiǎ (true or false), 放假 fàng jià (take time off)
調	tiáo, diào	調整 tiáo zhěng (adjust), 調查 diào chá (investigate)
數	shù, shǔ, shuò	數學 shù xué (mathematics), 數量 shù liàng (quantity)
著	zhe, zháo, zhuó, zhāo, zhù	睡著 shuì zháo (fall asleep), 穿著 chuān zhuó (clothing), 著急 zhāo jí (anxious; mainland zháojí), 著名 zhù míng (famous)

Zhuyin for the main readings: 行 ㄒㄧㄥˊ / ㄏㄤˊ, 了 ˙ㄌㄜ / ㄌㄧㄠˇ, 得 ㄉㄜˊ / ㄉㄟˇ / ˙ㄉㄜ, 長 ㄔㄤˊ / ㄓㄤˇ, 為 ㄨㄟˊ / ㄨㄟˋ, 樂 ㄌㄜˋ / ㄩㄝˋ, 重 ㄓㄨㄥˋ / ㄔㄨㄥˊ, 好 ㄏㄠˇ / ㄏㄠˋ.

Not every reading is equally useful. 行 xìng, 還 xuán, 會 guì and 數 shuò are rare. (The huǐ reading of 會, as in the MOE form 一會兒 yíhuìr, is more useful.) Start with the first two readings of each character in the table.

How context decides

1. The word itself

For nouns and fixed compounds, the whole word fixes the reading. This is the biggest group, and it is why a flashcard for 銀行 is more useful than a flashcard for 行. When you add a new word to a spaced-repetition deck, type the pinyin or Zhuyin for the word, and let the card show you the reading with every review.

A few words are listed with two readings in the Taiwan dictionary, for example 好學 (hǎo xué and hào xué) and 長大 (zhǎng dà and cháng dà). When the dictionary gives you two, the meaning of your sentence decides. 孩子長大了 means the child has grown up, which is zhǎng dà.

2. Grammar position

For 了, 得 and 著, the position tells you the reading.

• 了 after a verb or at the end of a sentence is le (˙ㄌㄜ), the particle: 我吃了 (wǒ chī le). 了 as a verb ending meaning “finish, understand” is liǎo (ㄌㄧㄠˇ): 了解 (liǎo jiě), 不了 (bù liǎo). A quick test is that liǎo can stand in a word with a meaning of its own, while le cannot.
• 得 between a verb and its result or degree is de: 跑得很快 (pǎo de hěn kuài). 得 before a verb meaning “must” is děi: 我得走了 (wǒ děi zǒu le). 得 meaning “obtain” is dé: 得到 (dé dào). For the grammar of 得, see the guide to 的, 地 and 得.
• 著 after a verb showing a continuing state is zhe (˙ㄓㄜ). The same character as a verb result, as in 睡著, is zháo. These are two different jobs.

3. Meaning

Where a single word can be read two ways, the dictionary separates them by meaning. 重 is zhòng when it means heavy or important and chóng when it means again. 還 is hái when it means still or also and huán when it means to return something. 樂 is lè when it means happy and yuè when it means music. 長 is zhǎng for “grow, senior” and cháng for “long”. For each, one meaning is much more common in everyday Chinese, so start with that one.

A Traditional-character advantage

Some pairs that Simplified writes with a single character are separate characters in Traditional. 發 is fā (ㄈㄚ) and 髮 is fǎ (ㄈㄚˇ), so 頭髮 (tóu fǎ, ㄊㄡˊ ㄈㄚˇ) and 發現 (fā xiàn, ㄈㄚ ㄒㄧㄢˋ) are visibly different. If you are learning Traditional, the character carries information the Simplified one hides. This is one of the reasons that reading Traditional characters carefully pays off.

How to learn them without stress

1. Learn the reading in the word. Make cards for 銀行, 行李, 不行 and 內行 separately, not for 行.
2. Start with the high-frequency pair. For 行 that is xíng and háng. Leave 品行 xìng and the rare hàng for later.
3. Use sentences when the grammar decides. 了, 得 and 著 are best learned in short sentences rather than lists.
4. Check with the dictionary, not a guess. When a reading sounds wrong, look it up and compare. The reading you meet in Taiwan may differ from a mainland app: the MOE has 假期 as jià qí and 頭髮 as tóu fǎ, where mainland sources give jiàqī and tóufa. The Taiwanese vs mainland Mandarin page covers the wider picture.
5. Keep reading. The common readings become automatic as the same words keep recurring.

Zhong’s reviews show native Taiwanese audio with each word, so you hear the reading in the compound each time, which is where the reading belongs.

Related reading

• How to use 的, 地 and 得
• Dictionary search
• Taiwanese vs mainland Mandarin
• Taiwan vs mainland pronunciation: standard readings