Child Radical (子) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
子 is the child radical. It appears in 14 of the most common Chinese characters — these 12 are the ones worth learning first, and the worksheet below gives every one of them a pinyin header, a stroke-by-stroke model and blank Tianzige grids to copy into.
Free · No sign-up · US Letter PDF
What does 子 mean?
Child radical · 子 zǐ · 3 strokes · child; seed
It usually appears on the left, or at the bottom. The Origin column below shows what each character's parts do — many take their meaning from the radical, some take their sound from the other half.
Shapes: 子
子 itself: A child in a wrap, with outstretched arms but bundled legs
12 common characters with 子
Ranked by how often they appear in real written Chinese. Every character links to its own page with a stroke-order animation and example words.
| Character | Pinyin | Meaning | Origin |
|---|---|---|---|
| 好 | hǎo | good, well | A woman 女 with a son 子 |
| 学 | xué | learn, study | A building 冖 where children 子 study; ⺍ provides the pronunciation |
| 孩 | hái | (bound form) child | 亥 supplies the sound |
| 字 | zì | (Chinese) character | A child 子 in a house 宀; 子 also provides the pronunciation |
| 存 | cún | exist; deposit; accumulate; check (luggage), leave something with someone | 才 supplies the sound |
| 厚 | hòu | thick | Sunlight 日 and children 子 in a building 厂 |
| 享 | xiǎng | to enjoy; to benefit; to have the use of | Children 子 living and eating 口 in the house 亠 |
| 季 | jì | season; quarter | The time for planting seeds 子 of grain 禾 |
| 孤 | gū | lonely, solitary | 瓜 supplies the sound |
| 孙 | sūn | grandson; descendant | Simplified form of 孫; a chain 系 of descent 子 |
| 仔 | zǎi | used in 仔肩 | A person 亻 keeping watch over a child 子; 子 also provides the pronunciation |
| 孔 | kǒng | hole; CL:个; classifier for cave dwellings | The mouth 乚 of a crying baby 子 |
Related Radicals
- 夕Evening radical · xī10 common characters · evening; sunset
- 大Big radical · dà24 common characters · big, large
- 女Woman radical · nǚ33 common characters · woman, female
- 宀Roof radical · mián39 common characters · a roof
- 寸Inch radical · cùn23 common characters · inch; a hand measuring
- 小Small radical · xiǎo12 common characters · small
Create Your Own Chinese Worksheet
The download above is fixed; the generator is not. Turn any character list, sentence or textbook section into a printable worksheet — grid style, paper size and header are yours to pick.