Roof Radical (宀) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
宀 is the roof radical. It appears in 39 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 宀 mean?
Roof radical · 宀 mián · 3 strokes · a roof
As a radical it is called 宝盖头 (bǎo gài tóu).
It usually appears across the top of the character. 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: 宀
12 common characters with 宀
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 家 | jiā | [measure word for families or businesses] | 豕 supplies the sound |
| 实 | shí | solid, firm; true, real, actual | |
| 定 | dìng | set, fix, decide; subscribe to (newspapers and periodicals, etc.) | A person 疋 settling under a roof 宀 |
| 完 | wán | finish, be over; (use) up | 元 supplies the sound |
| 它 | tā | [used for non-human things] it | |
| 安 | ān | calm, at ease | A woman 女 safe in a house 宀 |
| 字 | zì | (Chinese) character | A child 子 in a house 宀; 子 also provides the pronunciation |
| 容 | róng | hold, contain; tolerate; allow, permit | roof |
| 客 | kè | guest; customer | A person 各 welcomed under one's roof 宀; 各 also provides the pronunciation |
| 官 | guān | official, officer | |
| 害 | hài | do harm to; suffer from (illness); cause trouble to | |
| 赛 | sài | compete; surpass | 宀 supplies the sound |
Related Radicals
- 大Big radical · dà24 common characters · big, large
- 女Woman radical · nǚ33 common characters · woman, female
- 子Child radical · zǐ14 common characters · child; seed
- 寸Inch radical · cùn23 common characters · inch; a hand measuring
- 小Small radical · xiǎo12 common characters · small
- 尸Corpse radical · shī15 common characters · corpse; a lying figure
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.