Sun Radical (日) — Characters, Meaning and Practice Worksheet
日 is the sun radical. It appears in 46 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.
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What does 日 mean?
Sun radical · 日 rì · 4 strokes · sun; day
It usually appears on the left, at the top, 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: 日
日 itself: The sun
12 common characters with 日
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 是 | shì | be | To speak 日 directly 疋 |
| 时 | shí | time when … | day |
| 最 | zuì | [superlative degree] most | To take place 取 under the sun 日 (that is, everywhere) |
| 间 | jiān | [measure word for rooms] | The sun 日 shining through a doorway 门 |
| 明 | míng | bright, light, clear; open, overt, explicit | The light of the sun 日 and moon 月 |
| 者 | zhě | [suffix for nouns denoting persons] -ist, -er | |
| 白 | bái | white | A burning candle; the rays of the sun |
| 早 | zǎo | early | The first rays 十 of the sun 日 |
| 易 | yì | easy | |
| 晚 | wǎn | late | Avoiding 免 the sun 日; 免 also provides the pronunciation |
| 复 | fù | again | A person 亻 who goes somewhere 夂 every day 日 |
| 音 | yīn | sound; news | A tongue 立 forming a sound in the mouth 日 |
Related Radicals
- 攵Tap radical · pū23 common characters · a tap; to strike — often marks an action
- 斤Axe radical · jīn10 common characters · an axe
- 方Square radical · fāng13 common characters · square; direction
- 月Moon radical · yuè13 common characters · moon; month; flesh
- 木Wood radical · mù88 common characters · wood; tree
- 欠Lack radical · qiàn13 common characters · to owe; to lack; to yawn
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.