说

説
shuō
#24 most
frequent character
speak
verb

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

说 has 讠 speech as the meaning part and 兑 duì as the sound part; it first meant 'to explain'. It grew to 'theory', then 'to speak'. Read shuì, it means to persuade.

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Example Sentences

我会说中文。
wǒ huìshuō zhōngwén 。
I can speak Chinese.
你想说什么？
nǐxiǎng shuō shénme ？
What do you want to say?
她在说电话。
tāzài shuō diànhuà 。
She is speaking on the phone.

Same Characters, Different Readings

说shuì
to persuade
说shuō
speak

Words with similar meanings

讲jiǎng
talk
More informal, often used in everyday conversation.
述shù
narrate
More formal, often used in written or formal contexts.

Homophones

说shuō
speak

Words Starting With 说

说话shuō huà
to speak; to say; to talk; to gossip; to tell stories; talk; word
说明shuō míng
to explain; to illustrate; explanation; directions; caption
说不定shuō bu dìng
can't say for sure; maybe
说服shuō fú
to persuade; to convince; to talk sb over; Taiwan pr. shui4 fu2

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