(é): to chant, oh (interjection indicating doubt or surprise), oh (interjection indicating that one has just learned sth)

(é) is a Chinese character meaning “to chant.” Classified as HSK Level 5 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of (semantic) and (phonetic). It ranks #1891 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, mouth. Its radical form (mouth) appears in many related characters such as (kǒu, mouth), (jiào, to call, to be called), (yòu, (bound form) right).

Native pronunciation

Definitions

  1. to chant
  2. oh (interjection indicating doubt or surprise)
  3. oh (interjection indicating that one has just learned sth)

Etymology & Origin

pictophoneticmouth

Decomposition: ⿰口我 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10

Practice writing with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
ò mǎi gā(loanword) oh my God!
ò huō(dialect) oops!
yín éto chant
3
Total compounds
67
As first character
33
As last character
0
As middle character

appears in 3 compound words: 67 as the first character, 33 as the last, and 0 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

0.420396 co-occurrences
wēng
0.412402 co-occurrences
yín
0.395120 co-occurrences
a
0.394138 co-occurrences
0.39042 co-occurrences
0.3771,950 co-occurrences
0.37648 co-occurrences
0.37278 co-occurrences
zǎo
0.35936 co-occurrences
duō
0.35842 co-occurrences

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

才很好,能言善辩,是个出色的律师。

tā é cái hěn hǎo , néng yán shàn biàn , shì gě chū sè de lǜ shī .

He's quite good, eloquent and persuasive—an outstanding lawyer.

SmzdmMar 2026

来抄作业啦,🇰🇷韩国萧邦小冰块这么买

lái chāo zuò yè lā , hán guó xiāo bāng xiǎo bīng kuài zhè má mǎi é

Time to copy the homework! 🇰🇷 Here's how to buy Chopard's "Little Ice Cubes" in South Korea

Tatoeba

,我把我的钥匙忘了。

ó, wǒ bǎ wǒ de yàoshi wàng le.

Oh, I forgot my keys.

Tatoeba

,能不能请你帮我听一下电话?

ó, néng bù néng qǐng nǐ bāng wǒ tīng yīxià diànhuà?

Oh, could you please get the phone for me?

Tatoeba

"你没结婚吧!?" ",我们分手了。我们解除婚约了。"

"nǐ méi jiéhūn ba!?" "ó, wǒmen fēnshǒu le. wǒmen jiěchú hūnyuē le."

"Didn't you get married!?" "Oh, we split up. We broke our engagement."

Tatoeba

,你去了理发店啊!

ó, nǐ qù le lǐfàdiàn ā!

Oh, you were at the hairdresser's.

Tatoeba

,不!我的房子着火了!

ó, bù! wǒ de fángzi zháohuǒ le!

Oh, no! My house is on fire!

Tatoeba

!我很遗憾听到这个消息。

ó! wǒ hěn yíhàn tīngdào zhège xiāoxi.

Oh! I'm sorry to hear that.

Tatoeba

你好烂! 我什么事都需要跟你讲!

Nǐhǎo làn ó! wǒ shénmeshì dōu xūyào gēn nǐ jiǎng!

You suck dude! I have to tell you everything!

Tatoeba

!那太糟糕了。

ó! nà tài zāogāo le.

Oh! That's too bad.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced é

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 哦 (é) mean in Chinese?
哦 (é) primarily means "to chant." It is classified as HSK Level 5, making it an advanced character. It ranks #1891 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 哦 have?
哦 is written with 10 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 哦?
The radical associated with 哦 is 口 (mouth). This radical appears in many characters related to mouth.
What are the components of 哦?
哦 is composed of: 口 (semantic), 我 (phonetic). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰口我 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 哦?
Common words with 哦 include: 哦买嘎 (ò mǎi gā, "(loanword) oh my God!"); 哦豁 (ò huō, "(dialect) oops!"); 吟哦 (yín é, "to chant"). There are over 3 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 哦 (é)?
Several characters share the pronunciation é: 俄 (Russia), 娥 (good), 鹅 (goose), 讹 (error), and 6 more. Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 哦 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 哦 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear native pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.