Chinlingo Chinese radical: 艹 (cǎo zì tóu)

You can find "艹" (cǎo zì tóu) in many Chinese characters, but do you know what it means? The ancient form of "艹" is "艸", which looks like two blades of grass side by side and meant "grass" originally. "艸" has evolved into "艹" and been used as a radical named "草字头" (cǎo zì tóu) over time. How can you memorize the writing of "艹" ? You can imagine that it is formed by two plus signs connected together.

在许多汉字里你都能找到"艹（cǎo zì tóu）"的踪影，你知道是什么意思吗？"艹"古文字是："艸"。它就像两颗并排着生长的小草，本意为草。经过演变，现作为偏旁使用，写作："艹"，读作："草字头（cǎo zì tóu）"。那么，如何记忆"艹（cǎo zì tóu）"的写法呢？你可以把它看成是两个加号的相连。

Do you know that pronunciation of the Chinese character radicals follows certain rules? Pronunciation of a radical ending up with "头" (tóu, head) means the radical is usually placed on the top of a character, such as "艹" (cǎo zì tóu) learned today and "⺮" (zhú zì tóu, bamboo radical) learned before; pronunciation of a radical ending up with "旁" (pánɡ) means that the radical is usually placed on the left or right side of a character, such as "亻" (dān rén pánɡ, single person radical) and"犭" (fǎn quǎn pánɡ, reverse dog radical).

你知道汉字偏旁的读法有一定的特点吗？如果读法有出现"头（tóu）"，这就说明它常被放置于汉字的顶部，比如我们今天说的"艹（cǎo zì tóu）"以及我们之前讲过的"⺮（zhú zì tóu）"；如果读法有出现"旁（pánɡ）"，则说明它常放置于汉字的左或右部分，比如"亻（dān rén pánɡ）"、"犭（fǎn quǎn pánɡ）"。

Characters composed of "艹" (cǎo zì tóu) as a radical are related to plants. For example, "草" (cǎo) is the general name of all herbaceous plants, "花" (huā) is the general name of all flowers, and "茶" (chá) means "tea".

当汉字以"艹（cǎo zì tóu）"作为偏旁时，则说明其跟植物有关。比如：草（cǎo），本义是草本植物的总称；花（huā），本义是花卉的总称；"茶（chá）"，指茶树植物叶或芽制作的饮品。

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