劝说
quàn shuō · HSK 7
to persuade
🗣️ 劝 advise + 说 speak = talk someone round to your view
劝说 stacks 劝 (urge, advise) onto 说 (speak, say): persuading is advising-by-talking. Both halves point the same way, so the word means to win someone over through words.
劝 — 又 (hand) + 力 (strength), simplified from 勸
The traditional form 勸 combines 雚 (a heron, providing the sound) with 力 (strength), suggesting using effort to persuade. In simplification, 雚 was replaced with 又 (hand), keeping 力 for the meaning of exerting effort to urge or advise someone.
说 — speech radical 讠(言) + 兑
说 combines the speech radical 讠(言, 'words') with 兑, which acts as the phonetic component. The character originally meant 'to explain' or 'to speak,' and broadened to mean 'say' or 'talk.' The same graph is also read 'yuè' meaning 'pleased,' a sense later written 悦.