喝
hē · HSK 1
to drink
🥤 喝 = 口 (mouth) + 曷 (phonetic, hints at 'hē')
The 口 radical on the left marks this as a mouth action — drinking. The right side 曷 is the phonetic component giving the 'hē' sound. Same structure appears in 喊 (shout) and 唱 (sing): mouth + phonetic.
喝 — mouth radical 口 + 曷 (phonetic)
喝 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The mouth radical 口 signals an action involving the mouth, while 曷 (originally meaning 'why/how') supplies the sound. Early uses meant to shout or call out loudly; the modern sense 'to drink' developed later and is now the dominant meaning in Mandarin.