烤
kǎo · HSK 7
bake
🔥🍖 火 fire + 考 kǎo (sound) = roast over fire; 考 gives the kǎo sound
Phonetic-semantic compound: the 火 fire radical on the left tells you the meaning (heat, roast, bake), while 考 kǎo on the right carries the sound. Same kǎo as in an exam, just fired up.
烤 — fire radical 火 + 考 (kǎo, phonetic)
烤 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The fire radical 火 on the left signals the meaning—cooking with heat, roasting or baking—while 考 on the right supplies the sound kǎo. It is a relatively modern character, popularized in the 20th century to write the everyday verb 'to roast,' as in 烤鸭 (roast duck).
kǎo · HSK 4
to grill
🔥 火 (fire) + 考 (kao, phonetic) — fire roasts, kao gives the sound
烤 decomposes into 火 on the left (the fire radical, signalling cooking with heat) and 考 on the right, which supplies the kǎo reading. So the character literally bundles its meaning (fire/heat) with its pronunciation cue.
烤 — fire radical 火 + 考 (kǎo, phonetic)
烤 is a semantic-phonetic compound. The fire radical 火 on the left signals the meaning—cooking with heat, roasting or baking—while 考 on the right supplies the sound kǎo. It is a relatively modern character, popularized in the 20th century to write the everyday verb 'to roast,' as in 烤鸭 (roast duck).