读 from HSK Level 1 Vocabulary List

The Chinese character 读 (dú) for "to read" is composed of two parts: the radical 讠 (yán), which indicates that the character is related to speech or language, and the phonetic component 毒 (dú), which provides a hint to its pronunciation.The radical 讠 is a pictograph of a person speaking, with the mouth open and the tongue visible. It is used in many Chinese characters related to speech, language, and communication, such as 说 (shuō, "to speak"), 听 (tīng, "to listen"), and 话 (huà, "word").The phonetic component 毒 (dú) is a pictograph of a poisonous insect, specifically a scorpion. The character 毒 originally meant "poison" or "venom," but it is also used as a phonetic component in other characters, such as 读 (dú, "to read"), 独 (dú, "alone"), and 督 (dú, "to supervise").The combination of the radical 讠 and the phonetic component 毒 creates the character 读 (dú), which means "to read." The character is used in a variety of contexts related to reading, such as 读书 (dúshū, "to read books"), 阅读 (yuèdú, "to read"), and 朗读 (lǎngdú, "to read aloud").