How to Say
How to Write
Radical: 曰 9 strokes
Meaning: why
💡 Think 'Hé (曷) asks why' like Sherlock Holmes questioning.
Compounds

📚 Character Story & Explanation

曷 (hé) meaning in English —

In a bustling Beijing market, a foreigner asks a vendor, '曷 (hé) is this so expensive?' The character 曷, meaning 'why', is classical and rare in modern Chinese, but appears in idioms like '曷不' (why not). It suggests a thoughtful, rhetorical question, deep in literary contexts.

💬 Example Sentences

Common Compounds

Similar Characters — Don't Mix These Up

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