How to Write 咳 (hāi/ké) — Meaning “to cough”

Imagine someone coughing into their hand and then saying a weak 'Hi' — the sound 'Hi' is similar to the pinyin hāi. The left side 口 looks like an open mouth, and the right side 亥 sounds like 'hi', helping you recall the cough sound.

Write the mouth radical 口 first (3 strokes), small and on the left. Then write 亥 (6 strokes) on the right, making sure the top part is a dot and a horizontal stroke, not a cross. A common mistake is making the left 口 too large or mixing up the strokes of 亥.

咳 has 口 on the left and 亥 on the right, meaning 'cough'. 君 has 口 on top and 尹 below, meaning 'lord' or 'ruler'. 吝 has 口 on top and 文 below, meaning 'stingy'. Their shapes and meanings are completely different, so focus on the right-side component to distinguish them.

咳 is rarely used alone; it appears in common words like 咳嗽 (ké sòu, to cough) and the idiom 咳声叹气 (hāi shēng tàn qì, to sigh and groan). The idiom is often used to describe someone who is worried or complaining, adding emotional color to everyday speech.

Common words containing 咳 include: 咳嗽 (ké sòu) — cough; 咳声叹气 (hāi shēng tàn qì) — To sigh and groan; to heave deep sighs..