告 (gào) is a Chinese character meaning “to tell”. It is written from 牛 (ox; cow) and 口 (mouth), one above the other, and takes 7 strokes.
Build the character for “to tell”
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Structure
牛 + 口
Top–bottom structure
Structure from: Unicode U+544A, Unicode radical 30 (口) with 4 residual strokes, and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (strokes 0–3 form the 牛 top, with its 竖 stopping at the long 横; strokes 4–6 form 口)
Memory aid
An ox (牛) standing over an open mouth (口): the ox opens its mouth and tells everyone it is there. Both parts are really in this character.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
7 strokes
In real words
- 告诉gào sùto tell; to let someone know告 = gàospoken asgào su
- 广告guǎng gàoadvertisement; ad告 = gào
- 劝告quàn gàoto advise; advice告 = gào
- 告诫gào jièto warn; to admonish告 = gào
- 昭告zhāo gàoto announce publicly告 = gào
- 祷告dǎo gàoto pray; prayer告 = gào
- 诬告wū gàoto bring a false charge against告 = gào
Go deeper
All readings
to tell
to tell; to inform; to announce; to accuse
把事情说给别人听；宣布；也指向官方控诉。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 告诉gào sùto tell; to let someone know告 = gàospoken asgào su
- 广告guǎng gàoadvertisement; ad告 = gào
- 劝告quàn gàoto advise; advice告 = gào
- 告诫gào jièto warn; to admonish告 = gào
- 昭告zhāo gàoto announce publicly告 = gào
- 祷告dǎo gàoto pray; prayer告 = gào
- 诬告wū gàoto bring a false charge against告 = gào
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 告 mean?
告 (gào) means to tell; to inform; to announce; to accuse.
How do you pronounce 告?
It is pronounced gào.
What parts is 告 made of?
牛 (ox; cow) and 口 (mouth), one above the other. The recorded source is: Unicode U+544A, Unicode radical 30 (口) with 4 residual strokes, and hanzi-writer-data 2.0.1 modern glyph inspection (strokes 0–3 form the 牛 top, with its 竖 stopping at the long 横; strokes 4–6 form 口). Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 告 have?
7. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 告?
口. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 告?
Common ones are 告诉, 广告, 劝告. The reading of 告 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.