商

Tap the pinyin to hear it

commerce; merchant; dealer; to consult; 2nd note in pentatonic scale; quotient (as in 智商[zhi4 shang1], intelligence quotient)

Make a writing worksheet

HSK 3.0: Level 1
Old HSK: Level 1
Strokes: 11
Radical: 口 +8
Structure: Top–bottom 上下
Traditional: 商
Common rank: #293
Unicode: U+5546

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

How 商 is formed

Phono-semantic compound (形声字)

冏 meaning “bright” + 章 sound ( zhāng )

Components 亠丷冏

How to remember it

salesman · Heisig RSH #451

立 standing up + helmet + animal legs + 口 mouth

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

Words with 商

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
商场	shāng chǎng	shopping mall; shopping center; department store; emporium; CL:家[jia1]; the business world
商店	shāng diàn	store; shop; CL:家[jia1]
商水县	Shāng shuǐ Xiàn	Shangshui, a county in Zhoukou City 周口市[Zhou1 kou3 Shi4], Henan
商业中心	shāng yè zhōng xīn	business center; commerce center
发行商	fā xíng shāng	publisher; distributor; issuer
商南县	Shāng nán Xiàn	Shangnan, a county in Shangluo City 商洛市[Shang1 luo4 Shi4], Shaanxi
商城县	Shāng chéng Xiàn	Shangcheng, a county in Xinyang City 信陽市\|信阳市[Xin4 yang2 Shi4], Henan
中国商用飞机	Zhōng guó Shāng yòng Fēi jī	COMAC (Chinese aeronautics company)
开发商	kāi fā shāng	developer (of real estate, a commercial product etc)
有商有量	yǒu shāng yǒu liàng	to talk things through (idiom); to have an exchange of views
出口商	chū kǒu shāng	exporter; export business
重商主义	zhòng shāng zhǔ yì	mercantilism
商务中心区	shāng wù zhōng xīn qū	central business district (e.g. CBD of Beijing)
商河县	Shāng hé Xiàn	Shanghe, a county in Jinan City 濟南市\|济南市[Ji3 nan2 Shi4], Shandong
商州区	Shāng zhōu Qū	Shangzhou, a district of Shangluo City 商洛市[Shang1 luo4 Shi4], Shaanxi
中国工商银行	Zhōng guó Gōng shāng Yín háng	Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC)
商人	shāng rén	merchant; businessman
商水	Shāng shuǐ	see 商水縣\|商水县[Shang1 shui3 Xian4]
商业区	shāng yè qū	business district; downtown
商学	shāng xué	business studies; commerce as an academic subject

Sound family

Characters sharing the sound component 章 — compare how they read.

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
章 sound part	zhāng	chapter, section, writing; seal
障	zhàng	to separate; shield, barricade
彰	zhāng	clear, manifest, obvious
漳	zhāng	a river in Henan province
樟	zhāng	camphor tree
瘴	zhàng	malaria; miasma, pestilential vapor
獐	zhāng	roebuck, hornless river deer
嶂	zhàng	cliff; the barrier formed by a mountain range
璋	zhāng	jade plaything; jade ornament
蟑	zhāng	cockroach
嫜	zhāng	husband's mother; the lady in the moon
鄣	zhāng	an ancient city in Jiangsu province