A few cartoon books were mixed in with the pile of textbooks on the desk.
Sentence #420088 from Tatoeba · translation adapted
How 卡通 is built
Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.
卡kǎto stop
上above · shǎng
卜divination · bǔ
Memory aid上 (above) and 下 (below) squeezed into one: stuck in between, as in 卡住 (qiǎzhù) “stuck”, where it is read qiǎ. Read kǎ, it writes loanwords such as 卡车 (kǎchē) “truck” and 卡 “card”.
通tōngto go through
甬path · tǒngSound part
辶walking form of 辵 · chuòMeaning part
辶 hints at the meaning (walking); 甬 (tǒng) hints at the sound. Compare it with tōng.
How to write 卡通
卡 5 strokes · 通 10 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.
Stroke order chart for 卡通 (kǎtōng). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.
Say it kǎtōng: kǎ with a 3rd tone, then tōng with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 卡通 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type katong with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 卡通 from the suggestions. Typing katong into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
卡通 is an HSK 6 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.
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Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.
卡kǎ3rd tone, dipping
通tōng1st tone, high and level
