何 hé what; how; why
Made up of [亻 rén Person (radical) radical 9, 可 kě can; may; able to ]Made with 7 strokes.
The radical gives the idea of person, 'ke' supplies a rough phonetic
Ancient small seal form 
Related characters
Also uses 亻 rén component: 俩 bǐng (both) 倡 chàng (to initiate) ; 代 dài (replace) ; 但 dàn (but) ; 倒 dào (fall) ; 仿 fǎng (to imitate) ; 份 fèn (portion) ; 供 gōng (to provide) ; 估 gū (estimate) ; 候 hòu (wait) ; 侯 hóu (nobleman) ; 化 huà (to make into) ; 华 huá (splendid) ; 花 huā (flower) ; 健 jiàn (healthy) ; 两 liǎng (pair) ; 们 mén (s) ; 你 nǐ (you) ; 仁 rén (humane) ; 什 shén (what) ; 他 tā (he) ; 位 wèi (position) ; 仙 xiān (immortal) ; 信 xìn (letter) ; 夜 yè (night) ; 亿 yì (100,000,000) ; 攸 yōu (distant) ; 值 zhí (value) ; 住 zhù (to live) ; 传 zhuàn (biography) ; 作 zuò (to do) ; 做 zuò (to make)
Also uses 可 kě component: 啊 á (what?) 哥 gē (elder brother) ; 哥 gē (elder brother) ; 河 hé (river) ; 奇 qí (strange)
Sounds same
河 hé (river) ; 和 hé (together) ; 禾 hé (grain) ; 合 hé (to close) ; 曷 hé (why)Different tone
喝 hē (drink)Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Proverbs
谈何容易 tán hé róng yì Not as easy as it seemed有何不可 yǒu hé bù kě Anything may be possible
欲加之罪,何患无辞 yù jiā zhī zuì hé huàn wú cí No-one is spotless and so everyone can be rightly accused of a crime. Nobody's perfect.
成也萧何,败也萧何 chéng yě Xiāo Hé; bài yě xiāo hé Success and failure of your own making. The story is of Liu Bang before he became Emperor had Xiao He as Prime Minister. Xiao recommended Han Xin for a military command. However Han Xin fell from favor and then plotted a revolt. Xiao He lured him to a meeting at the place and killed him. So Xiao He both launched the career and ended the career of Han Xin,