苦 kǔ bitter; hardship; pain
Made up of [艹 cǎo grass; herb radical 140, 古 gǔ ancient ]Made with 8 strokes.
'Gu' provides the rough phonetic, the 'grass' radical suggests the meaning
Related characters
Also uses 艹 cǎo component: 菜 cài (vegetable) 草 cǎo (grass) ; 茶 chá (tea) ; 懂 dǒng (to understand) ; 花 huā (flower) ; 节 jié (joint) ; 蓝 lán (blue) ; 劳 láo (to toil) ; 满 mǎn (to fill) ; 猫 māo (cat) ; 蒙 měng (Mongol) ; 莫 mò (do not) ; 苹 píng (apple) ; 葡 pú (grape) ; 前 qián (front) ; 若 ruò (to seem) ; 苏 sū (revive) ; 萄 táo (grapes) ; 药 yào (medicine) ; 艺 yì (skill) ; 英 yīng (flower) ; 藏 zàng (treasury) ; 蒸 zhēng (to steam)
Also uses 古 gǔ component: 故 gù (happening) 固 gù (hard) ; 姑 gū (paternal aunt) ; 估 gū (estimate) ; 湖 hú (lake) ; 胡 hú (beard) ; 居 jū (to reside) ; 克 kè (to be able to)
Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Proverbs
苦尽甘来 kǔ jìn gān lái After troubles comes happiness苦口良药 kǔ kǒu liáng yaò It takes hard work and discomfort to achieve something worthwhile
小洞不补,大洞吃苦 xiǎo dòng bù bǔ, dà dòng chī kǔ Do not put off taking action to put things right