喝

喝 (hē) is the basic Chinese verb 'to drink' — used for water, tea, coffee, soup, juice, alcohol, and any other liquid you put in your mouth. It pairs with 吃 (chī, 'to eat') as the two foundational ingestion verbs every Chinese learner meets first. Two differences from English: first, Chinese uses 喝 for soup (喝汤), whereas English speakers say 'eat soup' — in Mandarin, if it pours from a bowl or cup, you 喝 it; second, 喝 by itself can mean 'drink alcohol' depending on context (你喝吗？ asked at a meal usually means 'do you drink?'). The character 喝 contains the 口 (mouth) radical on the left, a useful clue: most verbs involving the mouth (吃 eat, 喊 shout, 叫 call) share it.

Memory hook: The mouth radical 口 is on the left — anything you do with your mouth often gets that radical: 吃 eat, 喝 drink, 叫 shout.