说 shuō to speak; to say; to explain
Made up of [讠 yán words radical 149, 兑 duì to cash; to exchange; to blend ]Made with 9 strokes.
The radical indicates 'speech' and the second part is a representation of an elder brother generating words and so exchanging words. The second part used to be the phonetic.
Ancient small seal form 
Related characters
Also uses 讠 yán component: 诞 dàn (birth) 访 fǎng (to visit) ; 话 huà (speech) ; 记 jì (to record) ; 谜 mí (riddle) ; 请 qǐng (please) ; 谁 shéi (who) ; 诗 shī (poem) ; 诉 sù (to complain) ; 谢 xiè (thanks) ; 语 yǔ (language)
Also uses 兑 duì component: 税 shuì (taxes)
Pronunciation
Sound file kindly provided by shtooka.net ➚ under a Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License
Stroke order for character 说, kindly provided under Wikimedia creative commons license ➚
Proverbs
说曹操,曹操到 shuō Cáo Cāo, Cáo Cāo dào 'Cao Cao ➚ of the Three Kingdoms is the embodiment of evil. Someone who you are talking about happens to appear unexpectedly说到做到 shuō daò zuò daò Do what one says
道听途说 dào tīng tú shuō Listening to roadside gossip or tittle-tattle.
郢书燕说 yǐng shū yān shuō The message has been misunderstood. The story is that someone living in Ying in the Chu kingdom dictated a letter to a friend, the Prime Minister of Yan kingdom. Inadvertently the secretary wrote down 'Raise the lantern' thinking it was part of the letter. The recipient interpreted this to mean he should appoint praiseworthy people to the government. So in this case the misunderstanding gave rise to benefit.
痴人说梦 chī rén shuō mèng Talking irrelevant nonsense. Ravings of no possible interest.