蒜 meaning and stroke order
Garlic
How to write 蒜, stroke by stroke
13 strokes in order. Each box adds the next stroke in red. Write top to bottom and left to right, and finish enclosing strokes last.
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Meaning of 蒜
Definitions from CC-CEDICT, grouped by pronunciation.
- garlic
How 蒜 is built
Phono-semantic (sound + meaning) character. Herb.
艹 gives the meaning and 祘 hints at the sound.
Radical: 艹 (grass), shared by 421 characters on this site.
How to remember 蒜
蒜 (suàn) has the grass radical 艹 on top, marking it as a plant or herb. Below is 祘, which gives the sound suàn, so picture a plant whose name sounds just like the part under its leaves.
On its own 蒜 often appears in cooking words like 蒜蓉 or 蒜泥, while 大蒜 (dàsuàn) is the everyday word for garlic. Example: 这道菜放了很多蒜。(Zhè dào cài fàng le hěn duō suàn.) This dish has a lot of garlic in it.
Common mistake: Learners often write the bottom as a single 示 or confuse it with 算 (suàn, to calculate), which sounds the same but has the bamboo radical ⺮ on top instead of 艹. Remember that garlic is a plant, so it takes grass, not bamboo.
Common words with 蒜
Ordered by HSK level, then by how often they appear in everyday Chinese.
蒜 in example sentences
Real sentences from the Tatoeba project, with pinyin and English.
Questions about 蒜
How many strokes are in 蒜?
蒜 is written with 13 strokes. The diagrams on this page number every stroke in the order it is written, with the new stroke shown in red.
What does 蒜 mean?
蒜 (suàn) means garlic. A common word with it is 大蒜 (dàsuàn), meaning "garlic".
How do you pronounce 蒜?
蒜 is pronounced suàn, in the fourth tone (falling).
What is the radical of 蒜?
The radical of 蒜 is 艹, which carries the idea of "grass". Dictionaries list 蒜 under this radical.
Is 蒜 on the HSK exam?
Yes. 蒜 is part of the HSK 7-9 character list in the HSK 3.0 standard.
What does 装蒜 (zhuāngsuàn) mean and is it rude?
装蒜 means to play dumb or pretend not to know something. It is informal and a bit teasing or critical, as in 别装蒜了 (bié zhuāngsuàn le), stop playing dumb, so use it with friends rather than in polite settings.
How is 鸡毛蒜皮 (jīmáosuànpí) used in a sentence?
It describes small, trivial matters, literally chicken feathers and garlic skins. You might hear 别为鸡毛蒜皮的小事吵架 (bié wèi jīmáosuànpí de xiǎoshì chǎojià), don't argue over trivial little things.