HSK 5 · Food
酱油 jiàngyóu “soy sauce” in Chinese
Traditional 醬油
What 酱油 means
- soy sauce
How to say 酱油
酱jiàng4th tone, falling
油yóu2nd tone, rising
酱油 in a sentence
How 酱油 is built
Each colour is one part of the character. Parts repeat across thousands of characters, so learning them makes new words easier. See all 214 in our radicals chart.

酱jiàngthick paste of fermented soybean
- 丬half of tree trunk · qiángSound part
- 夕evening · xī
- 酉wine vessel · yǒuMeaning part
酉 hints at the meaning (wine vessel); 丬 (qiáng) hints at the sound. Compare it with jiàng.

油yóuoil
- 氵water form of 水 · shuǐMeaning part
- 由cause · yóuSound part
氵 hints at the meaning (water); 由 (yóu) hints at the sound. Compare it with yóu.
How to write 酱油
酱 13 strokes · 油 8 strokes
Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

Words related to 酱油
Words with 油
油yóu · oil加油jiāyóu · to cheer on加油站jiāyóuzhàn · petrol station油炸yóuzhá · to deep fry汽油qìyóu · petrol油腻yóunì · greasy石油shíyóu · oil柴油cháiyóu · diesel油漆yóuqī · paint
More words: Food & Dining
FAQs
酱油 (jiàngyóu) means “soy sauce”. It is an HSK 5 word.
Say it jiàngyóu: jiàng with a 4th tone, then yóu with a 2nd tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
In Traditional characters, used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, 酱油 is written 醬油. The pronunciation is the same.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type jiangyou with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 酱油 from the suggestions. Typing jiangyou into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
酱油 is an HSK 5 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.
Sources: meaning and pinyin checked by a native Mandarin teacher against the official HSK lists. Extra meanings from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Example sentences from Tatoeba (CC BY 2.0 FR). Character parts and stroke order from Make Me a Hanzi.