HSK 4 · Food

酸 suān “sour” in Chinese

Same in Traditional

What 酸 means

  1. sour
  2. tart
  3. sick at heart
  4. grieved
  5. sore
More meanings from CC-CEDICT
  • aching

How to say 酸

  • Pitch chart of the first tone: stays high and level, 5 to 5 on the five-level scale酸suān1st tone, high and level

酸 in a sentence

  1. 牛奶酸了。

    Niúnǎi suān le.

    The milk has gone sour.

    Sentence #3140026 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

  2. 这果子还太酸，没法吃。

    Zhè guǒzi hái tài suān, méifǎ chī.

    The fruit is still too sour to eat.

    Sentence #7774601 from Tatoeba

  3. 酸 can also mean “sore” or “aching” (of muscles)

    第二天我的腿很酸。

    Dì'èr tiān wǒ de tuǐ hěn suān.

    I had sore legs the next day.

    Sentence #616205 from Tatoeba · translation adapted

How 酸 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.

The character 酸 (suān) with each of its parts in a different colour
酸suānsour
  • 酉wine vessel · yǒu
  • 夋to dawdle

How to write 酸

酸 14 strokes

Watch the order, then press Try writing it and draw each stroke in the grid. Each stroke is checked as you go.

酸 (suān) stroke order chart: each stroke of the character in the order you write it
Stroke order chart for 酸 (suān). Red marks the next stroke, so you can copy it onto paper one step at a time.

Words related to 酸

More words: Food & Drink

辣là · spicy葡萄pútao · grape巧克力qiǎokèlì · chocolate (loanword)勺子sháozi · scoop汤tāng · soup糖táng · sugar味道wèidao · flavour小吃xiǎochī · snack

FAQs

酸 (suān) means “sour” or “tart”. It is an HSK 4 word.
Say it suān: suān with a 1st tone. Press Listen at the top of this page to hear it, or Slowly to hear each tone clearly.
Yes. 酸 is written the same way in Simplified and Traditional characters.
Add a Chinese (Simplified) pinyin keyboard to your phone or computer, type suan with no tone marks or spaces, then choose 酸 from the suggestions. Typing suan into this dictionary’s search box finds it too.
酸 is an HSK 4 word in the HSK 2.0 word lists.

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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.