厦 (shà) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

厦

shà[sha4]Tone 4

tall building; mansion

HSK 7

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廈

Multiple Readings (多音字):

Guru Deep Dive

English · tall building; mansion

Cached lesson

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Topology:Full enclosure

Strokes:12

Writing Balance Rule: The outer shelter radical (厂) must arch gracefully over the top and left side, leaving ample breathing room and structural balance for the internal components (夏).

Simplification Logic: The simplified form is identical to the traditional form (廈 / 厦) except for minor component stroke standardizations.

1. Meaning

tall building; mansion

rear annexlean-to

NounFormal / LiteraryBound morpheme#architecture#buildings

Sample Usage

大厦
dàshà
mansion; high-rise building
大厦倾覆
dàshà qīngfù
the collapse of a great mansion (often used metaphorically)

2. Sound

/[ʂä⁵¹]/Tone: 51

厦

shàsha4

`(51)

=shà

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

sha

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "a" per main-vowel priority (a > e > o; in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Initial Consonant

Type: Retroflex Fricative

Sounds like: sh (retroflex sh sound like in 'shirt' with tongue curled back)

UnaspiratedRetroflex

Airflow Tactile Test: Hollow wind sound through curled tongue channel.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip curled back near the hard palate, air forced through the narrow gap.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: a rhymes with 'father'

Mouth Shape Guide: Pronounce as standalone vowel 'ah'.

Common Learner Trap: Keep vowel quality steady across all 4 tone contours.

Tone

T4 (51)

5 → 1 (51)

4th Tone (High-Falling)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 is a sharp falling pitch from high to low, identical to an angry command like 'Stop!' or 'No!'.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing retroflex 'sh' with alveolar 's'. Make sure your tongue is curled backward for 'sh', not flat behind your front teeth.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply downward to the bottom of your pitch range, like nodding 'Yes!' emphatically or snapping your hand straight down.

3. Writing

Topology: Full enclosure · Strokes: 12 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The outer shelter radical (厂) must arch gracefully over the top and left side, leaving ample breathing room and structural balance for the internal components (夏).

Simplification Logic: The simplified form is identical to the traditional form (廈 / 厦) except for minor component stroke standardizations.

4. Components

Radical 厂 · Cliff Radical (cliff, shelter, hillside)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 厂 (Provides the semantic field of a physical structure or shelter built against a cliff.)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 夏 (original sound: xià / shà)

A massive cliff shelter (厂) combined with the concept or sound of summer/grandeur (夏) to depict a towering mansion.

厂 Cliff / building shelter
夏 Grand / summer component providing pronunciation

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

4· Phonetic Root: 夏 (xià)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally formed by combining the cliff/shelter radical (厂) with the phonetic indicator (夏), representing large sheltered buildings or mansions.

Semantic Evolution: Over time, its meaning crystallized specifically around large, towering buildings, mansions, and formal structures.

It frequently appears in modern vocabulary as 'dàshà' (skyscraper or grand building).
In Taiwan, it has a secondary reading of xià when used in specific regional compound contexts.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: カ, シャ

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Picture a towering MANSON (厦) built directly into a giant cliff (厂), where people stay cool during the scorching summer (夏).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

夏

xiàsummerPhonetic Core (声旁)

嗄

ávariant of 啊[a2]+ 口 (mouth)

廈

+ 广 (shelter)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

夏(xià)

夏 means summer and lacks the outer cliff/building shelter (厂).

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

这座商业[___]里有很多家跨国公司。

Clue: shà

Common Learner Pitfall

Mistaking '厦' (shà) for '夏' (xià) because they share the phonetic component, forgetting that '厦' needs the cliff/building radical (厂) to mean mansion.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see the character 厦 with a cliff radical, what primary building-related meaning and pinyin do you recall?

Production: How do you write the character for a tall mansion or building (shà) using the cliff radical and the summer component?

厦shàtall building; mansion

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