炊 (chuī) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

炊

chuī[chui1]Tone 1

to cook food

HSK 7

Guru Deep Dive

English · to cook food

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:8

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (火) must be narrowed and compressed to make room for the right component (吹), keeping the overall character square and balanced.

1. Meaning

to cook food

to steam rice or foodcooking

VerbFormal / Literary#food#kitchen#daily life

Sample Usage

生火做饭
shēng huǒ zuò fàn
to make a fire and cook food
炊事
chuī shì
cooking / culinary duties (often military mess)

2. Sound

/[t͡ʂʰu̯eɪ̯⁵⁵]/Tone: 55

炊

chuīchui1

¯(55)

=chuī

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

chui

Tone mark placement: Tone mark sits on "i" per the side-by-side rule (in -iu/-ui the mark takes the second vowel).

Initial Consonant

Type: Aspirated Retroflex

Sounds like: retroflex 'ch' sound like in church but with tongue curled back

AspiratedRetroflex

Airflow Tactile Test: Both curled tongue AND explosive puff of air! Tissue MUST fly.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip curled back near the hard palate, releasing a strong puff of air

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -i vowel group

Sounds like: rhymes roughly with 'way' or '-uei'

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

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

Abbreviated Rhyme Rule: ui is short for uei, featuring an internal 'e' sound

Tone

T1 (55)

5 → 5 (55)

1st Tone (High-Flat)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 1 is a steady high pitch, exactly like staying on a single high note in singing.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the retroflex initial 'ch-' with the dental/alveolar 'c-' or alveolar fricative 'q-'. Ensure your tongue curls back.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: A high, flat horizontal line gesture at the very top of your vocal range, like singing a sustained high note.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 8 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (火) must be narrowed and compressed to make room for the right component (吹), keeping the overall character square and balanced.

4. Components

Radical 火 · fire radical (fire, flame, heat)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 火 (indicates fire used for cooking)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 欠 (original sound: chuī / qiàn sound clue)

Fire (火) on the left meets a mouth opening and exhaling (欠) on the right: cooking food over a flame where steam and heat rise.

火 fire / cooking heat
欠 breath / yawning / mouth exhaling

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

16· Phonetic Root: 欠 (qiàn)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from 火 (fire) and 欠 (breath/exhale), depicting blowing on a fire to ignite it or the steam rising from cooking food over flames.

Semantic Evolution: Originally referred to blowing on fire or steaming food, evolving generally to mean cooking food.

Often seen in compound words related to military cooking details or household kitchen work.

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: スイ / Kun: ふく

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

취

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

You start a FIRE (火) in the kitchen and BLOW air from your mouth (欠) to make the flames roar so you can COOK FOOD (炊).

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

欠

qiànto owe / to lack / yawnPhonetic Core (声旁)

吹

chuīto blow+ 口 (mouth)

软

ruǎnvariant of 軟|软[ruan3]+ 车 (car)

饮

yǐnto drink+ 饣 (food)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

吹(chuī)

吹 has the mouth radical (口), meaning 'to blow'. 炊 has the fire radical (火), meaning 'to cook'.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

他们在野外生火[___]饭。

Clue: chuī

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing 炊 (chuī - to cook) with 吹 (chuī - to blow), because they share the same phonetic right side component (欠).

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see 炊, what is its primary meaning and what radical does it feature?

Production: How do you write 'to cook food' (chuī) using the fire radical and the phonetic component?

炊chuīto cook food

Speed:

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