秧 (yāng) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

秧

yāng[yang1]Tone 1

sapling; seedling; sprout; rice seedling

HSK 7

Guru Deep Dive

English · sapling; seedling; sprout; rice seedling

Cached lesson

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:10

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (禾) takes up slightly less than half the horizontal space, leaving the right component (央) open and balanced with its horizontal base stroke.

1. Meaning

rice seedling, sapling, or sprout

stem, stalk, or vine of a plantbaby livestock or fish fryto raise or cultivate plants or animals (dialect)

NounNeutral#agriculture#botany#biology

Sample Usage

插秧
chā yāng
to transplant rice seedlings
树秧
shù yāng
tree sapling

2. Sound

/[jaŋ⁵⁵]/Tone: 55

秧

yāngyang1

¯(55)

=yāng

Build the syllable

Step-by-step blending

yang

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: Glide (y)

Sounds like: Glide (y)

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Acts as a bridge into 'i' or 'ü' vowel sounds.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Raise middle of tongue toward hard palate, gliding effortlessly into vowel.

Final Rhyme

ang

Vowel Group: -a vowel group

Sounds like: -ang rhymes with 'ahng' or the 'ung' in 'rung' with a broader 'a' vowel

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

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

Tone

T1 (55)

5 → 5 (55)

1st Tone (High-Flat)

Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 1 is a high, steady pitch, similar to holding a high musical note without any inflection.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing the high level tone (Tone 1) with the rising tone (Tone 2), causing listeners to hear yáng instead of yāng.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 1 is a high, steady pitch like singing a high note flat at the top of your vocal range, accompanied by a flat horizontal hand gesture.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 10 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left radical (禾) takes up slightly less than half the horizontal space, leaving the right component (央) open and balanced with its horizontal base stroke.

4. Components

Radical 禾 · Grain Radical (grain, cereal plant)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 禾 (indicates grain, plants, and agriculture)

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 央 (original sound: yang)

The grain radical (禾) on the left provides the plant meaning, while the center/middle character (央) provides the sound 'yāng'. Together they depict young grain plants sprouting in the center of the field.

禾 grain / plant semantic clue
央 center / phonetic sound clue

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

11· Phonetic Root: 央 (yāng)

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Combined from 禾 (grain plant) and 央 (center or middle), originally representing the tender young shoots of grain rising up centrally in the cultivated paddy or field.

Semantic Evolution: Originally referring specifically to young rice or grain shoots, it broadened to include any young plant sapling, vine stems, and even young animal fry.

Essential vocabulary in ancient and modern Chinese agricultural societies due to the labor-intensive practice of rice transplanting (插秧).

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: オウ

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

앙

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

In the CENTER (央) of the GRAIN (禾) field, delicate green rice SEEDLINGS (秧) stand straight up under the high morning sun.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

央

yāngcenterPhonetic Core (声旁)

英

yīngEnglish / British / Hero+ 艹 (plants)

映

yìngto reflect, to shine, to project+ 日 (sun)

殃

yāngcalamity+ 歹 (death)

Explore this family →

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

央(yāng)

央 lacks the left grain radical (禾) and means 'center' rather than 'seedling'.

殃(yāng)

殃 uses the bone/death radical (歹) on the left, denoting misfortune instead of agriculture.

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

春天到了，农民们忙着在田里插[___]。

Clue: yāng

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing 秧 (yāng - seedling) with 央 (yāng - center) in writing by forgetting to include the grain radical (禾) on the left.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see the character 秧, what primary agricultural meaning and pinyin come to mind?

Production: How do you write the character for 'rice seedling / sapling' (yāng) combining grain and center?

秧yāngsapling; seedling; sprout; rice seedling

Speed:

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