蘇 (sū) - Meaning, Stroke Order & Audio

蘇

sū[su1]Tone 1

Su (surname, Soviet Union, Jiangsu, Suzhou, perilla)

HSK 6

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苏

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English · Su (surname, Soviet Union, Jiangsu, Suzhou, perilla)

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Topology:Left-right

Strokes:7

Writing Balance Rule: The left component (艹) sits compactly on top, while the right component (鱼) extends vertically down, balancing width and height harmoniously.

Simplification Logic: The traditional form 蘇 uses 魚 for the right component, while the simplified form uses the standard simplified 鱼 radical.

1. Meaning

Surname Su, or abbreviation for Soviet Union, Jiangsu province, or Suzhou city

Perilla frutescens (Chinese basil / wild perilla herb)To revive or regain consciousnessPhonetic transliteration character for foreign words

Proper Noun / NounNeutral#surnames#geography#botany#history

Sample Usage

江苏省的简称是苏。
Jiāngsū shěng de jiǎnchēng shì Sū.
The abbreviation for Jiangsu province is Su.
他姓苏。
Tā xìng Sū.
His surname is Su.

2. Sound

/[su⁵⁵]/Tone: 55

蘇

sūsu1

¯(55)

=sū

Initial Consonant

Type: Dental Fricative

Sounds like: s sound as in 'sun'

Unaspirated

Airflow Tactile Test: Clear, steady sibilant hiss.

Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip approaches the back of the upper teeth or alveolar ridge with a narrow gap for air friction.

Final Rhyme

Vowel Group: -u vowel group

Sounds like: oo sound as in 'boot' or 'u' in 'super'

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

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 level pitch sustained flat across the syllable, exactly like humming a steady musical note at the top of your speaking range.

👂

Listening trap: Confusing it with the retroflex initial 'shū' (书), failing to maintain the high level flat pitch and dipping it down into a third tone.

👋

Physical Tone Gesture: Keep your hand completely flat and steady at eye level, gesturing a straight horizontal line to represent the high level pitch.

3. Writing

Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 7 strokes

Writing Balance Rule: The left component (艹) sits compactly on top, while the right component (鱼) extends vertically down, balancing width and height harmoniously.

Simplification Logic: The traditional form 蘇 uses 魚 for the right component, while the simplified form uses the standard simplified 鱼 radical.

4. Components

Radical 艹 · Grass Radical (Plants, herbs, vegetation)

Semantic Clue (形旁): 艹 (Indicates the original botanical meaning of perilla (an edible herb))

Phonetic Clue (声旁): 鱼 (original sound: yú / sū phonetic correlation in ancient rhyming)

The grass radical (艹) at the top represents the aromatic perilla herb, combined with the fish radical (鱼) on the bottom which provides the sound clue.

艹 Grass/herbal semantic classifier
鱼 Phonetic and structural component

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

2· Phonetic Root: 蘇 ()

5. History

Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)

Origin: Originally referred to the perilla plant (shiso/Chinese basil). Over time, it was widely borrowed as a phonetic character for foreign names and terms, and became a common Chinese surname.

Semantic Evolution: From a specific medicinal and culinary herb (perilla), it expanded into geographical abbreviations (Jiangsu, Suzhou), political terms (Soviet Union), and a widespread surname.

蘇 is frequently seen in modern contexts as an abbreviation for Jiangsu and Suzhou provinces and cities.
In historical translations of the 20th century, it was used to abbreviate the Soviet Union (蘇聯).

6. Sinosphere

🇯🇵

Kanji (Japanese)

On: ソ (SO)

🇰🇷

Hanja (Korean)

소

Sound Shift Bridge: Shared East Asian cultural vocabulary and borrowings from ancient Chinese sound values into Japanese (So) and Korean (So).

7. Memory

Vivid Mnemonic Story

Imagine a **super** (sū) herbalist using a bed of **grass** (艹) to revive a suffocating **fish** (鱼) back to life.

Phonetic Family (形声字家族)

酥

sūcrispy, fluffy, butterAdd the wheat/rice grain radical (酉) on the left for food textures.

Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)

鱼(yú)

鱼 is just the bottom right component meaning 'fish', whereas 苏 includes the grass top.

舒(shū)

舒 features a tongue/comfortable meaning on the right (舍) and uses a retroflex initial (shū).

8. Mastery

Active Recall Challenge

上海和[___]州是江南著名的城市。

Clue: sū

Common Learner Pitfall

Confusing the flat high Tone 1 sound of 'sū' with rising or falling tones, or misidentifying the top grass radical when writing.

Memory Prompts

Recognition: When you see the character 苏 representing Jiangsu or a surname, what is its Pinyin and tone?

Production: How do you write the character for the surname Su, which contains a grass radical on top and a fish component on the bottom?

蘇sūSu (surname, Soviet Union, Jiangsu, Suzhou, perilla)

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