Writing Balance Rule: The left side (the wine jar radical 酉) is slightly narrower and taller, while the right side (卒) balances it out by occupying the right half with horizontal and vertical stability.
1. Meaning
intoxicated, drunk
addicted to, infatuated withimmersed in, enchanted by
Adjective / VerbNeutral#emotions#sensory#behavior
Sample Usage
他喝醉了。
tā hē zuì le.
He is drunk.
陶醉在美妙的音乐中。
táo zuì zài měimiào de yīnyuè zhōng.
Enchanted in the wonderful music.
2. Sound
/[tsu̯eɪ̯⁵¹]/Tone: 51
醉
zuìzui4
|
++
`(51)
=zuì
Initial Consonant
z
Type: Unaspirated Dental Sibilant
Sounds like: ts sound like 'ts' in 'cats'
Unaspirated
Airflow Tactile Test: No air puff (sounds like 'ds' in English 'cards'). Tissue still.
Tongue & Mouth Position: Tongue tip touches the back of the upper front teeth, releasing a crisp, non-aspirated affricate.
Final Rhyme
ui
Vowel Group: -i vowel group
Sounds like: rhymes 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, with an audible 'u' glide transitioning into 'ei'.
Tone
T4 (51)
5 → 1 (51)
4th Tone (High-Falling)
Tone Pitch & Cadence: Tone 4 is a sharp drop from 5 to 1, exactly like a command or a firm downward head nod.
👂
Listening trap: Confusing the initial 'zu-' [ts-] with 'ju-' [tɕ-] or English 'zu' sounds; make sure it is an alveolar affricate rather than a palatal or English voiced /z/.
👋
Physical Tone Gesture: Tone 4 starts high and drops sharply like a decisive nod or an emphatic 'No!'
3. Writing
Topology: Left-right · Strokes: 15 strokes
Writing Balance Rule: The left side (the wine jar radical 酉) is slightly narrower and taller, while the right side (卒) balances it out by occupying the right half with horizontal and vertical stability.
4. Components
Radical酉 · Wine Jar Radical (wine, alcohol, fermentation)
Semantic Clue (形旁):酉 (indicates alcohol, wine, or fermentation, signaling the root cause of being intoxicated)
The wine jar radical (酉) sits on the left, representing alcohol. On the right is a soldier (卒). When a soldier drinks too much from the wine jar, he gets drunk (醉) and falls over.
酉 wine jar / alcohol
卒 soldier / phonetic and structural hint
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
16· Phonetic Root: 卒 (zú)
5. History
Liushu category: Phono-semantic (形声)
Origin: Originally combined 酉 (wine vessel) and 卒 to show a person collapsing or overpowered by the strength of fermented liquor.
Semantic Evolution: Derived strictly from the physical state of alcohol poisoning/drunkenness, later expanding metaphorically to describe being deeply captivated or absorbed by something (e.g. 陶醉).
Ancient Chinese wine vessels were often shaped like the 酉 character, serving as a universal semantic classifier for all intoxicating beverages.
6. Sinosphere
🇻🇳
Sino-Vietnamese
tuý
Mandarin tone 4 corresponds closely to the Vietnamese sắc or nặng tone drop depending on historical borrowings, here mapping to an acute sharp drop.
🇯🇵
Kanji (Japanese)
On: スイ (sui) / Kun: よ (yo.u)
🇰🇷
Hanja (Korean)
취
Sound Shift Bridge: cognate root across East Asian linguistic strata relating to intoxication (sui / zui / chwi).
7. Memory
Vivid Mnemonic Story
A **soldier** (卒) finished guarding his post and drank straight from a huge **wine jar** (酉). Naturally, he got completely **drunk** (醉) and fell asleep on duty.
Phonetic Family (形声字家族)
碎
suìbroken, fragmentaryUses stone (石) on the left instead of wine jar (酉), because stones shatter into pieces.
粹
cuìpure, essenceUses grain/rice (米) on the left, representing the pure essence extracted from grain.
Lookalikes & Traps (形近字)
碎(suì)
Look at the left radical: 酉 (wine) means drunk (醉), while 石 (stone) means broken/fragmented (碎).
8. Mastery
Active Recall Challenge
昨晚他喝得太多了，现在还在家里睡觉呢。
Clue: hē zuì
Common Learner Pitfall
Confusing the left radical 酉 with 日 (sun) or 四 (four), leading to incorrect handwriting of the wine jar base.
Memory Prompts
Recognition: When you see 醉, what do the wine jar (酉) and soldier (卒) combine to mean?
Production: How do you write and pronounce the word for 'intoxicated / drunk' in Mandarin?
Real-World Video Context
Watch authentic native speakers pronounce and explain this word in real-world YouTube videos.
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醉zuìintoxicated
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