酸 (suān): sour, tart, sick at heart

酸 (suān) is a Chinese character meaning “sour.” Classified as HSK Level 4 (HSK 3.0 Standard, CLEC 2022), it is composed of 酉 (structural) and 夋 (structural). It ranks #1447 in character frequency (SUBTLEX-CH corpus).

Etymologically derived, 酸 wine 酉 aged too long 夋; 夋 also provides the pronunciation. Its radical form 酉 (wine) appears in many related characters such as 配 (pèi, to join), 醒 (xǐng, to wake up), 醉 (zuì, intoxicated).

Spoken pronunciation

Definitions

  1. sour
  2. tart
  3. sick at heart

Etymology & Origin

酸

ideographicWine 酉 aged too long 夋; 夋 also provides the pronunciation

Decomposition: ⿰酉夋 (layout: left-right)

Stroke Order

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14

Practice writing 酸 with real-time feedback — trace each stroke in the correct order and build muscle memory in the HanziFeed app.

Words & Compounds

HSK Vocabulary with 酸

WordPinyinMeaningHSK
酸奶nounsuān nǎiyogurt4
酸甜苦辣phrasesuān tián kǔ là(lit.) sour, sweet, bitter and spicy (idiom)5

Common Compounds

WordPinyinMeaning
硫酸nounliú suānsulfuric acid
尖酸adjectivejiān suānharsh
盐酸nounyán suānhydrochloric acid
碳酸nountàn suāncarbonic acid
寒酸adjectivehán suānwretched
酸痛adjectivesuān tòngto ache
脂肪酸nounzhī fáng suānfatty acid
胃酸nounwèi suāngastric acid
磷酸nounlín suānphosphoric acid
酸性nounsuān xìngacidity
乳酸nounrǔ suānlactic acid
丙烯酸nounbǐng xī suānacrylic acid C3H4O2
酸黄瓜nounsuān huáng guāpickle
硝酸铵xiāo suān ǎnammonium nitrate
氢氟酸nounqīng fú suānhydrofluoric acid HF
101
Total compounds
27
As first character
60
As last character
13
As middle character

酸 appears in 101 compound words: 27 as the first character, 60 as the last, and 13 in a middle position. Compound statistics computed from SUBTLEX-CH and HSK 3.0 vocabulary data.

Strongest Collocations

Characters that most frequently co-occur with 酸 in natural Chinese text, ranked by NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information) — a statistical measure of association strength.

盐yán
0.65211,920 co-occurrences
核hé
0.63427,586 co-occurrences
肪fáng
0.5822,356 co-occurrences
检jiǎn
0.57811,006 co-occurrences
碳tàn
0.5627,649 co-occurrences
测cè
0.55111,038 co-occurrences
醋cù
0.5481,420 co-occurrences
钙gài
0.5471,248 co-occurrences
舔tiǎn
0.54312 co-occurrences
酪lào
0.5411,366 co-occurrences

Idioms & Chengyu (5)

尖酸刻薄jiānsuānkèbóHSK 6+

acrid and unsympathetic; sharp and unkind; merciless; pitiless

phrase
硫酸亚铁liú suān yà tiě

iron(II) sulfate; ferrous sulfate

phrase
酸不溜丢suānbuliūdiūHSK 7+

too sour; unpleasantly sour; a bit envious; jealous

noun
酸甜苦辣suāntiánkǔlàHSK 4+

sour, sweet, bitter and spicy; all kinds of flavours; the joys and sorrows of life; the sweets and bitters of life

phrase
亚硝酸盐yàxiāosuānyán

nitrite

noun

Example Sentences

AI-Generated

酸字在日常生活中使用频率中等。

suān zì zài rì cháng shēng huó zhōng shǐ yòng pín lǜ zhōng děng .

The character "酸" is used moderately frequently in daily life.

99 健康网Feb 2026

无糖的食品有哪些?饮料、糕点、酸奶都有无糖版吗

wú táng de shí pǐn yǒu nǎ xiē ? yǐn liào , gāo diǎn , suān nǎi dōu yǒu wú táng bǎn ma

What are sugar-free foods? Do drinks, pastries, and yogurt have sugar-free versions?

99 健康网Feb 2026

真正的无糖食品推荐哪些?配料只有生牛乳的酸奶算吗

zhēn zhèng de wú táng shí pǐn tuī jiàn nǎ xiē ? pèi liào zhī yǒu shēng niú rǔ de suān nǎi suàn ma

What are the recommended foods for real sugar-free? Is yogurt with only raw milk counted?

UdnnewsindexFeb 2026

桃园人妻晨间泼酸毁夫双眼 获缓刑理由曝光

táo yuán rén qī chén jiān pō suān huǐ fū shuāng yǎn huò huǎn xíng lǐ yóu pù guāng

Taoyuan wife splashed acid in the morning and destroyed her husband's eyes, and the reason for the suspended sentence was exposed

三立新聞網Feb 2026

港男陈尸五星饭店 房内留心酸字条死因曝

gǎng nán chén shī wǔ xīng fàn diàn fáng nèi liú xīn suān zì tiáo sǐ yīn pù

Hong Kong man Chen Shi five-star hotel pay attention to the sour note in the room The cause of death was exposed

LtnFeb 2026

懒理陈佩琪酸“单身狗” 赖清德合体小英再晒毛小孩

lǎn lǐ chén pèi 琪 suān dān shēn gǒu lài qīng dé gě tǐ xiǎo yīng zài shài máo xiǎo hái

Lazy Chen Peiqi sour "single dog" Lai Qingde combined Xiaoying to dry the furry child again

Tatoeba

麦根沙士被视为一种经典的美式碳酸饮品。

Mài gēn shāshì bèi shìwéi yīzhǒng jīngdiǎn de Měishì tànsuān yǐnpǐn.

Root beer is considered a classic American carbonated soft drink.

Tatoeba

酸性会腐蚀含有金属的物质。

Suānxìng huì fǔshí hányǒu jīnshǔ de wùzhì.

Acid acts on things which contain metal.

Tatoeba

汤姆喜欢希腊酸奶。

Tāngmǔ xǐhuan Xīlà suānnǎi.

Tom likes Greek yogurt.

Tatoeba

那些葡萄看起来很甜,但其实是酸的。

Nàxiē pútao kànqǐlai hěn tián, dàn qíshí shì suān de.

Those grapes look sweet, but in fact they're sour.

Character Family

Homophones — Characters pronounced suān

Frequently Asked Questions

What does 酸 (suān) mean in Chinese?
酸 (suān) primarily means "sour." It is classified as HSK Level 4, making it an upper-intermediate character. It ranks #1447 in character frequency.
How many strokes does 酸 have?
酸 is written with 14 strokes. The correct stroke order matters for recognition and handwriting speed — practice with the animated guide above to build proper technique.
What is the radical of 酸?
The radical associated with 酸 is 酉 (wine). This radical appears in many characters related to wine.
What are the components of 酸?
酸 is composed of: 酉 (structural), 夋 (structural). Its IDS decomposition is ⿰酉夋 with a left-right layout. Understanding the components helps with both memorization and recognizing related characters.
What are common words containing 酸?
Common words with 酸 include: 酸奶 (suān nǎi, "yogurt"); 硫酸 (liú suān, "sulfuric acid"); 尖酸 (jiān suān, "harsh"); 盐酸 (yán suān, "hydrochloric acid"); 碳酸 (tàn suān, "carbonic acid"). There are over 101 compound words containing this character.
What characters sound the same as 酸 (suān)?
Several characters share the pronunciation suān: 算 (to regard as), 蒜 (garlic). Context and tones help distinguish between them in speech and writing.
Is 酸 the same in simplified and traditional Chinese?
Yes, 酸 is written the same way in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Practice writing 酸 with real-time feedback

Trace stroke sequences, hear spoken pronunciation, and build lasting retention with spaced repetition in the HanziFeed app.

Character data sourced from Unihan (Unicode Consortium), SUBTLEX-CH frequency corpus (Cai & Brysbaert, 2010), and Make Me a Hanzi (stroke data). Collocation strength measured via NPMI (Normalized Pointwise Mutual Information). Verified by the HanziFeed linguistics team.

HSK classification follows the HSK 3.0 Standard (Center for Language Education and Cooperation, CLEC, 2022 revision). Idiom data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).

Data last verified: March 2026.