Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced sai
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced sai, including 赛 sài, 塞 sāi / sài / sè. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words, and example sentences.
How to Pronounce This Syllable
For sai, start with the flat s and let it flow into ai, holding the tone over the joined syllable.
Initial s
Keep the tongue flat and the sound clean.
Final ai
Settle the final ai into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (赛 sài, 塞 sāi / sài / sè) and lock in their tones. 2 common characters share the sound sai, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
sai turns up here with 2 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.
1st tone
Taking the 1st tone here: 塞 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 赛 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing sai inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
2 common characters in this group.