Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced sao
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced sao, including 扫 sǎo / sào, 艘 sōu / sāo, 嫂 sǎo, 骚 sāo. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
For sao, start with the flat s and let it flow into ao, holding the tone over the joined syllable.
Initial s
Keep the tongue flat and the sound clean.
Final ao
Settle the final ao into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (扫 sǎo / sào, 艘 sōu / sāo, 嫂 sǎo, 骚 sāo) and lock in their tones. 4 common characters share the sound sao, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
sao 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: 艘, 骚 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 扫, 嫂 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing sao inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
4 common characters in this group.