Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced sha
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced sha, including 杀 shā, 沙 shā, 傻 shǎ, 啥 shá, 莎 shā / suō. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
To say sha, set the tongue tip back for the retroflex sh, then run into a without a pause — one Mandarin block, with the tone laid over it.
Initial sh
Curl the tongue back for sh. English speakers often make it too flat.
Final a
Settle the final a into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (杀 shā, 沙 shā, 傻 shǎ, 啥 shá, 莎 shā / suō) and lock in their tones. 9 common characters share the sound sha, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
sha turns up here with 4 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: 杀, 沙, 莎… (6 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
2nd tone
Taking the 2nd tone here: 啥 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 傻 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 厦 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing sha inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
9 common characters in this group.