Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced shao

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced shao, including 少 shǎo, 烧 shāo, 召 zhào / shào, 绍 shào, 稍 shāo. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

To say shao, set the tongue tip back for the retroflex sh, then run into ao 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 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 (少 shǎo, 烧 shāo, 召 zhào / shào, 绍 shào, 稍 shāo) and lock in their tones. 6 common characters share the sound shao, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

shao turns up here with 3 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: 烧, 稍 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

烧shāoto burn; to cook; to stew; to bake; to roast; fever 稍shāosomewhat; a little

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 少 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

少shǎofew; little; lack; young

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 召, 绍, 哨 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

召zhào / shào(surname); name of an ancient state; to call together; to summon; to convene 绍shàoconnect; to introduce 哨shàoa whistle; sentry

Common Words With This Sound

Seeing shao inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.

多少duō shǎonumber; amount; somewhat 不少bù shǎomany; quite a few; a good number of 少年shào niánearly youth; youngster; (literary) youth; young man 发烧fā shāoto have a high temperature (from illness); to have a fever; (fig.) to be fascinated with; to obsess over 燃烧rán shāoto ignite; to combust; to burn; combustion 烧烤shāo kǎobarbecue; to roast 召开zhào kāito convene (a conference or meeting); to convoke; to call together 号召hào zhàoto call; to appeal 召集zhào jíto convene; to call together 介绍jiè shàoto introduce (sb to sb); to give a presentation; to present (sb for a job etc); introduction

Characters

6 common characters in this group.

Character#1 少 shǎofew; little; lack; youngTraditional: 少 Character#2 烧 shāoto burn; to cook; to stew; to bake; to roast; feverTraditional: 燒 Character#3 召 zhào / shào(surname); name of an ancient state; to call together; to summon; to conveneTraditional: 召 Character#4 绍 shàoconnect; to introduceTraditional: 紹 Character#5 稍 shāosomewhat; a littleTraditional: 稍 Character#6 哨 shàoa whistle; sentryTraditional: 哨