Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced shou
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced shou, including 手 shǒu, 受 shòu, 收 shōu, 首 shǒu, 守 shǒu. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
shou begins with the tongue curled up and back for sh; let it slide straight into ou and carry the tone across the whole sound, rather than spelling out English letters.
Initial sh
Curl the tongue back for sh. English speakers often make it too flat.
Final ou
Settle the final ou into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (手 shǒu, 受 shòu, 收 shōu, 首 shǒu, 守 shǒu) and lock in their tones. 10 common characters share the sound shou, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
shou 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: 收 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
3rd tone
Taking the 3rd tone here: 手, 首, 守 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 受, 授, 售… (6 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing shou inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
10 common characters in this group.