Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced shuai
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced shuai, including 率 lǜ / shuài / lǜ, 衰 shuāi / cuī, 帅 shuài, 摔 shuāi. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms…
How to Pronounce This Syllable
To say shuai, set the tongue tip back for the retroflex sh, then run into uai 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 uai
Settle the final uai into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.
Study Tip
Start with the most common characters (率 lǜ / shuài / lǜ, 衰 shuāi / cuī, 帅 shuài, 摔 shuāi) and lock in their tones. 4 common characters share the sound shuai, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
shuai 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: 衰, 摔 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
4th tone
Taking the 4th tone here: 率, 帅 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing shuai inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
4 common characters in this group.