Pinyin Syllable
Chinese characters pronounced sou
Learn common Chinese characters pronounced sou, including 艘 sōu / sāo, 搜 sōu. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words, and example sentences.
How to Pronounce This Syllable
To say sou, use a flat-tongue s, slide into ou, and lay the tone on top — it is one sound, not the letters read separately.
Initial s
Keep the tongue flat and the sound clean.
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 (艘 sōu / sāo, 搜 sōu) and lock in their tones. 2 common characters share the sound sou, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.
Learn by Tone
sou turns up here with 1 different tone; 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, 搜 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.
Common Words With This Sound
Seeing sou inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.
Characters
2 common characters in this group.