Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced suo

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced suo, including 所 suǒ, 索 suǒ, 缩 suō, 锁 suǒ, 莎 shā / suō. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

To say suo, use a flat-tongue s, slide into uo, 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 uo

Settle the final uo into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (所 suǒ, 索 suǒ, 缩 suō, 锁 suǒ, 莎 shā / suō) and lock in their tones. 5 common characters share the sound suo, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

suo 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: 缩, 莎 (2 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

缩suōto withdraw; to pull back; to contract; to shrink; to reduce 莎shā / suō(insect); (phonetic); (grass); Cyperus rotundus

3rd tone

Taking the 3rd tone here: 所, 索, 锁 (3 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

所suǒactually; place 索suǒto search; to demand; to ask; to exact; large rope; isolated 锁suǒto lock up; to lock

Common Words With This Sound

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

所以suǒ yǐtherefore; as a result; so; the reason why 所有suǒ yǒuall; to have; to possess; to own 场所chǎng suǒlocation; place 线索xiàn suǒtrail; clues; thread (of a story)搜索sōu suǒto search (a place, a database, online etc); to search for (sth)探索tàn suǒto explore; to probe 缩小suō xiǎoto reduce; to decrease; to shrink 缩短suō duǎnto shorten; to reduce; to curtail 收缩shōu suōto pull back; to shrink; to contract; (physiology) systole 封锁fēng suǒto blockade; to seal off; to lock down

Characters

5 common characters in this group.

Character#1 所 suǒactually; placeTraditional: 所 Character#2 索 suǒto search; to demand; to ask; to exact; large rope; isolatedTraditional: 索 Character#3 缩 suōto withdraw; to pull back; to contract; to shrink; to reduceTraditional: 縮 Character#4 锁 suǒto lock up; to lockTraditional: 鎖 Character#5 莎 shā / suō(insect); (phonetic); (grass); Cyperus rotundusTraditional: 莎