How to Write 苕 (sháo) — Meaning “sweet potato / vetch”

Imagine a sweet potato (苕) calling out 'sháo' to summon (召) its vines from under the grass (艹). The sound 'sháo' is like 'show' — you have to show the sweet potato by digging under the grass.

Write the grass radical 艹 first (two horizontal strokes, then a short left-falling and a right-falling). Then write 召: start with the top 'knife' 刀 (left-falling, horizontal hook, left-falling), then add 口 below. A common mistake is making the 口 too wide or forgetting to close the 口 shape properly.

苕 (sháo) has a grass radical on top and 召 below, meaning sweet potato or vetch. 兹 (zī) has two 玄 on top and 艹 below, meaning 'this' or 'now', and is used in words like 现在. 艻 (lè) is a rare character with 艹 and 力, meaning a type of grass, but is almost never used today.

苕 is commonly used in southern China for sweet potato, especially in the word 红苕 (hóng sháo). It also appears in food names like 苕粉 (sháo fěn, sweet potato noodles) and in farming terms like 苕子 (sháo zi, vetch used as green manure). In some dialects, 苕 can also mean 'foolish' as a slang term.

Common words containing 苕 include: 红苕 (hóng sháo) — Sweet potato; 苕粉 (sháo fěn) — sweet potato starch / sweet potato noodles; 苕子 (sháo zi) — vetch.