How to Write 婶 (shěn) — Meaning “Aunt (wife of father's younger brother).”

Imagine your aunt (婶) is the woman (女) who always carefully "reviews" (审) your schoolwork — the sound of 审 is exactly shěn, matching the pinyin. This visual of a woman checking homework links the meaning and pronunciation together.

Write the left radical 女 first with 3 strokes: note that the final horizontal stroke should be slightly angled upward. On the right side, 审 has 8 strokes — be careful that the top part is 宀 (roof) not 穴, and the bottom is 申 without a dot. The overall shape is balanced, with the left side narrower and the right side slightly wider.

婶 (shěn) means "aunt by marriage" (wife of father's younger brother), while 姘 (pīn) means "to have an illicit relationship" and 姚 (yáo) is a surname or ancient beauty. Visually, 婶 has the phonetic 审 on the right, 姘 has 并 (bìng), and 姚 has 兆 (zhào). Their pronunciations and meanings are completely different.

婶 is used as a polite term for the wife of one's father's younger brother, often in family settings. It can also be used respectfully for unrelated older married women, like 大婶 (dà shěn) meaning "auntie" when addressing a middle-aged woman. Note that 婶 is not common in official HSK vocabulary but appears frequently in daily family conversation.

Common words containing 婶 include: 婶婶 (shěn shěn) — Aunt (wife of father's younger brother).; 大婶 (dà shěn) — Aunt (wife of father's younger brother); 婶娘 (shěn niáng) — Aunt (wife of father's younger brother)..