How to Write 嗖 (sōu) — Meaning “Whizzing; whooshing”

Imagine an old man (叟) opening his mouth (口) to make a whistling "sōu" sound as an arrow flies past. The mouth radical reminds you it is a sound, and the old man helps you recall the pronunciation and the idea of something swift. This visual makes the character easy to connect to its meaning of a whoosh.

Write the left 口 first, smaller and higher, then write the right 叟 — be careful to write all strokes of 叟 correctly: a short left-falling stroke, a vertical, then several horizontal lines. A common mistake is making the right side too wide or forgetting the last two strokes (left-falling and right-falling) at the bottom. Keep the left side compact and the right side balanced.

嗖 has a mouth radical on the left and 叟 on the right, and it means a whizzing sound. 㕡 (hè) is different — it has two mouths stacked and is a rare character meaning a valley or a hole, so it looks like 㕡 has two 口 vertically. 哥 (gē) means 'elder brother' and is made of two 可 stacked; it has a completely different pronunciation and meaning. Always check the bottom-right part: 嗖 has 叟, 哥 has 可, and 㕡 has 口口.

嗖 is an onomatopoeia for a quick, sharp sound like wind, an arrow, or a bullet passing by. It often appears in phrases like 嗖地 (sōu dì, with a whoosh) or 嗖的一下 (sōu de yī xià, in a flash) to describe something happening very fast. Though not in HSK, you will hear it in stories, comics, and daily speech when people imitate a speedy motion.

Common words containing 嗖 include: 嗖地 (sōu dì) — With a whoosh.; 嗖嗖 (sōu sōu) — Whizzing sound (like wind or arrows); 嗖的一下 (sōu de yī xià) — In a flash..