How to Write 炸 (zhá/zhà) — Meaning “to deep-fry / to explode”

Imagine a fire (火) suddenly bursting out like a bomb — that's the "explode" meaning. For "deep-fry," picture a piece of chicken being dropped into hot oil (火) and making a sizzling sound like "zha!" to help remember the pronunciation zhá.

Write the left radical 火 first, with the dot on the left, then a short left-falling stroke, a right-falling stroke, and the final dot. The right side 乍 has a horizontal stroke at the top, then three strokes — pay attention to keep the overall balance, as the right side is slightly narrower than the left.

灶 (zào) means "stove" and uses the same fire radical but with a different component (土 earth) — it is related to a cooking device, not an action. 灸 (jiǔ) means "moxibustion" (a therapy using heat) and is also a verb, but its right side is 久 (long time), indicating a prolonged heating, unlike 炸's sudden heat or explosion.

炸 commonly appears in cooking terms like 炸鸡 (fried chicken) and 炸薯条 (French fries), which are popular fast foods in China. It also means "to explode" in words like 爆炸 (explosion), used in news or safety contexts — be careful not to confuse the tones: zhá for food and zhà for explosion, though both are written the same.

Common words containing 炸 include: 炸鸡 (zhà jī) — fried chicken; 炸薯条 (zhà shǔ tiáo) — French fries; 爆炸 (bào zhà) — explosion; to explode.