菜 (cài): vegetable

Meanings

1 vegetable
2 dish (of food); cuisine

Characters

菜

cài

vegetable; dish

艹 (grass / plant) + 采 (to pick) - plants you pick to eat.

Examples

HSK 1

多吃菜。

Duō chī cài.

Eat more vegetables.

HSK 1

这个菜很好吃。

Zhège cài hěn hǎochī.

This dish is delicious.

HSK 1

你想吃什么菜？

Nǐ xiǎng chī shénme cài?

What dish would you like to eat?

Tips

usage

菜 means both vegetable (蔬菜) and dish / course (a prepared food item). 点菜 means to order food, 做菜 means to cook, and 菜单 means menu.

culture

China's four great cuisines 四大菜系: 川菜 (Sichuan, spicy), 鲁菜 (Shandong), 粤菜 (Cantonese), and 苏菜 (Jiangsu). Each has distinct flavors and techniques.

Components

radical

艹 cǎo

grass; plant (top radical)

Top grass radical (Kangxi #140 艸 in its 3-stroke compressed form) - the indexing radical. Anchors the original meaning: 菜 is anything edible grown from the ground - vegetables, greens, then by extension a dish made from them (一道菜 one dish). The radical groups 茶 (tea), 花 (flower), 草 (grass), 蔬 (vegetable), 药 (medicine).

phonetic

采 cǎi

to pick; gather; pluck

Bottom phonetic 采 - supplies the sound, shifting tone to cài. Beautifully self-reinforcing: 采 depicts a hand (爫) over a tree (木) and means to pick, gather - exactly what you do with vegetables. So phonetic + semantic both reinforce. Same phonetic in 彩 (colour), 睬 (heed), 踩 (step on).