葱

蔥
cōng
noun HSK 7-9 #12,501

Measure Word

一根葱 gēn

Meanings

  1. 1 scallion; green onion

Examples

HSK 5
Chǎocài de shíhou jiā diǎn cōng.
Add some scallions when stir-frying.
HSK 6
Zhè dào tāng sǎ shàng cōnghuā jiù hǎo le.
Just sprinkle some chopped scallions on this soup.

Tips

culture
Scallions are one of the most essential ingredients in Chinese cooking, used as garnish, base flavor, and aromatics. 葱 姜 蒜 (scallion, ginger, garlic) are the holy trinity of Chinese cooking.

Components

radical
艹 cǎo
grass; plant (top radical)
Top grass radical (Kangxi #140 in its 3-stroke compressed form) - two tufts of sprouting grass. Indexes 葱 in the plant family with 花 flower, 草 grass, 菜 vegetable, 葡 grape. 葱 names the green onion (scallion), a slender vegetable stalk, so the radical names the category precisely.
phonetic
怱 cōng
hurried (variant of 匆)
Lower 怱 - orthographic variant of 匆 with 心 'heart' written underneath instead of a single stroke. Supplies the sound cōng without shift. Same phonetic family in 葱 onion, 聪 clever-eared, 囱 chimney. The 心 element below is purely a graphic feature of this variant; it carries no semantic load in 葱.

Stroke Order

葱 cōng