suàn
noun HSK 7-9 #13,906

Measure Word

一头 tóu

Meanings

  1. 1 garlic

Examples

Zhè dào cài xūyào fàng jǐ bàn suàn.
This dish needs a few cloves of garlic.
Tā xǐhuan chī shēng suàn.
He likes eating raw garlic.

Tips

usage
一头 is a whole bulb of garlic; is a single clove. (garlic paste) and 蒜蓉 (minced garlic) are common cooking terms.

Components

radical
cǎo
grass; plant (top radical)
Top grass radical — three quick strokes for sprouting plants. The semantic anchor here: garlic is a bulbous plant grown for its edible cloves. Indexes in the botanical family with flower, grass, tea, scallion, chive.
phonetic
suàn
calculate; pair of altars (rare standalone)
Bottom — two stacked (altar) shapes, supplying the sound suàn directly with no drift. Hardly seen on its own today; the same phonetic also drives to calculate. The paired-altar shape carries no garlic meaning, just locks in the reading; learners can remember as 'grass that gets counted out clove by clove.'

Stroke Order

suàn