辣 (là): spicy; hot (peppery)

Meanings

1 spicy; hot (peppery)
2 pungent; biting

Characters

辣

là

spicy; hot; pungent

Examples

这个菜太辣了！

Zhège cài tài là le!

This dish is too spicy!

你能吃辣吗？

Nǐ néng chī là ma?

Can you eat spicy food?

四川菜特别辣。

Sìchuān cài tèbié là.

Sichuan food is especially spicy.

我不太能吃辣。

Wǒ bútài néng chī là.

I can't really handle spicy food.

Tips

culture

China has distinct spicy food regions: 四川 (Sichuan) is known for 麻辣 (numbing-spicy), 湖南 (Hunan) for pure heat, and 贵州 (Guizhou) for sour-spicy. The phrase 能吃辣吗？ is one of the first questions at many Chinese restaurants.

usage

Spiciness levels in restaurants: 不辣 (not spicy), 微辣 (mild), 中辣 (medium), 特辣 (extra spicy). 吃辣 is used as a verb phrase meaning 'to eat spicy food'.

memory

辣 contains 辛 (xīn, acrid/pungent) on the left, hinting at its meaning. The right side is 束 — bundling all the heat into one bite.

Components

radical

辛 xīn

bitter; pungent; tattoo-blade

Left-side 辛 originally pictured a tattoo blade used to brand criminals — from that came 'painful, harsh, biting'. As the indexing radical it brands 辣 as belonging to the family of sharp/pungent sensations. 辛 itself can already mean 'spicy, harsh' in classical Chinese, so the radical also contributes meaning.

phonetic

束 shù

bundle; bind

Right-side 束 supplies the sound (shù → là, drift via the same Old Chinese cluster reflex). 束 originally pictured a bundle of sticks tied at the middle. Same phonetic in 赖 (lài), 棘 (jí, thorny). Pure phonetic role — the bundling sense doesn't carry into 辣.