糖 (táng): sugar

Measure Word

一块糖 kuài

Meanings

1 sugar
2 candy; sweets

Characters

糖

táng

sugar; candy

Contains the rice radical 米, since sugar was historically made from sugarcane and grains.

Examples

HSK 1

小朋友都喜欢吃糖。

Xiǎopéngyou dōu xǐhuan chī táng.

Little kids all like eating candy.

HSK 2

你要加糖吗？

Nǐ yào jiā táng ma?

Do you want to add sugar?

HSK 3

这个太甜了，糖放多了。

Zhège tài tián le, táng fàng duō le.

This is too sweet, too much sugar was added.

Tips

culture

糖葫芦 - candied hawthorn berries on a stick - is a beloved traditional Chinese street snack, especially popular in winter in northern China.

Components

radical

米 mǐ

rice; grain

Left-side rice radical - the indexing component, marking the food/grain origin of sugar. Early Chinese sweeteners were grain-based syrups (麦芽糖, malt sugar from barley) long before cane sugar reached the country, so any sweetener was filed under 米. Same family: 粉 (powder), 粥 (porridge), 粽 (rice dumpling).

phonetic

唐 táng

Tang dynasty; vast

Right-side 唐 supplies the sound táng - a clean phonetic match with no tone shift. No semantic link to the Tang dynasty, but a useful mnemonic since cane-sugar refining did spread across China during Tang-era trade with Southeast Asia. Same phonetic group: 塘 (pond), 搪 (evade), 膛 (chest cavity).