菜

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vegetable; greens (CL:棵[ke1]); dish (of food) (CL:樣|样[yang4],道[dao4],盤|盘[pan2]); (of one's skills etc) weak; poor; (coll.) (one's) type

Sound it out + =

Formation & memory

Break the character into parts you already know.

Phono-semantic compound (形声字)

艹 meaning “plant” + 采 sound ( cǎi )

Components 艹采

vegetable · Heisig RSH #666

flower + 采 pick

Keyword method from Heisig's Remembering Simplified Hanzi.

The most common words first — learning a character in context makes it stick.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
上海白菜	Shàng hǎi bái cài	baby bok choy; Shanghai bok choy
中国菜	Zhōng guó cài	Chinese cuisine
大白菜	dà bái cài	Chinese cabbage; napa cabbage (Brassica rapa subsp. pekinensis); CL:棵[ke1]
小菜儿	xiǎo cài r	erhua variant of 小菜[xiao3 cai4]
小白菜	xiǎo bái cài	bok choy (Brassica rapa subsp. chinensis); CL:棵[ke1]
面有菜色	miàn yǒu cài sè	to look famished
上下文菜单	shàng xià wén cài dān	context menu (computing)
红菜头	hóng cài tóu	beet; beetroot; (dialect) carrot
红头菜	hóng tóu cài	beetroot
通心菜	tōng xīn cài	see 空心菜[kong1 xin1 cai4]
空心菜	kōng xīn cài	water spinach; kangkung
石花菜	shí huā cài	Gelidium amansii, species of red algae from which agar is extracted
黄花菜	huáng huā cài	citron daylily (Hemerocallis citrina Baroni); golden needles (its edible flower)
菜市场名	cài shì chǎng míng	(Tw) popular given name (one that will turn many heads if you shout it at a marketplace)
国菜	guó cài	national food specialty
菜市	cài shì	food market
菜头	cài tóu	(Tw) radish, esp. white radish 白蘿蔔\|白萝卜[bai2 luo2 bo5]; CL:根[gen1]
菜心	cài xīn	choy sum; Chinese flowering cabbage; stem of any Chinese cabbage
生菜	shēng cài	lettuce; raw fresh vegetables; greens
菜地	cài dì	vegetable field

Characters sharing the sound component 采 — compare how they read.

Character	Pinyin	Meaning
采 sound part	cǎi	to collect, to gather; to pick, to pluck
彩	cǎi	color, hue; prize; brilliant; variegated
踩	cǎi	to step on; to stamp
睬	cǎi	to notice, to pay attention to