吆 (yāo) is a Chinese character meaning “to shout”. It is written from 口 (mouth) and 幺 (tiny; a small coil of silk), side by side, and takes 6 strokes.
Build the character for “to shout”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
口 + 幺
Left–right structure
Structure from: studyhanzi 现代字形拆分（对照 hanzi-writer-data 6 笔核验：口 3 笔 + 幺 3 笔）
Memory aid
A mouth (口) on the left, and 幺 (yāo) — the tiny coil of silk — on the right. 幺 hands over its sound, yāo, and the mouth does the rest: it shouts it out across the street.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
6 strokes
In real words
- 吆喝yāo heto shout; to call out (as a street vendor hawking goods)吆 = yāo
Go deeper
All readings
to shout
to shout; to call out loudly (as a street vendor or to hail someone)
大声喊叫，多用于叫卖或招呼人。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 吆喝yāo heto shout; to call out (as a street vendor hawking goods)吆 = yāo
Sound component
幺 family exact
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 吆 mean?
吆 (yāo) means to shout; to call out loudly (as a street vendor or to hail someone).
How do you pronounce 吆?
It is pronounced yāo.
What parts is 吆 made of?
口 (mouth) and 幺 (tiny; a small coil of silk), side by side. The recorded source is: studyhanzi 现代字形拆分（对照 hanzi-writer-data 6 笔核验：口 3 笔 + 幺 3 笔）. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 吆 have?
6. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 吆?
口. The radical is how the character is filed in a dictionary — it is not the whole story of how the character is built.
What words use 吆?
Common ones are 吆喝. The reading of 吆 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.