汤 (tāng) is a Chinese character meaning “soup”. It is written from 氵 (water (left-side form)) and 𠃓 (reduced form of 昜, the phonetic side of 场 / 扬 / 汤), side by side, and takes 6 strokes.
Build the character for “soup”
Four steps: break it apart, build it, recall it, use it in a word.
StartLearn this character
Structure
氵 + 𠃓
Left–right structure
Structure from: modern glyph decomposition verified against hanzi-writer-data stroke geometry (strokes 1-3 = 氵, strokes 4-6 = 𠃓); radical from Unicode Unihan; 说文解字 lists the traditional form 湯 as 从水昜聲
Memory aid
Water (氵) on the left, 𠃓 curling up like steam on the right: hot water you can drink — soup.
This is a memory aid, not the historical origin.
Stroke order
6 strokes
In real words
- 汤勺tāng sháosoup ladle汤 = tāng
- 汤匙tāng chísoup spoon; tablespoon汤 = tāng
Go deeper
All readings
soup
soup; broth; the liquid in which something has been boiled
食物煮出来的汁液；汤水。 — studyhanzi 编写
Words with this reading
- 汤勺tāng sháosoup ladle汤 = tāng
- 汤匙tāng chísoup spoon; tablespoon汤 = tāng
Stroke data: hanzi-writer-data (Arphic Public License) · licenses & attributions
Questions people ask about this character
What does 汤 mean?
汤 (tāng) means soup; broth; the liquid in which something has been boiled.
How do you pronounce 汤?
It is pronounced tāng.
What parts is 汤 made of?
氵 (water (left-side form)) and 𠃓 (reduced form of 昜, the phonetic side of 场 / 扬 / 汤), side by side. The recorded source is: modern glyph decomposition verified against hanzi-writer-data stroke geometry (strokes 1-3 = 氵, strokes 4-6 = 𠃓); radical from Unicode Unihan; 说文解字 lists the traditional form 湯 as 从水昜聲. Components are the building blocks of the shape; the radical used for dictionary lookup is a separate thing.
How many strokes does 汤 have?
6. You can watch the stroke order on this page, or trace it yourself.
What is the radical of 汤?
氵. 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 汤?
Common ones are 汤勺. The reading of 汤 is not the same in every word, so each word on this page shows which reading applies.