蒜
suàn · HSK 7
garlic
🧄 plant radical 艹 sits atop the phonetic 祘 (suàn) — the grass-top flags it as a vegetable
蒜 = 艹 (plant) + 祘, where 祘 carries the suàn sound. The pronunciation also echoes the English swan, an easy verbal peg for suàn.
蒜 — grass radical 艹 + 祘 (phonetic)
蒜 means garlic. The top 艹 (grass) radical signals a plant, while the lower component 祘 provides the sound, giving the reading suàn. This is a classic semantic-phonetic compound, with the radical naming the category (a plant) and the phonetic hinting at pronunciation.