蔬菜
shūcài · HSK 5
vegetable
🥬🥦 蔬 = vegetable radical + 疏 (sparse/loose); 菜 = grass + 采 (pluck) = pluck greens
蔬 carries the 艹 grass top over 疏 (sparse), the phonetic. 菜 also has 艹 over 采 (to pick/pluck). Together: leafy things you pluck — the general term for vegetables, veggies, greenstuff.
菜 — grass radical 艹 + 采 (pick)
菜 combines the grass radical 艹 (plants) with 采, which depicts a hand picking fruit from a tree and also supplies the sound. Originally meaning edible plants one gathers, it came to mean vegetables, and by extension any dish or cuisine.
shū cài · HSK 3
vegetable
🥦🥕 蔬菜 = shū (vegetable) + cài (greens/dish); both mean veg, doubled for clarity
蔬 is the formal/botanical term for vegetables (note the 艹 grass radical on top). 菜 also means dish or cuisine — same 艹 radical. Together 蔬菜 is the standard word for vegetables as a food category.
菜 — grass radical 艹 + 采 (pick)
菜 combines the grass radical 艹 (plants) with 采, which depicts a hand picking fruit from a tree and also supplies the sound. Originally meaning edible plants one gathers, it came to mean vegetables, and by extension any dish or cuisine.