sau1餿馊
Jyutpingsau1
Yalesāu
Definition
Spoiled, sour, or musty smell from decayed food.
colloquialfooddescriptions
How it's used
Focuses specifically on the pungent, fermented, or musty odor associated with food that has gone bad. It is rarely used to describe general bad smells like trash or body odor, which are better served by 臭. You will often hear it paired with 臭 to emphasize the intensity of the decay.
Examples
The lunchbox has been sitting for too long, it smells really sour and rotten.
Related words
Common mistake
Do not confuse this with 餿水, which refers specifically to swill or slop fed to pigs. Using 餿 to describe a person or a general unpleasant situation is incorrect and sounds unnatural.
Grammar color guide
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Pronoun
Classifier
Particle
Connector
Grammar guides
- In 30 secondsThe whole language at a glance. No tenses, no plurals, six tones, sentence particles. Read this before you dive into any specific topic.
- ParticlesSentence particles add tone, emotion, and nuance. Learn the most common particles in Cantonese and how to use them.
- Possession (嘅)How to say my, your, and his, and how to link a describing word to a noun, all with the little word 嘅 (ge3).
