Chop Suey is a dish name used to describe quick, mixed Chinese-American stir-fry. As a noun, it refers to chopped meat or vegetables cooked with sauce, often served with rice or noodles. The term also appears in cultural contexts, notably a classic 20th-century American-Chinese recipe and in music and film titles, reflecting its cross-cultural resonance.
"I ordered chop suey for lunch, with lots of crisp vegetables."
"The menu lists chicken chop suey as a staple Chinese-American dish."
"She joked that the playlist sounded like Chop Suey, the famous song by System of a Down."
"We watched an old cooking show featuring a quick chop suey recipe from the ’50s."
Chop Suey originated in late 19th-century Chinese-American communities, likely a transliteration of the Cantonese tsap sui or something similar, though the exact spelling and meaning varied. The dish emerged in American Chinese cuisine as a flexible, take-it-or-leave-it stir-fry using leftover meats and vegetables, reflecting a pragmatic approach to cross-cultural fusion. Early 20th-century cookbooks and menus popularized the term in English, with Chinese cooks adapting it to Western tastes by anglicizing the pronunciation and dish composition. The word “suey” (suey/sui) isn’t a standard Chinese term for a dish; rather, it’s a phonetic rendering in English of the Cantonese phrase tsap ng or tsap sui, depending on dialect and transcription. Over decades, Chop Suey became a catchphrase for “mixed leftovers,” though by mid-to-late 20th century, it also took on cultural weight beyond food—appearing in music, film, and literature—sometimes with stereotyped connotations. The first known English references trace to immigrant communities and newspaper menus in the United States, with popularization occurring through American-Chinese restaurants in major cities in the early 1900s, solidifying Chop Suey as an iconic example of fusion cuisine in the American lexicon.
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💡 These words have similar meanings to "Chop Suey" and can often be used interchangeably.
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Words that rhyme with "Chop Suey"
-oup sounds
-oop sounds
Practice with these rhyming pairs to improve your pronunciation consistency:
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Pronounce as CHOP SOO-EE with primary stress on the first word. IPA: US/UK/AU /tʃɒp suːˈeɪ/. Start with the voiceless ch sound, then short o as in “lot,” followed by p. For “Suey,” articulate /suː/ (long u) and then /eɪ/ as in “ay.” The two syllables of “Suey” form a rising secondary contour. Listen to native speech examples and imitate the cadence.
Two common mistakes: 1) Splitting the two words with uneven stress, e.g., CHOP soo-EE. Correct by keeping primary stress on CHOP and a clear, quicker secondary on “Suey.” 2) Mispronouncing Suey as a single syllable /ˈsu.eɪ/ or /ˈsuːi/. Use two distinct syllables /ˈsuː.eɪ/ with a gentle break. Practice with minimal pairs and record yourself.
US and UK retain /tʃɒp/ with short o and /suːˈeɪ/; US often vowels slightly more relaxed, UK vowel quality a touch brighter, but both rhotic/non-rhotic differences are minimal in this phrase. Australian tends to maintain /tʃɒp/ and /suːˈeɪ/, with a slightly more centralized vowel for /ɒ/ or a broader /ɔ/. Overall, primary stress remains on Suey’s second syllable in many casual uses.
Difficulty comes from the diphthong in Suey and the two-syllable structure after a one-syllable CHOP. The sequence /suːˈeɪ/ requires moving from a long /u/ to a mid-front /eɪ/ while keeping the /s/ and /p/ clean, and then delaying the nasalization before the vowel onset of /eɪ/. Mastery requires smooth lip-tongue coordination between the two syllables and accurate articulation of the onset cluster /tʃ/ + /ɒ/.
The phrase features a multiword phonetic contour where the first word ends with a hard stop /p/ and the second word begins with a long vowel /suː/ leading into a rising /eɪ/. The transitions require precise mouth closure for /p/ and a clear separation between /suː/ and /eɪ/. Additionally, regional listeners may shorten or merge vowels slightly, so focusing on the two-syllable sweep in “Suey” helps identify authenticity.
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