番茄醬 / 番茄酱
fānqiéjiàng
The Chinese word for ketchup is 番茄醬 / 番茄酱 (fānqiéjiàng). Wiktionary also lists 茄汁 (qiézhī).
Meaning: tomato-vinegar based sauce (noun)
Ways to say it
| Chinese | Romanization (Wiktionary) | Note |
|---|---|---|
| 番茄醬 / 番茄酱 | fānqiéjiàng | |
| 茄汁 | qiézhī | regional |
This term refers to a tomato-vinegar based sauce.
What does it mean word for word?
The term 番茄醬 is composed of 番茄 (tomato) and 醬 (sauce/paste).
Which one should you use?
While 番茄醬 is the standard term for ketchup in Mandarin, 茄汁 is the more common colloquial term in Cantonese.
Is it said differently in some regions?
In Cantonese, the term for ketchup is 茄汁.
How do you pronounce it?
fānqiéjiàng
Did you know?
- The first character in 番茄 was originally used to describe 'foreign' or 'barbarian' peoples and plants. This marks the tomato as an imported species rather than a native Chinese plant.
- The character 茄 also appears in the word for eggplant, 茄子. This is because tomatoes and eggplants both belong to the Solanaceae nightshade family.
- The character 醬 (jiàng) is used for many different fermented pastes, such as soybean paste, making the name for ketchup sound more like a traditional fermented condiment than a modern fruit sauce.
Examples in context
- 我喜欢在薯条上加番茄酱。I like to put ketchup on my fries.
Sources
- Wiktionary, “ketchup” translations, CC BY-SA 4.0, dump of 2026-09-26.
