How to pronounce general tso Reddit

Q: What does General Tso mean in English?

General Tsos chicken ([tswò]; Chinese: 左宗棠雞; pinyin: Zuǒ Zōngtáng jī) is a sweet and spicy deep-fried chicken dish that is served in North American Chinese restaurants.

Q: Why is it called General Tsos?

Chef Peng is said to have created General Tsos chicken in Taiwan in 1955 for a banquet welcoming the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He named the dish in honor of a Hunanese war hero, Zuo Zongtang (or Tso Tsung-tang), who is well-known in Hunan, even though the chicken is not.

Q: What is another name for General Tso?

General Tsos Chicken: What is General Tsos chicken? This dish originated in Hunan and was named after a Chinese general and statesman Zuo Zongtang (Tso). However, it has many other names like General Taos chicken, General Gao chicken, and even General Mao chicken.

Say "Ts" like "it's", but drop the "i" sound. The O part is trickier, because it's an anglicisation. The proper spelling is Zuo, but the Ts makes it easier to figure the spelling. You combine a short "yu" with a short "ow" - like how - to make it.

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What does General Tso mean in English?
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What is another name for General Tso?

So it's pronunciation is like Tsyuow, while the spelling is Tso, and the proper spelling is Zuo.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zuo_Zongtang

Here in Boston it's Gau. I usually pronounce it more like "tsao" but with a very light S; then again, I'm not Chinese so I'm not necessarily correct, but I heard from a Chinese friend (family from Shanghai, so it could be different elsewhere in China) that this is how you're supposed to pronounce it.

By the way, while Chinese people definitely don't associate chicken with this particular general (their military chicken belongs to Colonel Sanders, just like ours), they do have other dishes similar to the American General Tso/Gau/Tsao/whatever's chicken, with spicy crispy chicken tossed in sauce (even if the sauce isn't identical, but then again, no two restaurants in the US make it identically either). You may have heard all these claims about General Tso's chicken being purely American, but that's not really true; it's more an American adaptation of Chinese dishes, made with locally available ingredients (like broccoli instead of Chinese veggies, for example).

Actually, "Tso" is the Wade-Giles romanization, which was created by a couple of British guys, and "ts" is the correct sound (you're right about the true pronunciation of Tsingtao, though, but it comes from a different spelling system). The "o" in this case is something like an "oo-aw" strung together really quickly. "Tswaw", sort of?

Honestly, I'd agree with anewacct on this. Choose some relatively common English pronunciation and don't worry about it. I say General So.

Say 'its', but remove the I sound.

Then say 'ow'

ts-ow.

As for English spelling, it's pretty much a case of guessing, misinterpretation, phonetics, and robbing from other language's spelling of Chinese words.

It's "tso".

I know that doesn't help. But the 't' and the 's' are both there for a reason.

Think of it this way. You can say "cho", right? The "ch" sound can be thought of as "tsh", with a 't' and a 'sh' right next to each other. So say "ch" (tsh), but with 's' instead of 'sh'.

Or maybe think of it this way. You can say "atso" or something with a vowel in front, right? Say it how you'd say that, but drop the vowel.