Pinyin "xiu3"

In MandarinBanana's mnemonic system, the Pinyin syllable "xiu3" is split up into two parts: "xi" and "ou3". You can visit the Pinyin index to see how other Pinyin syllables are split up into initials and finals.

Mnemonics for Pinyin initial "xi"

Xi is for Marie Curie.
Alternative mnemonic for xi: Xi Shi (西施), one of the renowned Four Beauties of ancient China.

Mnemonics for Pinyin final "ou3"

In the outhouse's living room.

Characters pronounced xiu3

night / classifier for nights
rotten

= + : Marie Curie (xi) visits the outhouse (ou3) in late summer and finds an old rotten (朽) Christmas tree (木). In fact the tree is so rotten that she can't endure the smell and has to put on a breathing mask (丂).
(literary) water that was used to rinse rice and has become smelly; befouled water
water in which rice was boiled / slops / swill
old variant of 滫[xiu3]
to wash (rice etc)