Meaning & use
soy sauce
Last updated
Meaning
noununcountable
A dark, salty liquid made from fermented soybeans, used to add flavor to Asian food.
Grammar: No plural and no 'a' before it: add soy sauce, not add a soy sauce.
Patterns
- add soy sauce to something
- a bottle of soy sauce
- soy sauce on something
She added a splash of soy sauce to the stir-fry.
You can dip the dumplings in soy sauce.
This recipe calls for two tablespoons of soy sauce.
Common combinations
- light soy sauce
- Use light soy sauce if you want a milder taste.
- dark soy sauce
- Dark soy sauce gives the noodles a rich color.
- a dash of soy sauce
- He put a dash of soy sauce on his rice.
- soy sauce bottle
- Pass me the soy sauce bottle, please.
Synonyms and how they differ
- tamari
- Tamari is a type of soy sauce that usually contains little or no wheat, so it is often chosen by people avoiding gluten.
- shoyu
- Shoyu is the Japanese word for soy sauce and is used in English mainly on Japanese restaurant menus.
Commonly confused: soy sauce or soya sauce?
soy sauce vs soya sauce
Soya sauce is the British spelling and is the same product; soy sauce is more common in American English.
Practice
Choose the correct sentence.
Choose one answer.
'Soy sauce' is uncountable, so it takes 'some' and has no plural. 'A soy sauce' and 'many soy sauces' are wrong because you cannot count it, and 'soy sauce of this recipe' is not a natural pattern.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “soy sauce”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.