{"id":4580,"date":"2019-11-20T01:19:14","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T01:19:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/chinese-wordsvocabulary\/how-to-memorize-chinese-characters\/"},"modified":"2019-11-20T01:19:14","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T01:19:14","slug":"how-to-memorize-chinese-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/how-to-memorize-chinese-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"How to memorize Chinese characters?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Each Chinese word is composed of one or more Chinese characters. However, in alphabetic language system, such as English, each word is composed of a couple letters. There are o<\/em>nly 26 letters in English, yet there are a<\/em>bout 3500 to 4000 frequently used characters in Chinese! You can go directly to JLC Chinese Character Pro Lessons to give it a try after reading this post.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

For example, let’s say we need to pull out the word “wave” from our English brain cells. Given that we do remember the pro<\/em>nunciation of the word “wave”, it’s not a difficult thing to write it out because the word just look like how it sound. We’ve got this co<\/em>nnection between pro<\/em>nunciation and letters memorized through similar words with same syllables, such as “pave”, “shave” etc..<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So you complain that Chinese is too difficult, even if you know the pro<\/em>nunciation of the word you wanna write, you still don’t have a clue on how to write it out since there’s no co<\/em>nnection between the sound of a character and its look. Well, I don’t agree.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Yes, there are some Chinese characters that are unique in itself that you have to memorize its look and sound and co<\/em>nnect them together in your brain. These characters are usually simple in the look and are easy to be remembered. However, there are much more characters that have a part of them reveals how they sound easily even if you don’t know them. That part I want to call it “sound radical”.<\/p>\n

Let’s have a look at the character “wave” in Chinese: \u98d8 (pi\u0101o)<\/p>\n

Please open your Chinese input system and type “piao”. If you don’t have a Chinese input system installed on your computer you can open another browser to http:\/\/www.chinese-tools.com\/tools\/ime.html. Check Lesson 1 Things to know before you start to learn Chinese on how to type Chinese in the lower part of the post if you don’t know how.<\/p>\n

Now, o<\/em>nce you input that pinyin how many characters you’ll see in the list? Maybe a lot. However the frequent ones, the o<\/em>nes most Chinese do know are o<\/em>nly a<\/em>bout 6. They always show up in the top lines or pages. <\/p>\n

I’ve listed them all<\/span> here: <\/p>\n

\n

piào   pi\u0101o   pi\u0101o   piáo   piáo   pi\u01ceo<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/wbr>\u7968<\/a>    <\/wbr>\u98d8<\/a>    <\/wbr>\u6f02<\/a>    <\/wbr>\u74e2<\/a>     <\/wbr>\u5ad6<\/a>    <\/wbr>\u779f<\/a><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n


<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/em>portant; margin:0 !im<\/em>portant;”>1. T1-piao<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Maybe you’ve noticed that each of them co<\/em>ntain a common character “<\/wbr>\u7968 (piào)<\/strong>“<\/strong>, and they all sound the same, o<\/em>nly with different tones.<\/p>\n

The other part of each of the characters are different. They give you the hint on what the character is a<\/em>bout:<\/p>\n

\n

We have:<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
f\u0113ng<\/strong><\/span><\/strong>
<\/wbr>\u98ce<\/a> (<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/strong>wind<\/span><\/span>)  <\/p>\n
<\/em>portant; margin:0 !im<\/em>portant;”>2. T1-feng<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/wbr>\u6c35(water related radical<\/span>)
<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
gu\u0101<\/span><\/strong>
<\/wbr>\u74dc<\/a> (<\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/strong>melon<\/span><\/span>)  <\/p>\n
<\/em>portant; margin:0 !im<\/em>portant;”>3. T1-gua<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

n\u01da<\/span><\/strong>
<\/wbr>\u5973<\/a> (<\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/strong>women<\/span>)  <\/p>\n
<\/em>portant; margin:0 !im<\/em>portant;”>4. T1-nu<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

mù<\/span><\/strong>
<\/wbr>\u76ee<\/a> (<\/strong><\/strong><\/span><\/strong>eye<\/span>)  <\/p>\n
<\/em>portant; margin:0 !im<\/em>portant;”>5. T1-mu<\/span><\/span> <\/span><\/span><\/div>\n

<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

as the radical part that give hint on the meaning of the character. Each one of them stands side by side with “<\/wbr>\u7968” to form a new character that has distinct meaning .<\/p>\n

<\/wbr>\u7968(piào)<\/strong><\/span> itself is a character that means “ticket”<\/strong><\/span>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now, let’s do a little game. I would toss out one meaning to you and you guess which character in the list has this meaning. Don’t be nervous, I’ll help you to make it fun and memorable.<\/p>\n

Ready?<\/p>\n

\n

Number 1. wave<\/strong><\/p>\n

Such as a flag is waving in the wind.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Now tell me which character it should be? … … …<\/p>\n

… guess you’ve said it out loud … It is <\/wbr>\u98d8<\/strong> (pi\u0101o)<\/strong> because flag can not wave without WIND (<\/wbr>\u98ce)!! Isn’t it?<\/p>\n

Good job! Now let me toss out another one:<\/p>\n

\n

Number 2. float on the surface of the water<\/strong><\/p>\n

Such as a boat floats in the lake.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This one go<\/em>nna be no brainer. This o<\/em>nly one that is water related is <\/wbr>\u6f02 (pi\u0101o)<\/strong><\/strong>. Bingo!<\/p>\n

Are you doing well so far, let’s move on. Another one, ready?<\/p>\n

\n

Number 3. visit prostitutes<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Well, this one is a bit … , anyway, it should not be difficult to figure out which “piao” it is, right?<\/p>\n

The answer is, the one with a women radical: <\/wbr>\u5ad6 (piáo)<\/strong><\/strong>. You got it right?<\/p>\n

Let’s keep it going:<\/p>\n

\n

Number 4. cast a glance<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I’ll give you a hint. What do you use to “cast a glance”? Use your eyes or what? Of course I do …. then the o<\/em>nly reaso<\/em>nable choice is <\/wbr>\u779f (<\/strong>pi\u01ceo)<\/strong>. Agree?<\/p>\n

The last one left is <\/wbr>\u74e2<\/strong> (piáo)<\/strong>. Obviously, you’ll guess it’s meaning has something to do with melon (<\/wbr>\u74dc<\/strong> gu\u0101<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

How a<\/em>bout I show you the picture of <\/wbr>\u74e2 (piáo)<\/strong>,<\/strong> then you’ll know what it is? It’s a ………<\/p>\n

\"How<\/a><\/p>\n

“ladle made from dried gourd<\/strong>“!<\/p>\n

<\/wbr>\u74dc (gu\u0101<\/strong>)<\/strong> is the general<\/span> name to call big round shaped plant fruit in Chinese, including “gourd”.<\/p>\n

Did you have a bit of fun today while learning the <\/wbr>\u7968 (piào)<\/strong><\/strong> family characters? The im<\/em>portant point you should take away from this lesson is how to memorize Chinese characters by their “sound radical” and “meaning radical<\/a><\/strong>“.<\/p>\n

Please take some time to memorize these characters. Use the following estroke tool to learn the strokes if you will. o<\/em>nce you’re done, search these characters in google to learn words that they create.<\/p>\n

I’ll talk to you again soon!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n