A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

By Marc Thomas Hollingsworth () 2009

Dedication
I dedicate this book to the following people, whom without them, none of this would have been possible: For my father...Thomas James Hollingsworth, who always emphasized to me the importance of education and diligence. To my mother...Rose Lucille Hollingsworth for bringing me into this world. To my sister...Andrea Hollingsworth Toomey for always listening and understanding. To my mother...Carolyn Sias Hollingsworth for her unconditional love and support. Thomas James Hollingsworth Rose Lucille Hollingsworth Andrea Hollingsworth Toomey Carolyn Sias Hollingsworth

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Table of Contents

Forward How to Use This Book Chapter One Thoughts On Learning Language , An Introduction to the Chinese Language Chapter Two Chinese Characters Chapter Three Chinese Pronunciation Chapter Four - Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Chapter Five Chinese Lessons Chapter Six - Chinese Language Resources Chapter Seven - Chinese Media Chapter Eight Daily Use Language Chapter Nine - The Music of Xu Wei Chapter Ten - Words of Encouragement Chapter Eleven - Appendix Chapter Twelve Acknowledgments

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Forward

In September 2004, when I first began to study Chinese at Kunmings Yunnan Normal University, I came up with the idea to place study materials on the internet. The reason behind wanting to do this was two-fold; first, as a way to help people who wanted to learn Chinese and second, by going through the process of editing and organizing the materials, the content would become greater solidified in my own mind. Since then, I have continued to place materials on the internet and the reasons have not changed. Then, in May 2009, I had the idea to take all of the Chinese study materials placed thus far on the net and create an electronic book. My thinking in doing this was by merging all of the materials into a single source, this electronic book, it would be just that much easier and convienent for people to use. My first step in creating this book was to take all of the Chinese-related webpages from my PDF file format. The content website (www.marchollingsworth.net) and convert them to the of the pages in this book are exactly the same as those of the webpages on the website. For the sake of simplicity and flexibility, they have not been edited in any way. This is why when reading this book, you will come across wording, references and links to webpages. Some of the webpages are quite lengthy and as a result, to facilitate user website navigation they have their own individual table of contents. However, due to technical reasons, I did not mechanically create a main table of contents for this book. Instead, what I did, was manually create the main table of contents which then makes references into the individual webpages table of contents. This will become more apparent as you begin to use the book.

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

How to Use This Book

First , you must download the file named downloaded from either of these two links:
ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChinese.zip. This file can be

www.marchollingsworth.net/Folders/Downloads/ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChinese.zip www.marchollingsworth.net/Folders/Webpages/ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChineseEC.html

Once the ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChinese.zip file has been downloaded to your computer, you can then save it to anywhere you wish. This file contains the following content: Contents of

ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChinese.zip:
ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChinese.pdf This is the PDF file of the electronic book for learning Chinese entitled A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese. This is the PDF file of the Appendix containing the indexes, lists and tables used in Chapter Two - Chinese Characters of this book. This ZIP file contains the MP3 sound files for the Dialogues, Readings and Songs used in Chapter Five - Chinese Lessons of this book. This ZIP file contains the PDF files for the Dialogues, Readings and Songs used in Chapter Five - Chinese Lessons of this book. This folder contains the MP3 sound files used Chapter Two - Chinese Pronunciation of this book.

ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChineseAppendix.pdf

ChineseLessonsDialoguesReadingsSongsMP3.zip

ChineseLessonsDialoguesReadingsSongsPDF.zip

ChinesePronunciationMP3.zip

The last step is to double click on the SimplifiedGuideToLearningChinese.pdf file and load it into your Adobe Reader. You may then begin reading the book by starting with:
Chapter One Thoughts On Learning Language An Introduction to the Chinese Language

Note: The remaining files will be used later in the book and thus it is not necessary to open them now: SimplifiedGuideToLearningChineseAppendix.pdf - will be used in Chapter Two Chinese Characters ChinesePronunciationMP3.zip - will used in Chapter Three Chinese Pronunciation ChineseLessonsDialoguesReadingsSongsMP3.zip and will be used in Chapter Five Chinese Lessons ChineseLessonsDialoguesReadingsSongsPDF.zip

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter One Thoughts On Learning Language An Introduction to the Chinese Language

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

Thoughts On Learning Language:

:

Table of Contents I. English Article II. Chinese Article I. English Article The English lessons in this website were created as a result of the English tutoring I did at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institute and the Greater Homewood Community Corporation in Baltimore, Maryland, USA. While tutoring there, I began to have an understanding of the challenges a person faces when living in a foreign country. Perhaps the greatest challenge a person faces while in a foreign country is that of communication. While living in China and studying Chinese, I decided to use the same approach that I used in the United States, listen to and study real-life conversations. The Chinese lessons contained in this website are the results of those efforts. For most people, we are born, grow up, and experience life in our 'home' country. Throughout this period, we naturally associate feelings and thoughts with words. When communicating with people, we are communicating feelings and thoughts and the tool that we use to convey these things is called words. Regardless of our native language, in our brain and in our soul there is a feeling associated with every word. We naturally feel and think, so therefore our words, without any effort naturally emanate. For a person living in a foreign country, 'learning' to develop a 'feeling' for that country's language is a tremendous challenge. How does a person go about acquiring a feeling for a word in a foreign language? We learn language from our environment and our brains do so naturally because at any moment in time, our ears are listening to the conversations of the people around us. Our eyes are also a natural tool and through reading text, we add to our already known body of knowledge. These English and Chinese lessons are my attempt at helping non-native English and non-native Chinese speakers solve this predicament. This site contains a collection of interviews and dialogues with a variety of speakers. My objective is to use these natural conversations as a tool to expose the learner to a variety of speaking styles and subjects, develop the learner's listening ability, as well as introduce and explain various words and phrases. I believe that through repeated listening to and reading real conversations, in particular paying attention to the emotion expressed by the speaker, the student is able to develop an acquisition ability as well as develop a natural 'feeling' for the language. I view these lessons as a primer for students. After developing an "ear", the student can then individually select and transcribe conversations from any number of sources ie. radio, TV, Internet, etc. Every transcription a student completes is a stepping stone to the next level of understanding the language. The ultimate goal is for the student to be able to listen to and repeat the conversations, not blindly repeating, but rather using their acquired feeling to express the words in a meaningful way, then using his/her own words, explain what the speakers are saying. By doing this, the student will have the skills necessary to communicate with people in everyday situations and most important, have an understanding of the feelings inside those people. My best wishes to you in your studies!

II. Chinese Article Johns HopkinsGreater Homewood Community

An Introduction to the Chinese Language: :

han4yu3 jian3jie4

Table of Contents I. Introduction 1. The Silk Metaphor 2. Enigma, Complexity and Phenomenon 3. The Benefits of Studying Chinese II. Suggested Study Techniques 1. Chinese Characters 2. Chinese Pronunciation 3. Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary 4. Chinese Lessons 5. Chinese Language Resources, Daily Use Language and Media III. Help and Downloads I. Introduction "I would like to introduce the Chinese language to you." What does this statement mean? The concept of one person introducing Chinese to another person contains an inner mass who's weight is similar to that of this sentence: "I would like to introduce the universe to you". Why is understanding the universe such a challenge? Because it has existed for an infinity and early information about it is sketchy. However, scientists remain undiscouraged and day-by-day create in-roads of understanding and knowledge. The Chinese language is a universe. I'll tell you why it can be seen as such and how you too can create inroads. When people think of Chinese, what thoughts arise in their mind? If the thoughts are visual in orientation, perhaps they see cryptic-like pictures of Chinese characters. If the thoughts are audible, perhaps they hear the sound of voices rapidly speaking words. These kinds of thoughts are usually accompanied by and give rise to ideas that Chinese is an enigmatic language. Is it? Yes, it is. 1. The Silk Metaphor Silk is an integral part of China's history and culture. The characteristics of silk can be used to illustrate the characteristics of Chinese. Worms wind the basic fibers of silk so minute in size that sometimes they are difficult for the human eye to see. The worm continues to produce it's silk threads, spinning them endlessly as they slowly amass into material that can actually be met with the eye and be touched by the hand. In the end, a piece of silk material contains millions and millions of threads all of which are connected and related to one another and whose start is unknown. We can appreciate silk's inner detail and complexity because we are familar with the process the worm undertakes when producing the threads. We regard silk to be one of the most beautiful materials on earth; we know because of it's structual complexity that it's beauty is able to emerge. Beauty can be contained in simplicity and also in complexity. Silk's beauty is of the complex type. It is an enigma. The Chinese language is exactly like this piece of silk. It has been slowly spun for thousands of years and is composed of millions and millions of minute threads. These threads represent the ways in which the Chinese people, slowly over time, have constructed their language. The Chinese language is not a piece of

large-fibred burlap...it is without doubt a piece of silk. 2. Enigma, Complexity, and Phenomenon Why is Chinese an enigma? The universe is an enigma because of it's age. It's inner content is mammoth due to it's long period of development and evolution. Furthermore, because the universe is a living being, it continues to change everyday. The Chinese language has this same essence. It's inner content is close to infinite because of the long period of time over which it has existed and developed. Furthermore, because language is a tool of communication used everyday by people, through daily life there are a multitude of influences and changes placed upon it. Like the piece of silk whose beauty emerges from it's underlying structural complexity, the same can be said of Chinese. It's inner complexity is what allows the language's beauty to emerge. The beauty of it's complexity is Chinese's enigma. How does the complexity of Chinese make itself known? In other words, what are the characteristics of Chinese that give it its complexity. At first glance it would seem that Chinese's written form, the characters and it's vocal form, the pronunciation is what produces the complexity. But this is not entirely true. Characters can be seen, touched and felt and as a result, through practice, a language student can produce them on paper with very good accuracy. The same can be said for verbalization. The sounds of Chinese words can be heard by the human ear, they can be broken down into syllables which the student can then practice and reproduce in sound likeness. For a student to be able to produce Chinese characters and verbalize words is indeed no easy matter and in itself is an amazing accomplishment. However, these two aspects are still not the root of Chinese's complexity. For just about every phenomenon that occurs in life, we can use a language's words to describe the phenomenon. We can speak in general terms when describing phenomenon or we can speak in detailed terms. Chinese's complexity becomes known and visible when we observe the way in which the language views phenomenon in the universe. This view is similar to that of a piece of silk - remarkably detailed and therefore complex. I consider a universal phenomenon to include just about anything people experience or have yet to experience in life: a boy riding a bike down the street, a person glancing at another person, relationships among people, physical changes in the world and people's thoughts and emotions. When we use the Chinese language to explain and describe a single universal phenomenon, we discover the language has the ability to use a seemingly endless array of words to describe minute vicissitudes. Sometimes it appears that for every thread of an occurence or time-slice in a phenomenon, the piece of silk has a corresponding thread to perfectly describe it. For every change, shift and alteration of an object, person or situation, it too seems that Chinese has a way to perfectly describe it. It is the length of time that Chinese has existed and it benefiting from the contributions of millions of people over the ages, that result in the language having this ability and being what it is today. Chinese is indeed a very rich, eloquent and beautiful language, a true gem in the world that the world is indeed very fortunate to have. 3. The Benefits of Studying Chinese People have a multitude of reasons for why they decide to study Chinese. Actually, the reasons aren't so important as perhaps the benefits. Regardless of who you are, where you are, how old you are, etc, studying Chinese will significantly change the way in which you see the world and the way in which you have previously come to understand the universe. How can this be possible? It's actually very possible. I believe it has to do with the way in which students look at that piece of silk. The silk is composed of millions of threads and during the study process, it threads slowly get unravelled. As they unravel, the threads provide knowledge. We have moments of pondering, understanding and enlightenment about universal phenomenon which previously we were unable to even consider as possible or feasible. We realize the language has identified things in the universe our mother-tongue made no accommodations for. It may seem hard to believe, but it's true. The only way to discover this for yourself is to start your study. By accepting this invitation, you become part of and an influence on the ongoing evolution of the Chinese

language. II. Suggested Study Techniques I decided to put Chinese study materials on this website because I wanted to make a contribution to the task of understanding Chinese. My approach is simple: give people the tools they need to begin their study, use real life materials to acquire a true and realistic feeling for the language and last, teach people how to teach themselves, encourage people to continue with their pursuit. 1. Chinese Characters The crux of learning Chinese is the characters. They are the absolute foundation of the language. When you are able to read and write Chinese characters, you'll have a huge world of material at your fingertips, including the internet and printed text. To begin your study of Chinese, I suggest first reading this document Chinese Character Reference Guide. It will explain to you the fundamentals of Chinese characters. You will find them to be interesting and not as complex as perhaps you once imagined. 2. Chinese Pronunciation Being able to read Chinese characters is also fundamental prerequisite to being able to speak the language. After reading the Chinese Character Reference Guide, I suggest reading and then on a frequent basis practicing Chinese Pronunciation. The Chinese Pronunciation web page will teach you the basics of pronunciation as well as pinyin - a romanized phonetic pronunciation system. Practice your pronunciation slowly and work to get the sounds clear and concise. Chinese pronunciation is actually quite basic in construction. There are approximately 25 consonants and 35 vowels which can combined in various ways to create syllables and words. A single Chinese character is only one to two syllables in length, which makes words very easy to pronounce and remember. This is in large contrast to most western languagues where words have their own independent pronunciation, their own romanized spelling and tend to contain several complex syllables. 3. Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary After getting familiar with characters and pronunciation, the next step is to study the contents of the Chinese Grammar And Vocabulary Guide. This guide will introduce you to basic Chinese vocabulary and grammar by using real-life simple-to-understand examples. The material in this guide is the same as that used to teach first-year language students in China. During the process of studying the above three documents, you'll discover that your feeling for the language will begin to grow, your recognition of the language's components will develop and things will begin to feel more comfortable and familiar. Be patient during this process and enjoy the process. Keep an open-mind and try to absorb as much as you can. For example, if you can practice for half an hour each day for one month, by the end of the month you'll be very pleased with the progress you've made. 4. Chinese Lessons I believe that regardless of the language in question, reading and listening are two of the most important skills a person can possess. They directly facilitate writing and speaking. When you get to a point where you feel comfortable with your ability level, where you feel you're no longer at an elementary stage and would like to study material of a more difficult nature, then you can proceed to Access Chinese Lessons. The lessons contained in this web page are the result of individual one-on-one Chinese classes I have taken over the past several years. The material comes from real-life sources and covers a wide range of subjects.

Each lesson contains both PDF files and MP3 audio files. Download all of the files, print the PDF files and then put the MP3 files on your MP3 player. As you listen to the MP3 files, you can read the document and speak along. Most lessons contain both a recording of the teacher and an original source recording. If you find the speed of the original source recordings to be too fast, you can lsten to the teacher recordings which have a slower pace of speech. You'll find that not only will the lessons increase your reading, listening and speaking ability, but you'll at the same time acquire a real understanding for how Chinese people feel and think about themselves and the world. These lessons also include some selected pieces of music. Listening to music provides a person with an emotional feeling for a language which otherwise is difficult to acquire. When listening to the music, observe how the singer uses tone of voice to emphasize the feeling of certain words. 5. Chinese Language Resources, Daily Use Language and Media In today's age, there are a multitude of resources available to help you study Chinese. I've gathered some of the resources which I have found to be helpful and placed them on this web page: Chinese Language Resources. You can use this web page if you are unsure about which resources are right for you. Utilizing media such as watching television and movies, listening to the radio, reading the newspaper and magazines, these are all invaluable for helping a person acquire a genuine feeling for a language. They provide real-life stimulus and information, and through daily exposure to them, you'll find your language proficiency level and understanding to grow in ways which were unexpected. You'll come to understand that we should not "study" language, on the contrary, we should instead attempt through real-life experiences to "feel" and "understand" it's essence. I have gathered a collection of Chinese media which I consider to be true to real-life, educational and as well, very interesting. They are an invaluable study tool. In addition, I've also compiled some basic Daily Use Language phrases that can be used when communicating with Chinese people in everyday life. Listening to music is also a wonderful way to gain a better understanding of the Chinese language. One musician who's music I highly recommend is Xu Wei (xu3 wei1). I have created a webpage for the purpose of introducing his music to those who are not familiar with it. You can click on this link to learn more about and listen to his music. As you continue along your path of learning, you are certain to encounter facets of the language or culture which fascinate you. There will also be times where you feel frustrated, are facing great difficulty understanding. During these times you can read these Words of Encouragement designed to encourage and support you. I strongly encourage you to pursue those facets of the language that interest you and learn as much about them as you can. For example, if there's a certain media or art form that appeals to you, try to find information about it. The process of exploring the subjects you find interesting is both a joyful and satisfying one. You'll discover and learn things that you otherwise would have never encountered. Like an endless circle...acquire knowledge, gain real-life experience, your feeling for the language will gradually grow and grow. I'm confident you will enjoy the process and be successful! III. Help and Downloads If you have any questions or comments about this material, please feel free to email me. You can convienently download all of the Chinese study materials on this website by going to the Downloads page. In addition, all of the Chinese study materials have also been compiled into a single electronic book which can be dowloaded from the "A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese" page.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Two Chinese Characters

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Two Chinese Characters Notes

This chapter makes reference to and use of a number of different indexes, lists and tables. These lists can all be found in the Appendix located at the end of this book. However, since these lists are quite large and are referred to quite frequently, for convienence sake I have also created an Appendix ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChineseAppendix.pdf located in the pdf file called SimplifiedGuideToLearningChinese.zip file. For greater ease of navigation while reading this chapter, you can load the ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChineseAppendix.pdf file into your Adobe Reader by doubleclicking on it.

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

Simplified-Chinese Character Reference Guide:

jian3ti3 han4zi4 gong1ju4 shu1

This purpose of this page is to introduce the study of Chinese characters to the beginner Chinese student. If you would like to download this reference guide and all of it's accompanying indexes, please click on this link. This material can also be downloaded from the Downloads webpage. This webpage is quite lengthy and so to facilitate easy navigation, a table of contents (shown below) has been supplied. The table of contents lists all of the subjects discussed in this webpage. My recommendation is to read one-by-one through the table of contents, starting with the Introduction and thenceforth, carefully reading every subject listed.

Table of Contents
I. II. Introduction Strokes 1. The 6 Basic Strokes Basic Stroke Variations Pie Left-Falling Stroke Variations Na Right-Falling Stroke Variations Dian Dot Variations 2. Dependent Strokes Zhe Bent Stroke Gou Hook Stroke 3. Compound Strokes Heng Horizontal Stroke-based Compound Strokes Shu Vertical Stroke-based Compound Strokes Pie Left-Falling Stroke-based Compound Strokes Character Structures Independent Characters Compound Component Characters Two Kinds of Character Structures 1. Independent Character Structure 2. Compound-Component Character Structures a. Left-Right Structures b. Top-Bottom Structures c. Partial Enclosure Structures d. Two-side Enclosure Structures e. Three-side Enclosure Structures f. Complete Enclosure Structures Radicals Radical Index How to Look Up Characters in a Dictionary : 1. The Radical Method

III.

IV.

Character Look-up Index Radical Shape Variations 2. The First-Stroke Method Exceptions to treating the first stroke as the radical 3. The Total Stroke Count Method Stroke Count Character Look-up Index Notes about the Total Stroke Count Method 4. The Pinyin (Alphabetic) Method Looking-up Independent Characters and Difficult To Look-up Characters Difficult To Look-up Character Index Summary V. Stroke Order Rules And Counting Strokes The Eight Stroke Order Rules Exceptions to the above eight stroke order rules The Relationship Between Character Structure and Stroke Order Independent Character Structure Compound-Component Character Structures 1. The Left-Right Structures a. Left-small Right-large b. Equal left and right c. Left-large Right-small d. Left-up and down Right-large 2. The Top-Bottom Structures : a. Top-short Bottom-long b. Equal top and bottom c. Top-long Bottom-short d. Top-two Bottom-large e. Top-large Bottom-two 3. The Two-side Enclosure Structures : a. Upper-left enclosure b. Upper-right enclosure c. Lower-left enclosure 4. The Three-side Enclosure Structures : a. Left-top-right enclosure b. Top-left-bottom enclosure c. Left-bottom-right enclosure 5. The Complete Enclosure Structures : a. Four-side enclosure with internal independent component b. Four-side enclosure with internal upper and lower component Counting Strokes

VI.

VII.

VIII. Classifying Characters 1. Pictophonetic (shape-sound) Characters Shape Radical Index

Sound Radical Index Clarifying the term "radical (pian1pang2 and bu4shou3)" vs. "component" 2. Graphic Characters 3. Indicative Characters 4. Associative Characters IX. How to Write Chinese Characters I. First Step - Practice the Strokes II. Second Step - Begin Writing Characters 1. Chinese Character Frequency List 2. Analyzing a Character to Discover it's Attributes a. Determine the character type b. Determine the character structure c. Determine the first stroke of the character and the stroke order 3. Stroke Order Character Dictionary Writing the strokes of a character Summary X. Conclusion Helpful books about Chinese characters List of tables and charts used in this webpage

I. Introduction :
Chinese characters are the core and most important component of the Chinese language. Within them exists the essence, nature, meaning and feeling of the language. They have a history of over 5000 years and through those ages have transformed and evolved into the modern character system known today as Simplified Characters . Because they appear to be complex in nature, Chinese characters, at first glance can seem intimidating to a reader and therefore seemingly difficult to understand. However, they are composed of a systematic sequence of strokes which result in and yield what are called "components". The components are then fashioned together, much like a jigsaw puzzle to create the final product: the character. Through a study of the method presented in this webpage, a person can acquire a feeling for Chinese characters. Through frequent reading and writing of Chinese characters, the feeling can be further strengthened into a second nature. Developing a confidence with Chinese characters will open the door to a broad, expansive, and personally satisfying understanding of the Chinese language. The 7 Universal Concepts of Chinese Characters: This webpage is a result of my efforts to try to develop a logical and easy to understand method in which to introduce the concept of Chinese characters to the beginner Chinese student. I feel there are 7 universal concepts which serve as the common underpinnings to every Chinese character. These concepts start with the most fundamental, Strokes, and end with the more complex "Character Classification". The 7 universal concepts are as follows:

1. Strokes - are the basic fibre of a Chinese character. 2. Character Structures - Chinese characters have an architectural (internal, organizational) structure. 3. Radicals - are components within a character which the serve the function of allowing one to look-up characters in a dictionary. 4. Stroke Order Rules and Counting Strokes - rules which dictate the sequence of how strokes in a Chinese character are written and therefore, when looking at a character, how the total number of strokes within the character can be computed. 5. The Relationship Between Character Structure and Stroke Order - a character's structure will determine the order in which the strokes of the character must be written. 6. Counting Strokes - performing the actual mental act of computing the total number of strokes in a Chinese character. 7. Classifying Characters - according to a character's appearance, characters can be classified into four respective categories. The first step towards understanding Chinese characters is to first understand their most fundamental and elementary concept: Strokes.

II. Strokes :
Chinese characters are written using strokes . There are three kinds of strokes: Basic , Dependent and Compound . They are named "basic" because they only require one movement of the pen in order to be written. The basic strokes are explained below and sample characters that show the use of each stroke are provided. The 6 Basic Strokes : There are six basic strokes :

 Basic Stroke Variations In addition, there are also the following variations on the 6 basic strokes: Pie Left-Falling Stroke Variations , Na Right-Falling Stroke Variations and Dian Dot Variations Pie Left-Falling Stroke Variations :

Na Right-Falling Stroke Variations :

Dian Dot Variations :

Dependent Strokes : Dependent Strokes are those which must be and are naturally attached to other basic strokes. There are two kinds of dependent strokes: Zhe - Bent Stroke and Gou - Hook Stroke . Zhe Bent Stroke : There are three kinds of Bent Strokes .

Gou Hook Stroke : A hook is formed by quickly lifting the pen. There are 5 kinds of Hook Strokes :

Compound Strokes : The Compound Strokes originate from and are a transformation of the Basic Strokes. They are called compound strokes because unlike the Basic Strokes, more than one movement of the writer's pen is required to write them. The first drawn line of the compound stroke determines to which Basic Stroke the compound stroke belongs. The relationship between the Basic and Compound Strokes is shown below. Note that the Dependent Strokes discussed above are also a type of Compound Stroke because they too require more than one movement of the pen to be written. There are three kinds of Compound Strokes: Heng Horizontal Stroke-based Compound Strokes , Shu Vertical Strokebased Compound Strokes , and Pie Left-Falling Stroke-based Compound Strokes . Heng Horizontal Stroke-based Compound Strokes :

 Shu Vertical Stroke-based Compound Strokes :

Pie Left-Falling Stroke-based Compound Strokes :

Important Point: Upon visual examination, it's very obvious the Basic Strokes are all written using just one movement of the writer's pen and are therefore on paper just a single physical stroke. However, upon examination of the Dependent Strokes and the Compound Strokes , if we were to visually count the number of strokes, it would appear they are composed of more than one stroke because they require more than one movement of the pen. In fact, for technical purposes, they are not counted as multiple strokes. During writing of the Dependent Strokes and the Compound Strokes , the pen is never lifted from the paper, so therefore these strokes are still considered to be just a single stroke. This is important to remember when you are counting the strokes of a character for purposes of dictionary look-up. For more information on counting strokes, please refer to this section: Stroke Order Rules And Counting Strokes .

III. Character Structures :

The process of writing a Chinese character can be summarized as follows: The Basic , Dependent and Compound strokes are combined to form Components ; the Components are then combined to form Characters . Characters may contain one or more Components. When a character contains just one component, the character is known as an Independent (Single-Component) Characters ; when it contains more than one component it is known as a Compound (Multi-Component) Characters .

 : Independent Characters The following are examples of Independent Characters : shu4 (book) - This character has one component which contains the following four strokes: the upper Heng Zhe Horizontal Bend, the middle Heng Zhe Gou Horizontal Bend Hook, the center Shu Vertical, the upper-right Dian Dot ye3 (also) - This character has one component which contains the following three strokes: the center Heng Zhe Gou Horizontal Bend Hook, the center Shu Vertical, the left-side Shu Wan Gou Vertical Curve Hook dian4 (electric) - This character has one component which contains the following 5 strokes: the left-side Shu Vertical, the top Heng Zhe Horizontal Bend, the right-side Heng Horizontal, the center Heng Horizontal, the center Shu Wan Gou Vertical Curve Hook The above Independent Characters contain just one Component. Notice how the strokes of the component meet and intersect to create a single inseparable unit. Because the strokes are inseperable, the sum of the strokes are considered a component. : Compound-Component Characters These are examples of Compound-Component Characters : ni3 (you) - "" "" "" This character contains two components: the left and the right . The left component contains two strokes: the upper-left Pie Left-Falling, the center Shu Vertical. The right component contains five strokes: the upper-left Pie Left-Falling, the upper-center Heng Gou Horizontal Hook, the center Shu Gou Vertical Hook, the lower-left Zuo Dian - Left-Falling Dot, the lower-right Dian Dot. han4 (Chinese) - "" "" "" "" This character contains two components: the left and the right . The left component contains three strokes: the upper Dian Dot, the middle Dian Dot, the lower Ti Lift. The right component contains two strokes: the left-side Heng Pie Horizontal Left-Falling, the right-side Na Right-Falling.

 hao3 (good) - "" "" "" "" This character contains two components: the left and the right . The left component contains three strokes: the left-side Pie Na Left-Falling RightFalling, the right-side Pie Right-Falling, the center-top Heng Horizontal. The right . component contains three strokes: the top Heng Gou Horizontal Hook, the center Shu Gou Vertical Hook, the center Heng Horizontal. Notice how the left-side and right-side Components in the above Compound-Component Characters reside beside one another and come together to form the whole character. The components do not touch (or they just touch just very lightly) or make contact with one another. Because there is white space between the character's components, the components can be separated from one another and thus create the "multi-" component nature of the Compound-Compound Characters. Examples: "" - "" "" can be separated into the components of ren2 and er3 "" - "" "" can be separated into the components of san1dian3shui3 and you4 "" - "" "" can be separated into the components of nv3 and zi3 Since these characters can be separated into individual components, these characters are all Compound-Component Characters . Two Kinds of Character Structures : As a result of there being two kinds of Chinese characters: Independent Characters and Compound Component Characters , it then follows that there are two basic kinds of character structures: Independent Character Structure and Compound-Component Character Structures . Independent Character Structure : The Independent Character Structure is the simplest of all the Chinese character structures. It can be represented pictorially by a simple square, where the inner contents of the square will always contain an Independent Character . There are no further variations on this character structure. The diagram below illustrates the structure:

In contrast to the simplicity of the single Independent Character Structure , the Compound-

Component Character Structures have numerous variations. Below is an explanation of the various kinds of Compound-Component Character Structures . Compound-Component Character Structures : There are 4 Types of Compound-Component Character Structures: Left-Right Structures , TopBottom Structures , Partial Enclosure Structures , and Complete Enclosure Structures . These structures reflect the physical arrangement of the Components within the character: Left-Right Structures : There are 5 kinds of Left-Right Structures:

Top-Bottom Structures : There are 5 kinds of Top-Bottom Structures:

 Partial Enclosure Structures : There are 2 kinds of Partial Enclosure Structures: Two-side Enclosure and Three-Side Enclosure. Two-side Enclosure Structures : There are 3 kinds of Two-side Enclosure Structures:

 Three-side Enclosure Structures : There are 3 kinds of Three-side Enclosure Structures:

Complete Enclosure Structures : There are 2 kinds of Complete Enclosure Structures:

IV. Radicals :
We have already studied that strokes are the basic foundation of Chinese characters. When strokes are combined together, they form Components . In the Chinese language, some of these Components can then have an additional purpose by serving as what is called Radicals . Radicals are used as the indexing mechanism for looking up characters in a dictionary. The radicals have been organized into an index which we call the Radical Index . : Radical Index Please click on this link to view the Radical Index and it's explanation. : How to Look Up Characters in a Dictionary

There are four ways to look up Chinese characters in a dictionary: The Radical Method, The First-Stroke Method, The Total Stroke Count Method, The Pinyin (Alphabetic) Method. 1. The Radical Method: The first and most commonly used way of looking-up characters in a dictionary is called the Radical Method. The Radical Method requires use of both the Radical Index (discussed above) and the Character Look-up Index . These two indexes are used in conjunction to look-up characters in the dictionary. While the Radical Index provides an index of all the radicals, the Character Look-up Index provides an index of all the characters in the Chinese language sorted by radical name. : Character Look-up Index Please click on this link to view the Character Look-up Index and it's explanation. The Radical Method contains eight steps as discussed below: 1. The first step in looking-up a character using the Radical Method is to identify the radical. When looking at a Chinese character and analyzing which of the character's components is the radical, you can use the following Radical Method Rule: Rule: The component with the least number of strokes or the component that is simplest in appearance will usually be the radical. Sometimes, this component will also have an appearance of being larger than the other components in the character. In Chinese, these few-stroke, simplest in appearance-type components are referred to as Single-Component (Independent Character) Radicals . Click on this link for more information on Independent Characters . Assume the character we want to look up is this: . Using the rule, the component with the least number of strokes/simplest in appearance is the left-side component , while the right-side component is much more complex in appearance containing more strokes than the left-side component. 2. Once the component with the least number of strokes has been identified, the next step is to count the number of strokes in that component. In the case of the component, it contains five strokes. For an explanation of how to count strokes, please refer to the section titled: Stroke Order Rules And Counting Strokes . 3. The next step is to go to the Radical Index and find the section where the 5-stroke radicals are located. It can be seen that in that section, the component is radical number 122. Radical number 122 is named jin1zi4pang2 - Gold radical and this radical has a shape variation of . 4. The next step is to locate radical number 122 in theCharacter Look-up Index . It can be seen in the index that radical number 122 is identified by the heading () . 5. The next step is to count the number of strokes in the right side component of the . Using the strokecount method discussed in the Stroke Order Rules And Counting Strokes section of this page, we can determine that the right side of the character contains seven strokes. 6. The next step is to find the section under the heading () where the 7-stroke characters are located. That section is labeled (7 stroke). The character is the last character down in that section. The pinyin to the right of the character is "feng1" (first tone).

7. The character entries in most Chinese dictionaries are arranged alphabetically, so therefore when looking for Chinese character entries in the dictionary, you can use the first character of the pinyin as your dictionary page starting point. In this case, since the character we are looking for is "feng1", we turn the dictionary to the page where the "F" pinyin entries start, then continue to turn the page until we find where the "feng" pinyin entries start. Since "feng1" is a first-tone pronunciation, we need only concern ourselves with the Chinese characters whose pronunciation is first-tone. 8. The final step is to visually scan every Chinese character whose pronunciation is "feng1". During the scanning process, your objective is to find the feng1 character among the entries. Once the character has been found, you'll then be able to read the dictionary's definition of the feng1 character. In this case, feng1 means "The cutting edge of a knife or a sword". Dictionary definitions will vary among publishers and editions. For more information about selecting dictionaries, see the web page entitled Chinese Language Resources. Here are a few more examples: a. : This character has two components, the upper-left component which contains 4 strokes and the lower-right component which contains 5 strokes. Using the Radical Method Rule, we determine that the upper-left component contains the least amount of strokes, so we look up that component in the Radical Index . However, we discover that it does not exist in the radical index (it is not a radical). Our next step is to then look up the lower-right component. The lower-right component does exist in the radical index: it is radical number 118 (mu4zi4pang2). By using the above 1-8 steps, we find the character is located 8th down in the heading of radical (118) in the Character Look-up Index . The character is pronounced kan1;kan4, and after finding it's entry in the dictionary, it's definition is "see; look at; watch; think". The Radical Method rule states: "The component with the least number of strokes or the component that has the simplest of appearances will usually be the radical". In the above example a. , although the upper-left component contained fewer strokes than the lower-right component, the lower-right component ultimately was the radical. The reason is that when comparing the appearances of the two components in , the lower-right component has a tighter, smaller and more cohesive structure, while the upper-left component appears more loose, large and lacks cohesiveness. We can than conclude that although the upper-left component contained fewer strokes than the lower-right component, the reason the lower-right component is the radical is because it was simpler in appearance than that of the upper-left component. b. When a character appears to be complicated in structure and you are having trouble finding the radical, here is a method that you can use to help you find the radical. For example, the character we want to look-up is : 1. First you would check the Radical Index to see if the right-side component is the radical. Then you would check the Character Look-up Index to see if belongs to that radical. 2. In the event is not the radical, then you would further analyze to find what is the next simplest of components . In the case of , the next simplest of components is the on top of the left-side component. You would then repeat step 1 to see if is indeed a radical and whether or not the radical for is indeed . 3. You would continue in this fashion, sequentially analyzing the character for it's simplest components and then looking up these components in the Radical Index and Character Look-up Index until a correct match is found.

c. Examples continued: - The character : First look-up the component. If that fails, then look-up the component. - The character : First look-up the component which is on top of the character. If that fails, then look-up the component located beneath the component. If that too fails, then lookup the component located beneath the component. The key to finding the radical of seemingly structurally complicated characters is to identify the simplest of the character's components and then sequentially look for these components (using the above 1-8 steps) in the Radical Index and Character Look-up Index until you locate the character. Radical Shape Variations: Another factor which can make identifying the radical inside a Chinese character difficult is that often times, the original shape of a radical (as it exists by itself outside of a character) and the shape it assumes once it resides inside the character can vary. For example, the lu4 character's radical is ( zu2zi4pang2) , but the radical as it exists inside the the character assumes a shape of . The " Radical Shape Variations" column of the radicals listed in the Radical Index will show you the alternate shape(s) a respective radical can assume. In addition, the Dictionary Radical Index will provide you this same information, showing the variations (listed in parenthesis) for each respective radical. Through the process of looking up characters in a dictionary and utilizing the various indexes, you will become more familiar with the radicals and their possible shape variations. 2. The First-Stroke Method: The second way of looking up a character in a dictionary is called the First-Stroke Method. When looking at a Chinese character, there may be times when it is difficult to identify it's distinctive components, thus it is difficult to identify which of the components is the radical. This will particularly be the case with Independent Characters (see the above section titled Character Structure for further explanation), the reader must use the First-Stroke Method in order to look-up the character in the dictionary. Similar to the Radical Method, the First-Stroke method also employs simultaneous use of the Radical Index and the Character Look-up Index . The First-Stroke Method contains seven steps as discussed below: 1. The first step in looking-up a character using the First-Stroke Method is to identify within the character which of the strokes, if the character were to be written by hand, would be the first written stroke. (For information on rules of stroke order, refer to the section in this page titled Stroke Order Rules And Counting Strokes ). Assume the character we want to look up is this: . Using the stroke order rules, the first stroke in this character will be (heng2 Horizontal) which we will then regard/treat as we would a radical. 2. Since (heng2 Horizontal) contains just one stroke, the next step is to go to the Radical Index and find the section where the 1-stroke radicals are located. It can be seen in that section, the ( heng2 Horizontal) stroke is radical number 2. 3. The next step is to locate radical number 2 in the Character Look-up Index . It can be seen in the index that radical number (2) is identified by the heading . 4. The next step is to count the remaining number of strokes in the character . Using the stroke-count method discussed in the section titled Stroke Order Rules And Counting Strokes , we can

determine that the remaining number of strokes is two. 5. The next step is to find the section under the heading where the 2-stroke characters are located. That section is labeled (1-2 strokes). The character is the fourth character down in that section. The pinyin to the right of the character is "gan1(first tone);gan4(fourth tone)". 6. The character entries in most Chinese dictionaries are arranged alphabetically, so therefore when looking for Chinese character entries in the dictionary, you can use the first character of the pinyin as your starting point. In this case, since the character we are looking for is "gan1;gan4", we turn the dictionary to the page where the "G" pinyin entries start, then continue to turn the page until we find where the "gan" pinyin entries start. Since "gan1" is a first-tone pronunciation, we first look at the Chinese characters whose pronunciation is first-tone. 7. The final step is to visually scan every Chinese character whose pronunciation is "gan1". During the scanning process, your objective is to find the gan1 character among the entries. Once the character has been found, you'll then be able to read the dictionary's definition of the gan1 character. In this case, gan1 means "dry, empty". Since also has a pronunciation of gan4, we then repeat steps 6 and 7 to locate gan4 in the dictionary. Dictionary definitions will vary among publishers and editions. For more information about selecting dictionaries, see the web page entitled Chinese Language Resources. Exceptions to treating the first stroke as the radical: The rules of stroke order are not an exact science and there will be times when the first stroke of a Independent Character can not be treated as a radical. You will know this to be true when after identifying the first stroke of a character, you can't find the character in the Character Look-up Index . When you encounter this kind of situation, an alternative is to identify the second (or third, fourth, etc) stroke of the character and then treat that stroke as the radical. For example, in the character tou2, the first written stroke is the upper-left "" (dian3 dot), but in some cases, depending on the writer's point of view and style of writing, (heng2 Horizontal) will be the first written stroke. Therefore it's possible that "" and/or "" could serve as the radical. The point here is that if you know the rules of stroke order, you can sequentially go through all of the strokes in a character until you find the one that the Character Look-up Index regards as the character's radical. 3. The Total Stroke Count Method: The third way of looking-up characters in a dictionary is called the Total Stroke Count Method. Some dictionaries provide what is called a Stroke Count Character Index . Unlike the Character Lookup Index which is sorted and arranged by radical, this index provides a listing of all the characters in the Chinese language sorted and arranged by stroke count. : Stroke Count Character Look-up Index Please click on this link to view the Stroke Count Character Look-up Index and it's explanation. There are two cases when the Total Stroke Count Method can be very useful for looking-up characters in a dictionary: 1. The character is very complex and contains a large number of strokes, thus making the identification of the radical very difficult. These kinds of characters are called Difficult To Look-Up Characters .

2. The character is very simple and contains a few number of strokes, particulary in the case of Independent Characters , thus there is no clear and apparent radical. (If you are dealing with a character that meets the criteria specified in 1 or 2 above, then it might be more feasible to use yet an alternate look-up method specified in the section titled: Looking-up Independent Characters and Difficult To Look-up Characters ) The Total Stroke Count Method contains four steps as discussed below: 1. The first step in looking-up a character using the Radical Method is to count the total number of strokes in the character using the rules outlined in the section titled Stroke Order Rules And Counting Strokes . Assume the character we want to look up is this: . Using the stroke order rules, we determine that the total number of strokes in the character is five and that the first stroke in the character is "" ( shu4 Vertical). 2. The next step is to go to the Stroke Count Character Look-up Index and find the 5 (5stroke) heading. All of the Chinese characters that contain exactly 5 strokes will be listed here. 3. The next step is to identify the first stroke of the character. Since the first stroke of the character is "", we should then look for the subheading [] beneath the 5 (5-stroke) heading. The first stroke of all the characters listed beneath this subheading will be "" (shu4 Vertical). 4. The next step is to visually scan the characters under the subheading [] looking for the character. It can be seen in the Stroke Count Character Look-up Index that the character is the 15th character down in the list. The number to the right of the character is "76" which indicates the character's definition is listed on page 76 of the dictionary in use. If the reader turns to page 76 of the dictionary in use, he/she will find the definition of the character . Notes about the Total Stroke Count Method: It should be noted that the Total Stroke Count Method is a very reliable way to find characters in a dictionary. However, it is also a very slow method because it requires the reader to count every stroke in the character that he/she wishes to look-up. Furthermore, not all dictionaries will supply a Stroke Count Character Look-up Index . So even if the reader knows the total stroke count of a character, it will still be impossible to find the character in the dictionary because the index does not exist. 4. The Pinyin (Alphabetic) Method The fourth and last way of looking-up characters in a dictionary is by using the character's pinyin. If by looking at a character, the reader is able to determine how to pronounce the character, then he/she can use the pinyin (the character's pronunciation) to directly find the character in the dictionary. The characters in most Chinese dictionaries are arranged in pinyin alphabetical sequence. For example, if you want to look up the character in the dictionary and you already know that it's pinyin (pronunciation) is lai2 (2nd tone), then you can turn the dictionary to the page where the "L" pinyin entries start. Next, find the place in the dictionary where the "lai2" (2nd tone) pinyin entries start and look for characters that are a match on . Once found, you will see that the definition of lai2 is "to come". Looking-up Independent Characters and Difficult To Look-up Characters : In the Chinese language, the Independent Characters are by far the most difficult to look-up in a

dictionary. Despite the fact that they are structurally simple in appearance and contain few strokes, their single-component nature gives one the impression that they have no clear and apparent radical, thus the radical is very hard to identify. We have already discussed that The First-Stroke Method and The Total Stroke Count Method can be used to look-up these kinds of characters. There is yet another category of characters which the Chinese language classifies as "difficult to lookup". These characters have an appearance that makes it difficult to classify which Character Structure they belong to. This is due to the fact that they sometimes have a large number of strokes lending them a very "dense" appearance. These characters are called Difficult To Look-up Characters . Sometimes dictionaries will provide what is called a Difficult to Look-up Characters Index . This index will contain both Independent Characters and Difficult To Look-up Characters and is sorted by stroke count. In the event you need to look-up an Independent or Difficult to Look-up Character, you can utilize this index in the same way you would look-up characters using the Total Stroke Count Method: count the total number of strokes in the character and then go to the appropriate heading in the Difficult to Look-up Characters Index to find the character. : Difficult To Look-up Character Index Please click on this link to view the Difficult To Look-up Character Index and it's explanation. Summary: In the beginning, the process of looking up Chinese characters in a dictionary tends to be slow and cumbersome. However, over time, if you frequently look-up characters you will discover that you will acquire a feeling for which components are radicals, thereby greatly speeding up the look-up process.

V. Stroke Order Rules And Counting Strokes :

A knowledge of Chinese character Stroke Order Rules is a prerequisite to being able to count the strokes in a Chinese character and being able to look-up characters in a dictionary. In addition, this knowledge is important to being able to write Chinese characters using proper stroke order. Before attempting to study Stroke Order Rules, you should first become familiar with the various types of strokes and character structures. Please read the following sections in this page before proceeding further: Basic Strokes , Dependent Strokes , Compound Strokes and Character Structure . : The Eight 'Stroke Order' Rules As a general rule, Chinese characters tend to be written from left to right, horizontal to vertical, top to bottom and outer to inner. There are eight basic rules that must be followed when writing Chinese characters: (The examples provided here are just a cursory introduction. For a more precise and detailed explanation of stroke order rules broken down by structure type, please refer to this section: The Relationship Between Character Structure and Stroke Order :) 1. The strokes on the left are written before the strokes on the right Examples: ba1 - Stroke order: left pie3 Left-Falling, right na4 Right-Falling Total Stroke Count: 2

mu4 - Stroke order: top heng2 Horizontal, center shu4 Vertical, left pie3 Left-Falling, last is right na4 Right-Falling Total Stroke Count: 4 2. (pie3 Left-Falling) is written before \ (na4 Right-Falling) - When the left-falling and right-falling strokes meet or cross each other, first write the left-falling then write the right-falling. Examples: ren2 - Stroke order: left pie3 Left-Falling, right na4 Right-Falling Total Stroke Count: 2 wen2 - Stroke order: top dian3 Dot, top heng2 Horizontal, left pie3 Left-Falling, last is right na4 Right-Falling Total Stroke Count: 4 3. (heng2 Horizontal) is written before (shu4 Vertical) - First write the horizontal strokes, then the vertical strokes. Examples: shi2 - Stroke order: middle heng2 Horizontal, center shu4 Vertical Total Stroke Count: 2 feng1 - Stroke order: top heng2 Horizontal, middle heng2 Horizontal, bottom heng2 Horizontal, last is center shu4 Vertical Total Stroke Count: 4 4. The upper strokes should be written before the lower strokes in a movement from top to bottom. Examples: san1 - Stroke order: top heng2 Horizontal, middle heng2 Horizontal, last is lower heng2 Horizontal Total Stroke Count: 3 tu3 - Stroke order: top heng2 Horizontal, center shu4 Vertical, last is bottom heng2 Horizontal Total Stroke Count: 3 5. When a character is enclosed on all sides, you should write the character according to these three rules: a. from left to right write the two enclosing strokes - left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend b. then write the inner enclosed portion of the character c. last, write the bottom heng2 Horizontal Examples: yin1 - Stroke order: left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, inner portion (3 strokes): center heng2 Horizontal, left pie3 Left-Falling, right na4 Right-Falling, last is the bottom heng2 Horizontal Total Stroke Count: 6 tian2 - Stroke order: left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, inner portion

(2 strokes): center heng2 Horizontal, center shu4 Vertical, last is the bottom heng2 Horizontal Total Stroke Count: 5 6. When a character is enclosed on two or three sides, the character should be written from the outer to inner according to these two rules: a. If the character is enclosed from the upper end, first write the enclosing strokes and then write the enclosed strokes. The following three structures (Character Structure ) enclose a character from the upper end, so rule 6a. applies to them: 1. zuo3shang4bao1wei2jie2gou4 - Upper-left enclosure ie. ting1 2. you4shang4bao1wei2jie2gou4 - Upper-right enclosure ie. xi2 3. zuo3shang4you4bao1wei2jie2gou4 - Left-top-right enclosure ie. yue4 Examples: yue4 is a Left-top-right enclosure structure Stroke order: left pie3 Left-Falling, top heng2zhe2gou1 Horizontal Bend Hook, top heng2 Horizontal, last is the bottom heng2 Horizontal Total Stroke Count: 4 b. If the character is enclosed from the lower end, first write the enclosed strokes and then write the enclosing strokes. The following two structures enclose a character from the lower end, so rule 6b. applies to them: 1. zuo3xia4bao1wei2jie2gou4 - Lower-left enclosure ie. zhe4 2. zuo3xia4you4bao1wei2jie2gou4 - Left-bottom-right enclosure ie. hua4 Examples: hua4 is a Left-bottom-right enclosure structure Stroke order: top-enclosure heng2 Horizontal, inner has 5 strokes: inner-left shu4 Vertical, inner-top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, inner heng2 Horizontal, inner shu4 Vertical, inner-bottom heng2 Horizontal, bottomenclosure has 2 strokes: bottom shu4zhe2 Vertical Bend, last is the right shu4 Vertical Total Stroke Count: 8 c. If the character is enclosed from the top, left and bottom sides, first write the top enclosing stroke, then the enclosed strokes, and finally the remaining left and bottom enclosing strokes. Rule 6c. applies to the shang4zuo3xia4bao1wei2jie2gou4 - Top-left-bottom enclosure structure. Examples: qu1 is a Top-left-bottom enclosure structure Stroke order: top-enclosure heng2 Horizontal, inner-left pie3 Left-Falling, inner-right na4 Right-Falling, bottom-enclosure shu4zhe2 Vertical Bend Total Stroke Count: 4 7. Sometimes the middle portion of a character should be written before the outer side portions. When a vertical stroke is in a middle and prominent position within the character, does not cross

other strokes yet may join others, then that vertical stroke should be written first. Examples: xiao3 - Stroke order: center shu4gou1 Vertical Hook, left-side zuo3dian3 Left-Falling Dot, last is the right-side chang2dian3 Long Dot Total Stroke Count: 3 ye4 - Stroke order: left-center shu4 Vertical, right-center shu4 Vertical, left-side dian3 Dot, right-side zuo3dian3 Left-Falling Dot, last is the bottom heng2 Horizontal Total Stroke Count: 5 8. Sometimes the middle portion of a character should be written last. When a vertical stroke is in a middle and prominent position within the character and crosses other strokes, it should be written last. Examples: zhong1 - Stroke order: left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, bottom heng2 Horizontal, last is the center shu4 Vertical Total Stroke Count: 4 Exceptions to the above eight stroke order rules: 1. Exception to Stroke Order Rule 3: If the shu4 Vertical stroke is to the left of the heng2 Horizontal stroke, then the vertical stroke should be written before the horizontal stroke. Examples: shang4 - Stroke order: center shu4 Vertical, right heng2 Horizontal, last is the bottom heng2 Horizontal Total Stroke Count: 3 2. Exception to Stroke Order Rule 3: If the heng2 Horizontal stroke is in the middle of the character and occupies a prominent position, then the horizontal stroke should be written last. Examples: zi3 - Stroke order: top heng2gou1 Horizontal Hook, center shu4gou1 Vertical Hook, last is the center heng2 Horizontal Total Stroke Count: 3

VI. The Relationship Between Character Structure and Stroke Order :

When trying to determine a character's stroke order, the first thing that should be done is to identify the character's structure. Once the structure has been identified, we can then begin to determine the character's stroke order. Referring back to the section entitled Character Structure , we can apply the Stroke Order Rules to every type of character structure in that section. As you read through the following examples, observe how the stroke order of each character conforms to the Stroke Order Rules. Notice how you begin to get a feeling and comprehension for the way in which the strokes of a character are arranged into a particular stroke order. For each of the following examples, the "Stroke order" column provides the location of the stroke within

the character as well as the stroke's Chinese and English name. The total "Stroke count" for each character is also given. If the character contains more than one component, each component (for simplicity, referred to in these examples as "pieces") will be shown separately (when possible for it to be entered via keyboard) along with it's accompanying stroke order and stroke count. Independent Character Structure : Of all the structures, the Independent Character structure is the simplest in construction. Unlike the Compound-Component structures, it is not divided into pieces and the inside character is comprised of just one component. Examples: shu1 - Stroke order: top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, lower heng2zhe2gou1 Horizontal Bend Hook, center shu4 Vertical, last is the dian3 Dot Total Stroke Count: 4 ye3 - Stroke order: center heng2zhe2gou1 Horizontal Bend Hook, center shu4 Vertical, last is the shu4wan1gou1 Vertical Curve Hook Total Stroke Count: 3 dian4 - Stroke order: left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, center heng2 Horizontal, bottom heng2 Horizontal, last is the shu4wan1gou1 Vertical Curve Hook Total Stroke Count: 5 Compound-Component Character Structures : 1. The Left-Right Structures These structures are divided vertically into two pieces, a left and a right. The left piece should be written first, the right piece should be written last. There are five kinds of Left-Right Structures . a. Left-small Right-large In this structure, the left piece is smaller than the right piece. Examples: ni3 - Stroke order: Left piece : left pie3 Left-Falling, center shu4 Vertical Stroke Count: 2 Right piece : left pie3 Left-Falling, top heng2gou1 Horizontal Hook, Bend Hook, center shu4gou1 Vertical Hook, lower-left zuo3dian3 Left-Falling Dot, last is the lower-right chang2dian3 Long Dot Stroke Count: 5 Total Stroke Count: 7 han4 - Stroke order: Left piece : top dian3 Dot, middle dian3 Dot, bottom ti2 Lift Stroke Count: 3 Right piece : left heng2pie3 Horizontal Left-Falling, last is the right na4 Right-Falling Stroke Count: 2 Total Stroke Count: 5 de - Stroke order: Left piece : top dian3 Dot, left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, center heng2 Horizontal, bottom heng2

Horizontal Stroke Count: 5 Right piece : left-top pie3 Left-Falling, right heng2zhe2gou1 Horizontal Bend Hook, last is the dian3 Dot Stroke Count: 3 Total Stroke Count: 8 b. Equal left and right In this structure, the left piece and the right piece are equal in size. Examples: yi3 - Stroke order: Left piece: left shu4ti2 Vertical Lift, middle dian3 Dot Stroke Count: 2 Right piece: left pie3 Left-Falling, last is the lower-right chang2dian3 Long Dot Stroke Count: 2 Total Stroke Count: 4 c. Left-large Right-small In this structure, the left piece is larger than the right piece. Examples: wai4 - Stroke order: Left piece : left pie3 Left-Falling, right heng2pie3 Horizontal LeftFalling, last is the center dian3 Dot Stroke Count: 3 Right piece : left shu4 Vertical, last is the right dian3 Dot Stroke Count: 2 Total Stroke Count: 5 ke4 - Stroke order: Left piece: top dian3 Dot, top heng Horizontal, middle pie3zhe2 Left-Falling Bend, middle-lower pie3 Left-Falling, left pie3 Left-Falling, last is the lower-right chang2dian3 Long Dot Stroke Count: 6 Right piece : left shu4 Vertical, last is the right shu4gou1 Vertical Hook Stroke Count: 2 Total Stroke Count: 8 d. Left-large Right-up and down In this structure, the left side contains one piece and the right side is divided equally into a top and bottom piece. Examples: gou4 - Stroke order: Left piece : top pie3 Left-Falling, right heng2zhe2gou1 Horizontal Bend Hook, center (3 strokes): left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke Count: 5 Right-upper piece : left pie3 Left-Falling, right heng2pie3 Horizontal Left-Falling, last is the center dian3 Dot Stroke Count: 3

Right-lower piece : left pie3 Left-Falling, right heng2pie3 Horizontal Left-Falling, last is the center dian3 Dot Stroke Count: 3 Total Stroke Count: 11 d. Left-up and down Right-large In this structure, the right side contains one piece and the left side is divided equally into a top and bottom piece. Examples: dou1 - Stroke order: Left-upper piece: top heng2 Horizontal, center shu4 Vertical, bottom heng2 Horizontal, last is bottom pie3 Left-Falling Stroke Count: 4 Left-lower piece : left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, center heng2 Horizontal, bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke Count: 4 Right piece : right heng2pie3wan1gou1 Horizontal Left-Falling Curve Hook, last is shu4 Vertical Stroke Count: 2 Total Stroke Count: 10 2. The Top-Bottom Structures These structures are divided horizontally into two pieces, a top and a bottom. The top piece should be written first, the bottom piece should be written last. There are five kinds of Top-Bottom Structures : a. Top-short Bottom-long : In this structure, the top piece is shorter(smaller) than the bottom piece. Examples: zi4 - Stroke order: Top piece : top dian3 Dot, left zuo3dian3 Left-Falling Dot, right heng2gou1 Horizontal Hook Stroke Count: 3 Bottom piece : top heng2gou1 Horizontal Hook, center shu4gou1 Vertical Hook, last is the center heng2 Horizontal Stroke Count: 3 Total Stroke Count: 6 xie3 - Stroke order: Top piece : left zuo3dian3 Left-Falling Dot, right heng2gou1 Horizontal Hook Stroke Count: 2 Bottom piece : top heng2 Horizontal, middle shu4zhe2zhe2gou1 Vertical Bend Bend Hook, last is the center heng2 Horizontal Stroke Count: 3 Total Stroke Count: 5 b. Equal top and bottom : In this structure, the top and bottom pieces are equal in size.

Examples: shi4 - Stroke order: Top piece : left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, center heng2 Horizontal, last is the bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke Count: 4 Bottom piece : top heng2 Horizontal, middle shu4 Vertical, middle heng2 Horizontal, left-bottom pie3 Left-Falling, last is the na4 Right-Falling Stroke Count: 5 Total Stroke Count: 9 c. Top-long Bottom-short In this structure, the top piece is longer (bigger) than the bottom piece. Examples: dian3 - Stroke order: Top piece : top shu4 Vertical, middle heng2 Horizontal, left shu4 Vertical, middle heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke Count: 5 Bottom piece : left zuo3dian3 Left-Falling Dot, middle dian3 Dot, middle dian3 Dot, chang2dian3 Long Dot Stroke Count: 4 Total Stroke Count: 9 xi1 - Stroke order: Top piece : top dian3 Dot, left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, center heng2 Horizontal, center-bottom heng2 Horizontal, bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke Count: 6 Bottom piece : left zuo3dian3 Left-Falling Dot, middle wo2gou1 Lying Hook, middle dian3 Dot, right dian3 Dot Stroke Count: 4 Total Stroke Count: 10 d. Top-two Bottom-large In this structure, the bottom contains one piece and the top is divided equally into a left and right piece. xie1 - Stroke order: Top-left piece : right shu4 Vertical, middle heng2 Horizontal, left shu4 Vertical, last is bottom ti2 Vertical Lift Stroke Count: 4 Top-right piece : right zuo3dian3 Left-Falling Dot , last is the shu4wan1gou1 Vertical Curve Hook Stroke Count: 2 Bottom piece : top heng2 Horizontal, bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke Count: 2 Total Stroke Count: 8 e. Top-large Bottom-two : In this structure, the top contains one piece and the bottom is divided equally into a left and right piece.

zui4 - Stroke order: Top piece : left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, center heng2 Horizontal, last is the bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke Count: 4 Bottom-left piece : top heng2 Horizontal, left shu4 Vertical, right shu4 Vertical, middle heng2 Horizontal, middle heng2 Horizontal, last is bottom ti2 Vertical Lift Stroke Count: 6 Bottom-left piece : left heng2pie3 Horizontal Left-Falling, last is the right na4 Right-Falling Stroke Count: 2 Total Stroke Count: 12 3. The Two-side Enclosure Structures These structures are divided diagonally into two pieces, a top and a bottom which gives the appearance that there is an "inside" portion/piece of the character being enclosed on two sides by an enclosing "outside" portion/piece of the character. The rules for which piece should be written first will depend on the type of structure you are dealing with and are explained below for each respective structure. There are 3 kinds of Two-side Enclosure Structures: a. Upper-left enclosure In this structure, the enclosing piece is in the upper-left part of the structure and should be written first. The enclosed piece is in the lower-right part of the structure and should be written last. The stroke order is dictated by Stroke Order Rule 6a. Examples: ting1 - Stroke order: Upper-left piece : top heng2 Horizontal, right pie3 Left-Falling Stroke count: 2 Lower-right piece : top heng2 Horizontal, center shu4gou1 Vertical Hook Stroke count: 2 Total Stroke Count: 4 ying1 - Stroke order: Upper-left piece : top dian3 Dot, top heng2 Horizontal, last is the right pie3 Left-Falling Stroke count: 3 Lower-right piece: left chang2dian3 Long Dot, middle chang2dian3 Long Dot, right zuo3dian3 LeftFalling Dot, last is the bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke count: 4 Total Stroke Count: 7 b. Upper-right enclosure In this structure, the enclosing piece is in the upper-right part of the structure and should be written first. The enclosed piece is in the lower-left part of the structure and should be written last. The stroke order is dictated by Stroke Order Rule 6a. Examples: xi2 - Stroke order: Upper-right piece : top heng2zhe2gou1 Horizontal Bend Hook Stroke count: 1 Lower-left piece: top dian3 Dot, bottom ti2 Vertical Lift Stroke count: 2

Total Stroke Count: 3 ke3 - Stroke order: Upper-right piece : top heng2 Horizontal, shu4gou1 Vertical Hook Stroke count: 2 Lower-left piece : left shu4 Vertical, middle heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, last is bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke count: 3 Total Stroke Count: 5 c. Lower-left enclosure In this structure, the enclosed piece is in the upper-right part of the structure and should be written first. The enclosing piece is in the lower-left part of the structure and should be written last. The stroke order is dictated by Stroke Order Rule 6b. Examples: zhe4 - Stroke order: Upper-right piece : top dian3 Dot, top heng2 Horizontal, left pie3 Left-Falling, last is right na4 Right-Falling Stroke count: 4 Lower-left piece : top dian3 Dot, middle heng2zhe2zhe2zhe2 Horizontal Bend Bend Bend, last is bottom ping2na4 Flattened Right-Falling Stroke count: 3 Total Stroke Count: 7 jian4 - Stroke order: Upper-right piece: top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, middle heng2 Horizontal, closing bottom heng2 Horizontal, lowerbottom heng2 Horizontal, most-bottom heng2 Horizontal, last is the shu4 Vertical Curve Hook Stroke count: 6 Lower-left piece : left heng2zhe2zhe2pie3 Horizontal Bend Bend Left-Falling, last is bottom ping2na4 Flattened Right-Falling Stroke count: 2 Total Stroke Count: 8 4. The Three-side Enclosure Structures These structures are divided horizontally/vertically into two pieces. The outer/enclosing piece surrounds the inner/enclosed piece on three sides. The rules for which piece should be written first will depend on the type of structure you are dealing with and are explained below for each respective structure. There are 3 kinds of Three-side Enclosure Structures: a. Left-top-right enclosure In this structure, the enclosing piece is in the upper part of the structure and should be written first, the enclosed piece is in the lower part of the structure and should be written last. The stroke order is dictated by Stroke Order Rule 6a. Examples: feng1 - Stroke order: Upper piece : left pie3 Left-Falling, top heng2wan1gou1 Horizontal Curve Hook Stroke count: 2 Lower piece : left pie3 Left-Falling, right na4 Right-Falling Stroke count: 2

Total Stroke Count: 4 tong2 - Stroke order: Upper piece : left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2gou1 Horizontal Bend Hook Stroke count: 2 Lower piece: top heng2 Horizontal, left shu4 Vertical, middle heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, last is bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke count: 4 Total Stroke Count: 6 b. Top-left-bottom enclosure In this structure, the enclosing piece surrounds the enclosed piece on the top, left and bottom sides. The top enclosing piece should be written first, then the enclosed piece and last the left and bottom enclosing piece. The stroke order is dictated by Stroke Order Rule 6c. Examples: yi1 - Stroke order: Upper enclosing piece : top heng2 Horizontal Stroke count: 1 Middle enclosed piece: left pie3 Left-Falling, top heng2 Horizontal, middle heng2 Horizontal, left pie3 Left-Falling, last is right na4 Right-Falling Stroke count: 5 Lower enclosing piece : shu4zhe2 Vertical Bend Stroke count: 1 Total Stroke Count: 7 qu1 - Stroke order: Upper enclosing piece : top heng2 Horizontal Stroke count: 1 Middle enclosed piece : left pie3 Left-Falling, right na4 Right-Falling Stroke count: 2 Lower enclosing piece : shu4zhe2 Vertical Bend Stroke count: 1 Total Stroke Count: 4 c. Left-bottom-right enclosure In this structure, the enclosed piece is in the top part of the structure and should be written first. The enclosing piece is in the bottom part of the structure and should be written last. The stroke order is dictated by Stroke Order Rule 6b. Examples: hua4 - Stroke order: Upper piece: top heng2 Horizontal, inner has 5 strokes: inner-left shu4 Vertical, inner-top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, inner-middle heng2 Horizontal, inner-middle shu4 Vertical, last is the inner-bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke count: 6 Lower piece : bottom shu4zhe2 Vertical Bend, right shu4 Vertical Stroke count: 2 Total Stroke Count: 8 5. The Complete Enclosure Structures These structures are divided into two pieces: an inner piece and an outer surrounding piece. The

outer piece completely surrounds the inner piece on four sides. The left, top and right side of the outer surrounding piece are written first, then the inner piece, then last the bottom outer surrounding piece. The stroke order is dictated by Stroke Order Rule 5. There are 2 kinds of Complete Enclosure Structures: a. Four-side enclosure with internal independent component In this structure, the enclosed piece is composed of just one component. Examples: yin1 - Stroke order: 3-side enclosure : left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend Stroke count: 2 Enclosed piece : center heng2 Horizontal, left pie3 Left-Falling, right na4 Right-Falling Stroke count: 3 Bottom enclosure : bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke count: 1 Total Stroke Count: 6 guo2 - Stroke order: 3-side enclosure : left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend Stroke count: 2 Enclosed piece : top heng2 Horizontal, middle heng2 Horizontal, center shu4 Vertical, bottom heng2 Horizontal, last is bottom-right dian3 Dot Stroke count: 5 Bottom enclosure : bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke count: 1 Total Stroke Count: 8 b. Four-side enclosure with internal upper and lower component In this structure, the enclosed piece is composed of two components. Examples: yuan2 - Stroke order: 3-side enclosure : left shu4 Vertical, top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend Stroke count: 2 Enclosed upper-piece : left shu4 Vertical, middle heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, last is bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke count: 3 Enclosed lower-piece : left shu4 Vertical, middle heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend, left pie3 LeftFalling, right Right-Falling Stroke count: 4 Bottom enclosure : bottom heng2 Horizontal Stroke count: 1 Total Stroke Count: 10

VII. Counting Strokes :

Once you are able to: 1. Identify the unique strokes of a character Basic Strokes , Dependent Strokes andCompound Strokes and... 2. According to a character's Character Structure determine the order that the strokes should be written (Stroke Order Rules ) ...then, the process of counting strokes becomes just a matter of keeping a mental counter in your mind. As you analyze a character and traverse through it's sequence of strokes, you add "1" to this counter for every new stroke encountered. When you have traversed through all of the strokes, the final count will be the total stroke count for the character. As you get more familiar with the various types of strokes, character structures and stroke order rules, it will become quite easy to calculate stroke count.

VIII. Classifying Characters :

According to a character's respective appearance, Chinese characters can be classified into four categories: Pictophonetic (shape-sound) , Graphic (pictographic/hieroglyphic) , Indicative and Associative . 1. Pictophonetic (shape-sound) Characters As previously discussed, Chinese characters are composed of components and one of the most significant components is the Radical which serves the critical function of looking characters up in a dictionary. In the case of Pictophonetic characters, their internal components serve an additional function, and that is to provide character meaning and character pronunciation information to the reader. In the Chinese language, most characters are of the Pictophonetic type. A Pictophonetic character contains two kinds of components: the Shape (picto) Radical and the Sound (phonetic) Radical . Taken together, these two radicals provide a good deal of information about the character. In the case of the Shape Radical, it's shape, via visual association with real-world concrete objects provides the reader with an approximate meaning of the character. In the case of the Sound Radical, each radical has an associated pronunciation which provides the reader with an approximate pronunciation of the character. This information is very useful, because when encountering an unrecognized character, if the reader can identify the shape and sound radicals within the character, then he/she will have a general idea of the character's definition and pronunciation, respectively. In terms of identifying which are the shape and sound radicals within a character, the following rule can be used: Rule: - Radicals that are fewer in strokes are usually Shape Radicals - Radicals that are more numerous in strokes are usually Sound Radicals The following two indexes can be used as a look-up tool to help you identify which radicals in a character are Shape Radicals and which are Sound Radicals : Shape Radical Index :

Please click on this link to view the Shape Radical Index and it's explanation. Sound Radical Index : Please click on this link to view the Sound Radical Index and it's explanation. The below examples will further illustrate the difference between shape and sound radicals: Example: : In this character, there are 2 components, and . The simplest of the two components is , so we look this component up in the Shape Radical Index . In this index we find that is the mu4zi4pang2 radical and has a meaning of "eyes". Next we look up in the Sound Radical Index . We find that has two possible pronunciations qing and jing. Earlier I said that the shape and sound radicals will provide the reader with approximate meanings and pronunciation, respectively. You can think of the shape and sound radicals as providing you with hint or reminder information about the respective character. If we look-up in a dictionary using the Radical Look-up Method, we would use as the bu4shou3 radical and would discover that it's pronunciation is "jing1" and it's meaning is "eyeball". Through this example, we can see that the meaning information of "eyes" provided through the shape radical and the sound information of "qing / jing" provided through the sound radical qing1 was relatively close to 's meaning of "eyeball" and pronunciation of "jing1" that we gleened through using the Radical Look-up Method. It's also important to remember that the sound radical will never provide the pronunciation tone, it will only provide the Initial (consonant) sheng1mu3 and Final (vowel) yun4mu3 (see Chinese Pronunciation for an explanation of Initial (consonant) sheng1mu3 and Final (vowel) yun4mu3). In real life during communication with people or reading documents, if you encounter an unrecognized character, sometimes a simple reminder is all you will need in order to recall the exact meaning and definition. Even more so, if you still can't recall the precise meaning and definition, the shape and sound radicals will provide you with enough information so that you can make an intelligent guess. Identifying shape and sound radicals within a character is a good strategy for acquiring a strong proficiency with Chinese characters. One final example: Example: : "" san1dian3shui3 is the shape radical and has a meaning of "water". "" is the sound radical and has a pronunciation of qing /jing. The exact definition is "clear" and the exact pronunciation is "qing1". Clarifying the term "radical": " pian1pang2 radical and bu4shou3 radical " vs. " component bu4fen ": When discussing Chinese characters, the Chinese word bu4fen is translated to the English word "Component", which roughly means part - a part of a character. However, the Chinese words pian1pang2 and bu4shou3 both translate to the same English word - "Radical". One way to clarify the confusion is to consider that " bu4shou3 radicals " are those radicals which are used to look-up characters in dictionary. On the other hand, " pian1pang2 radicals " are not used for dictionary look-up,

but they may be used for other purposes such as serving as Shape Radicals and Sound Radicals . When a component in a character is neither a " bu4shou3 radical " or a " pian1pang2 radical ", we can just simply call this component a bu4fen Component. 2. Graphic Characters Graphic characters are pictographic/hieroglyphic type characters which by appearance have a resemblance to the concrete object or action they indicate. These characters are representations of things identified early on by the ancient Chinese. Although these kinds of characters may also be radicals themselves, they are identifed here as being Graphic characters. Examples: ma3 - definition: "horse", the square portion is the body, the lower-right line are the legs and the lower-left horizontal line is the tail. niao3 - definition: "bird", the square portion is the body, the top dot is a feather, the middle dot is the eye, the lower-left horizontal line is the tail. san3 - definition: "umbrella", the upper portion is the spread of the umbrella, the under portion is the umbrella's supporting framework, the lower vertical line is the handle used to hold the umbrella. wang3 - definition: "net", the two inside crosses represent the webbing of a net. ku1 - definition: "cry", the two squares represent a person's eyes, the dot is a teardrop, the lower portion represents a person's face and mouth. xiao4 - definition: "smile" the upper portion is similar to the shape of a person's eyes when they are smiling. The lower portion represents their face. 3. Indicative Characters While the pictures in Graphic characters tend to represent concrete things. Indicative characters represent things that are more abstract in meaning, things that can't be expressed by pictographs. Indicative characters point-out and "indicate" something. Examples: shang4 - a vertical line pointing to the top which indicates "above" xia4 - a vertical line pointing to the bottom which indicates "below" ben3 - mu4 is the character for wood, when the lower short horizontal line is added to the bottom it means "root", which over time, has come to mean "the essence" of something. 4. Associative Characters Associative characters are those characters which upon looking at them causes you to think of a meaning for the character. These characters tend to have two or more pictographs placed side-by-side to describe an action or an abstract concept. Examples:

 xiu1 - definition: "to rest", is represented by a person ren2 next to or leaning against a tree mu4. ren3 - definition: "endure", is represented by a knife dao1 over the heart xin1 which gives a feeling of endurance, the heart bearing and enduring difficulty. cong2 - definition: "to follow", is represented by a one person ren2 following another person ren2.

IX. How To Write Chinese Characters :

The subject of how to teach the writing of Chinese characters is a controversial one. Nevertheless, most people do agree that before even attempting to write a Chinese character, a student must first have an adequate knowledge of strokes. I. First Step - Practice the Strokes: I recommend to first practice writing all of the Basic , Dependent and Compound strokes explained earlier in this webpage. When practicing these strokes, it's important that the student write the stroke in a both a balanced and symmetrical way. When children in China first begin to learn writing characters, they practice their writing in a special exercise book called a (xiao3 kai3 ben3). The pages of these exercise books are specially ruled into numerous small squares or blocks. These squares give the student a fixed area in which to write the character. By practicing their writing in these books, over time the students are able to write the characters in a balanced and symmetrical way. Shown below is an example of one of these exercise books. exercise book cover: square-ruled page:

(these exercise books can be bought at any school supply store in China) Practicing strokes should be done everyday for at least a couple of weeks. It's not necessary to practice for long periods of time at one stretch; the idea is to just get comfortable writing the various kinds of strokes. Proper technique is also important, particulary during the first stages of learning how to write characters. Stroke technique is important because it will later influence the legibility of your written characters. The strokes must be written in a correct fashion, so that later when you write characters, they can be read by others. If you don't have a teacher, then I highly recommend the book "Learn to Write Chinese Characters" by Johan Bjorksten.

"Learn to Write Chinese Characters":

(For more information on this book, please refer to this web page Chinese Language Resources). This book discusses and shows in detail the particulars of how to properly write Chinese characters. In particular, it shows& how to properly hold a pen in one's hand and how to write strokes. Once you are satisfied that you are comfortable writing the strokes, you can proceed to the second step: writing characters. II. Second Step - Begin Writing Characters: After the student feels comfortable writing all of the strokes, the next step is to begin writing characters. Before beginning to write characters, I recommend three very important tools: the first is a Chinese Character Frequency Index , the second is the section in this webpage titled Analyzing a Character to Discover it's Attributes and the third is a Stroke Order Character Dictionary . 1. Chinese Character Frequency List : A character frequency list is a machine computed list of the vocabulary (characters) that occurs with the greatest frequency within a given source of media. Frequency lists are often generated from newspapers, magazines, textbooks, etc. They are a very valuable tool for the beginning learner of Chinese. They provide the student with a basic vocabulary and a place from which to begin one's study. I have reproduced a list of the 500 most frequently occuring characters taken from the appendix of the book "Chinese-English Frequency Dictionary" by Yong Ho. "Chinese-English Frequency Dictionary"

(For more information on this book, please refer to this web page Chinese Language Resources). In deciding which Chinese character to first practice writing, the method I recommend is to start with the first character in this frequency list. Please click on this link to view the Character Frequency List .

Once you have opened the Character Frequency List, you will see that the first character in the list is " ". This will be the character we use to begin our character writing practice. Now that we've decided which character we want to practice writing, the next step we need to perform is to determine how to write the character. Determining how to write a character requires the student to first analyze the character in order to discover it's attributes. 2. Analyzing a Character to Discover it's Attributes: a. Determine the character type: The first step in analyzing a character is to distinguish whether the character is an Independent Character or a Compound Component Character . The way to make this distinction is to read the discussion of Character Structures in this webpage. Based on that discussion, we can then determine that the " de character contains two components , the left-side " bai2 " and the rightside " shao2 " and so therefore is a Compound Component Character . ; b. Determine the character structure: Once you have made the character type distinction, the second step in analyzing a character is to determine which type of character structure the character itself belongs to. There are two basic types of character structures: Independent Character Structure and Compound-Component Character Structures . If the character you want to write is an Independent Character , then by default it has an Independent Character Structure . If the character is a Compound Component Character , it then also follows that the structure of the character is a CompoundComponent Character Structure . However, because there are many different kinds of Compound-Component Character Structures , you must then further analyze various structures to determine which type of Compound Component Character Structure the character belongs. To make that determination, you must read the discussion of Compound Component Character Structures in this webpage. Based on that discussion, we can then determine that the " de " character has a Left-Right Structure (because of the left-side and the right-side ). Furthermore, we can also determine that it is aLeft-small Right-large structure because the left component () is smaller in proportion to the right component (). To summarize up to this point, we have identified " de " as the character we want to write and have also identified that " de " is a Left-Right Structure (Compound-Component Character Structure ). The next step we need to do is to determine the first stroke of the character and the character's stroke order. c. Determine the first stroke of the character and the stroke order: Since Chinese characters are written using more than one stroke, we must first determine which stroke of the character should be written first and thereafter, we must determine the order in which the character's remaining strokes should be written. In order to determine which stroke is the first stroke of a character, we must understand the rules which govern stroke sequence, that is, we must understand the rules that determine the order in which the strokes of a character are written. For an explanation of these stroke order rules, please read the section titled Stroke Order Rules And Counting Strokes in this webpage. However, please remember these are just basic rules and are not to be taken as fixed. Furthermore, the character's structure itself will also have a large influence on the stroke order. You should also read the section titled The Relationship Between Character Structure and Stroke Order for an explanation of how a character's structure affects it's stroke order. In the case of the " de " character, we know that it is a Left-Right Structure (Compound-

Component Character Structure ) and the rules in the The Relationship Between Character Structure and Stroke Order section tell us that the left side of the character () is written first and the right side () is written last. Determining the first stroke of a character and a character's stroke order is not an exact science. It requires the student to be intimately familiar with Strokes , Character Structures and how strokes are combined to form Components (Radicals ). It requires the student to understand how components can be combined in various ways to form characters. There is just simply no easy way to reach a point of intimacy with Chinese characters other than writing repetition over a long period of time. However, there are resources that can make this task less daunting. One extremely helpful tool is called a Stroke Order Character Dictionary . 3. Stroke Order Character Dictionary : Although the information contained on this webpage is helpful to a student who wants to understand Chinese characters, honestly, it is an impossible task and an unrealistic expectation to think that one could study this content and then be able to write Chinese characters. To reach a comfort level with Chinese characters requires a combination of both continuous study and practice, especially at the beginning of one's study. It's true, there is a logic and set of rules behind Chinese characters, but this logic and these rules cannot be all at once digested and implemented. It takes a period of several years, and as a result of continuous practice, the student slowly absorbs information and gradually obtains a comprehension. I would like to recommend one very important tool that can make this process easier. This tool is called a Stroke Order Character Dictionary . There are several kinds of these dictionaries available and the one I recommend most is "Chinese Character Dictionary" by Cheng and Tsui. "Chinese Character Dictionary"

(For more information on this book, please refer to this web page Chinese Language Resources). Writing the strokes of a character This book is an invaluable tool because it shows in a very clear form the most important attributes of any given character. The book contains entries for the most commonly used Chinese characters. Characters can be quickly and easily looked up using an alphabetized index. Shown below is how the book defines the attributes for the " de " character. " de " character attributes:

Of the attributes displayed on this page, there are 6 which are most critical when writing characters. a. Stroke Count : This shows the total number of strokes contained in the character. In the above example, " de " has 8 strokes indicated as " 8 ", which tells us that 8 strokes must be written in order to completely write this character. b. Character Structure : This tells the reader which type of structure the character is. In the above example, " de " is a Compound Component Structure indicated as " ". c. Radical : This piece of information is not so critical to the writing of the character, but it does tell the reader that if the " de " character is to be looked up in a dictionary, it can be located using the (bai2) radical . For more information on how to look up characters in a dictionary, please click on this link. d. Character Structure : This shows the structure of the character. In this case, the " de " character is a Left-small Right-large structure ; the left part of the structure (marked as "1") is smaller than the right side of the structure (marked as "2") shown in the diagram below: character structure:

e. Completed Character: This shows what the character should look like after it has been completely written out. The character is located in a square similar to that of those in the exercise books (xiao3 kai3 ben3) discussed earlier and shows the reader the character's proportions. In the case of the " de " character, the bai2 component is written on the left and the shao2 component is written on the right as shown below: Completed " de " character:

f. Stroke Order : This part of the dictionary entry is perhaps the most important. It shows the reader how to write the character in it's entirety, starting from the first stroke and ending with the last stroke. It shows the character appearing in successive stages. In the case of the " de " character, because there are a total of 8 strokes in the character, there are thus 8 stages shown. Stroke order for the " de " character shown in 8 successive

stages:

The dictionary entry shows that the " de " character, moving from left to right should be written as follows in 8 stages: The left component should be written as: 1. first, write the top dian3 Dot stroke 2. second, write the left shu4 Vertical stroke 3. third, write the top heng2zhe2 Horizontal Bend stroke 4. fourth, write the center heng2 Horizontal stroke 5. last, write the bottom heng2 Horizontal stroke There are a total of 5 strokes in the component. The right component should be written as: 1. first, write the left-top pie3 Left-Falling stroke 2. second, write the right heng2zhe2gou1 Horizontal Bend Hook stroke 3. last, write the the dian3 Dot stroke There are a total of 3 strokes in the component. The total stroke count for the " de " character is 8. Summary: In the beginning, the practice of writing characters is extremely tedious and slow. However, there is no other alternative. The Stroke Order Character Dictionary can make the task easier; because for every character you want to practice, you can first look the character up in the dictionary to understand how to write it. If you persist in using the dictionary, you will slowly but surely understand Chinese characters, particulary their strokes, stroke order and structures. You should also frequently come back to this webpage to reread the information on it. By doing this, you will over time acquire a solid and overall comprehension of characters and their attributes, rules, relationships, etc. I also recommend continually using the Character Frequency Index . After you finish practicing one character, you can then go to the next character in the index and practice it. If you have fully read this section How To Write Chinese Characters to it's end, you know that we have learned how to write the " de " character. The next character in the frequency list after " de " is " yi1 ". Just as we did for the " de " character, you should follow the same process for the " yi1 " character. When practicing characters, you should write them in your (xiao3 kai3 ben3) exercise book. Each character should be written conscientiously and diligently. You should write the character about 20 times which is approximately two rows across the exercise book. If you would like a more exercise-oriented approach to learning and writing Chinese characters, I highly recommend a textbook/workbook often used in China to teach foreigners Chinese called "Easy Way To Learn Chinese Characters (han4zi4 su4cheng2 ke4ben3)". (For more information on this book, please refer to this web page Chinese Language Resources).

X. Conclusion :
It's my hope that the preceeding discussion has provided the reader some insight into the system and logic of Chinese characters. I would like to suggest one additional strategy as a way to serve and supplement your understanding. In addition to the Simplified Character system which we have studied here, an additional system exists which is called Traditional(complex) Characters . The traditional (complex) character system is rooted in ancient Chinese writing methodolgy and as a result, the traditional characters compared to the simplified characters are more numerous in strokes. Although more difficult to write, this actually has an advantage because their richer stroke-content provides the reader with more visual insight into the meaning of any given traditional character. Whereas on the otherhand, the simplified characters are more visually terse and brief, easier to write yet more difficult for the reader to visually gleen meaning. For comprehensive information about Traditional(complex) Characters , I recommend Rick Harbaugh's website: www.zhongwen.com. I would also like to recommend the following books pertaining to Chinese characters: 1. Easy Way To Learn Chinese Characters han4zi4 su4cheng2 ke4ben3 Published by Beijing Foreign Language University bei3jing1 yu3yan4 da4xue2 chu1ban3she4. This book teaches a beginner how to write characters. Very well organized. 2. Chinese Characters - By Rick Harbaugh This book is a dictionary and analysis of traditional characters, character component trees are provided as well as definitions of the components from an ancient Chinese perspective. 3. Learn To Write Chinese Characters - By Johan Bjorksten This book teaches the technique and aesthetics of how to write Chinese strokes and characters. 4. Chinese Character Dictionary - By Cheng and Tsui This book takes the most common characters and shows you how to write them, stroke-bystroke. Also includes structure diagrams, radicals and stroke count analysis for the discussed characters. *A very useful reference book that I find myself using almost everyday.* 5. Reading & Writing Chinese - By William NcNaughton and Li Ying Similar to Cheng and Tsui's but with a little more detail 6. Analysis Of Chinese Characters - By G.D. Wilder & J.H. Ingram Definitions of traditional and modern radicals and characters explained from an historical perspective. For more information on these books, please refer to this web page Chinese Language Resources. : All of the tables and charts used in this webpage 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Radical Index Character Look-up Index Dictionary Radical Index Stroke Count Character Look-up Index Difficult To Look-up Character Index Shape Radical Index Sound Radical Index

8. Character Frequency Index

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Three Chinese Pronunciation

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Three Chinese Pronunciation Notes

This chapter makes use of two MP3 sound files both of which are located in the file:

ChinesePronunciationMP3.zip:
This MP3 file is used in the Complete Syllables (initial+final) read left-to-right and sorted vertically by Initials (Consonants) section of the Chinese Pronunciation Chart located in this chapter.

ChinesePronounceVowels.mp3

As you are studying the Chinese Pronunciation Chart , you can listen to the and read along.

MP3 files

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

This MP3 file is used in the Finals (Vowels) section of the Chinese Pronunciation Chart located in this chapter.

ChinesePronouncePinyin.mp3

Standard-Chinese Pronunciation Chart: :

han4yu3 pu3tong1hua1 fa1yin1 biao3

The purpose of this webpage is to teach the student how to practice Chinese pronunciation. Please click here for information about how to download all of the information contained on this webpage. Table of Contents I. Chinese Pinyin 1. Syllables 2. Tones a. Tone Pronunciation Diagram b. Notes II. Table of Consonant (Initials) and Vowel (Finals) Bound Combinations in Standard Chinese Speech 1. Pronunciation Practice Tips 2. Chinese Pronunciation Chart III. How to download all of the Chinese Pronunciation files

I. Chinese Pinyin : The pronunciation of Chinese characters has been romanized into a phonetic system called Pinyin. For any given character, the pinyin will provide the reader two pieces of pronunciation information: 1. the syllable (yin1jie2) 2. the tone (sheng1diao4) For example, according to the dictionary, the pinyin for the character is "ba3". When looking at the pinyin for a character, in this case "ba3", we can divide the pinyin into it's respective syllable and tone by using the following rule: Rule: The alphabetic letters before the number is the syllable, the trailing number after the syllable is the tone (see note 3) Using the above rule, the syllable for is "ba" and the tone for is "3" 1. Syllables : A syllable is composed of two components: 1. the Initial (sheng1mu3), which can be roughly equated to the beginning (initial) consonant portion of the syllable 2. the Final (yun4mu3), which can be roughly equated to the ending (final) vowel portion of the syllable In the case of ba3, the initial is "b" because it is the consonant of the syllable and the final is "a" because it is the vowel of the syllable. In Chinese, there are approximately 25 initials and 35 finals which when combined together gives a possible 900 total syllables. The... Table of Consonant (Initials) and Vowel (Finals) Bound Combinations in Standard Chinese Speech in this web page allows you to practice pronunciation for all of the Chinese syllables. 2. Tones : There are 5 pronunciation tones in the Chinese language. What this means is that for any given character's syllable, the tone that will be attached to the end of the syllable will have one of five possible tones (see note 1). The 5 tones are explained below and shown visually in a graph: 1. The First Tone (di4yi1sheng1) is spoken with a high and level pitch. It is spoken in the speaker's upper voice range. In the below diagram, it is indicated by the red line. 2. The Second Tone (di4er4sheng1) is spoken with a rising pitch. It starts at the speaker's mid-range voice and then rises to the upper range. In the diagram below, it is indicated by the green line. 3. The Third Tone (di4san1sheng1) is spoken with a dipping pitch. It starts below the speaker's mid-range, dips down to the low-range and then rises to above the mid-range. In the diagram below, it is indicated by the blue line. 4. The Fourth Tone (di4si4sheng1) is spoken with a falling pitch. It starts near the speaker's upper-range and then falls rapidly. In the diagram below, it is indicated by the purple line. 5. The Fifth Tone (qing1sheng4) is spoken with a neutral tone. It is unstressed and is spoken with a light and lax middle pitch. The following graph illustrates the vocal quality/direction of each tone: The colored lines indicate the direction of the voice for each of the respective tones. The numeric scale on the right of the diagram indicates voice-range with 5 indicating the upper-pitch of the voice

and 1 indicating the lower-pitch of the voice. a. Tone Pronunciation Diagram:

The following examples will clarify how to use tones when pronouncing syllables. Click on the links for each of the examples to hear the teacher's pronunciation. As you listen to the pronunciation, notice how the vocal direction of each tone conforms to the visual direction of the tone depicted in the above Tone Pronunciation Diagram. 1. First Tone Example: ba1 (di4yi1sheng1). 2. Second Tone Example: ba2 Tone (di4er4sheng1). 3. Third Tone Example: ba3 (di4san1sheng1). 4. Fourth Tone Example: ba4 Fourth Tone (di4si4sheng1). 5. Fifth Tone Example: ba (qing1sheng1) (see note 2.) b. Notes: 1. Sometimes one character can have multiple tones and/or multiple syllables, depending on how it is defined. For example, if you look-up the character in a dictionary, you will find that it has 2 possible tonal pronunciations: gan1 and gan4. If you look up the character in the dictionary, you will find that it has 2 possible syllables: zhang (pronounced in the third tone and chang pronounced in the second tone). Characters possessing multiple tones and syllables is quite normal and is one of the characteristics of the language. 2. When a character is pronounced in the Fifth Tone, the tone number will not be indicated after the syllable. For example, there is no number after the syllable for ba, so this tells the reader to pronounce the character using Fifth Tone (qing1sheng1). 3. All of the web pages and documents on this website use the syllable+tone number method of phonetic pinyin to convey Chinese character pronunciation. However, an alternative way to notate the tone for a syllable is by placing a symbol over the vowel in the syllable. When looking at documents that contain pinyin, you're also likely to see the following convention used: - The syllable for the character is ba (initial is "b", final is "a") and is pronounced in the

- The syllable for the character is ba (initial is "b", final is "a") and is pronounced in the Second

- The syllable for the character is ba (initial is "b", final is "a") and is pronounced in the Third Tone

- The syllable for the character is ba (initial is "b", final is "a") and is pronounced in the

- The syllable for the character is ba (initial is "b", final is "a") and is pronounced in the Fifth Tone

This form of notation tells the reader: the horizontal dash indicates First Tone, the rising left-to-right mark indicates Second Tone, the inverted carot mark indicates Third Tone, the falling left-to-right mark indicates Fourth Tone. The final ba contains no mark over it, so it should be read in the Fifth Tone. II. Table of Consonant (Initials) and Vowel (Finals) Bound Combinations in : Standard Chinese Speech The pronunciation chart below contains all of the syllables in the Chinese language. The Finals (vowels) are listed across the top of the chart and the Initials (consonants) are listed vertically along the left-hand side of chart. Please note that for purposes of conserving space on this web page, all of the pinyin pronunciation recordings are read in the First Tone (di4yi1sheng1). If you wish to pronounce any of the pinyin using 2nd - 5th tone, then you must change the pronunciation of your own voice according to the tone you wish to pronounce. For example: If you wish to pronounce ba1 :

...in the Second Tone (di4er4sheng1), then you must change your pronunciation to the second tone: ba2 ...in the Third Tone (di4san1sheng1), then you must change your pronunciation to the third tone: ba3 ...in Fourth Tone (di4si4sheng1), then you must change your pronunciation to the fourth tone: ba4 ...in Fifth Tone (qing1sheng1), then you must change your pronunciation to the fifth tone: ba 1. Pronunciation Practice Tips:

When practicing pronunciation, first focus on getting the pronunciation of the individual Finals clear and precise. Then, add the Initial to the front of the Final to create and pronounce the complete syllables. You should practice the syllables until they are spoken clearly and with precision. Last, add the 5 Tones to each of the syllables; practice every one of the syllables using each of the 5 respective tones. For example: 1. first practice the Final "a-" 2. second, add the Initial "b" to the front of the Final "a-" to create the syllable "ba". 3. last, practice the syllable "ba" in sequence using all five tones: a. ba1 b. ba2 c. ba3 d. ba4 e. ba You can alternate through all of the Finals and Initials in the Chinese Pronunciation Chart below, and by alternating Tones , use this practice method to practice pronunciation for all of the syllables in the Chinese language. I also recommend downloading all of the pronunciation files and putting them on your MP3 player. In this way you can conveniently practice pronunciation wherever you happen to be.

2. Chinese Pronunciation Chart : Select and then click on any of the links below to hear the teacher pronounce the pinyin. Note: all of pronounciations are in the First Tone. Finals (Vowels) ao

-i

er

ai

ei

ao

ou

an

en

ang

eng

-ong

-i

-ia

-iao

-ie

-iu

-ian

-in

-iang

-ing

-iong

-u

-ua

-uo

-uai

-ui

-uan

-un

-uang

-e

-an

-n

Complete Syllables (initial+final) read left-to-right and sorted vertically by Initials (Consonants) : -: a o e b: ba bo p: pa po m: ma mo me f: fa fo d: da de t: ta te n: na ne l: la le z: za ze c: ca ce s: sa se zh: zha zhe ch: cha che sh: sha she r: re j: q: x: g: ga ge k: ka ke h: ha he y: ya ye w1: wa wo w2: wva wo
Notes: w1: w2:

er

ai bai pai mai dai tai nai lai zai cai sai zhai chai shai

ei bei pei mei fei dei nei lei zei

ao bao pao mao dao tao nao lao zao cao sao zhao chao shao rao

ou pou mou fou dou tou nou lou zou cou sou zhou chou shou rou

zi ci si zhi chi shi ri

zhei shei

an ban pan man fan dan tan nan lan zan can san zhan chan shan ran

en ben pen men fen den nen zen cen sen zhen chen shen ren

ang bang pang mang fang dang tang nang lang zang cang sang zhang chang shang rang

eng beng peng meng feng deng teng neng leng zeng ceng seng zheng cheng sheng reng

bi pi mi dong tong nong long zong cong song zhong chong rong ji qi xi jia qia xia di ti ni li

biao piao miao diao tiao niao liao

bie pie mie die tie nie lie

miu diu niu liu

bian pian mian dian tian nian lian

bin pin min

bing ping ming ding ting ning ling

lia

nin lin

niang liang

bu pu mu fu du tu nu lu zu cu su zhu chu shu ru jiong qiong xiong gu ku hu

zhua chua shua rua

duo tuo nuo luo zuo cuo suo zhuo chuo shuo ruo

dui tui

zhuai chuai shuai

zui cui sui zhui chui shui rui

duan tuan nuan luan zuan cuan suan zhuan chuan shuan ruan

dun tun lun zun cun sun zhun chun shun run n l ne le

zhuang chuang shuang ju qu xu jue que xue juan quan xuan jun qun xun

jiao qiao xiao

jie qie xie

jiu qiu xiu

jian qian xian

jin qin xin

jiang qiang xiang

jing qing xing

gai kai hai wai wvai

gei kei hei wei wvei

gao kao hao yao

gou kou hou you

gan kan han yan wan wan

gen ken hen wen wven

gang kang hang yang wang wang

geng keng heng weng wveng

gong kong hong yong

gua kua hua

guo kuo huo

guai kuai huai

gui kui hui

guan kuan huan

gun kun hun

guang kuang huang yu yue yuan yun

yi

yin

ying wu wu

III. How to download all of the Chinese Pronunciation files If you would like to listen to or download the pronunciation chart MP3 file, please click on this link. If you would like to download this webpage as well as all of the pronunciation chart's individual accompanying MP3 files, please go to the Downloads webpage. MP3 MP3

Use this pronunciation when reading text out loud This pronunciation is sometimes used when speaking (not reading text out loud)

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Four Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide Table of Contents

Introduction ........................................... 2 Pronouns ................................................ 4 Nouns .................................................. 11 Numbers ................................................ 19 Common Measure Words ............................... 20 Verbs .................................................. 27 Adverbs ................................................ 36 Adjectives ........................................... 43 Prepositions ........................................... 49 Conjunctions ......................................... 51 Particles and Auxiliary Words .......................... 55 Grammatical Terms ................................... 61


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Introduction :
The subject of how to introduce a languages grammar and vocabulary is always a point of argument among people. I have personally found that acquiring an understanding of the basic structural components of a languages grammar and being familiar with some basic vocabulary, provides a person with the skills needed to then later individually study the language in greater depth. To take this point further, I believe the components of the language that both students and nativespeakers most heavily rely on during day-to-day activity, whether its consciously realized or not, are those structural grammar components which are least likely to have contextual meaning variations (are static in meaning), while at the same time are most often repeated in speech or in text. In the Chinese language, these components are as follows: pronouns, common nouns, numbers, measure words, common verbs, adverbs, common adjectives, prepositions, conjunctions and particle auxiliary words. Acquiring a good understanding of the languages static components will provide a person with a sound structural framework with which to speak and read the language. In everyday life, the components of the language which are most likely to change or appear to be new to the student are the speech/text contextdependent verbs, nouns and adjectives. The student can rely on their already acquired structural framework of the language to parse-out and distinguish these unrecognized components, and then use resources such as dictionaries or via inquiring to others to discover the meaning of unknown words. Most of the grammar and vocabulary found below is of a introductory nature and is usually introduced to first-year Chinese language students (intermediate/advanced material is notated appropriately). Instead of explaining grammar from the point of academic rules, I have chosen to explain it from the point of real-life examples. The real-life examples are more easily grasped by the student than are grammar rules. If in the future, a student wishes to study the academic points of grammar, the basic grammar structure introduced below will give them the foundation theyll need to pursue that study. Since Chinese is a highly context-sensitive language, I urge you to rely less on rules of grammar and instead use your ears and your eyes to gleen meaning from what others say or from what you read. The more you rely on rules of grammar, the more often you will become frustrated when you find the rules are too often broken or not strictly adhered to in real-life. Consider grammar rules to be just a rough starting point, and not at all a final conclusion. In the end, the meaning of any language is in every persons mind, spirit, and feeling which when attempted to analyze, will always falls short of capturing the messages true meaning and essence. I hope that this introduction to Chinese will encourage and inspire you to further explore the depths of this very rich language. Chinese Once you have finished reading and studying this document ( Grammar and Vocabulary Guide), go to the Chinese Lessons webpage http://www.marchollingsworth.net/Folders/Webpages/ChineseLessonsEC.html of this website to see how this vocabulary is used in a real-life context. In that section you can download MP3 files of actual Chinese conversations and accompanying transcribed PDF documents. You can also download songs from that webpage which will give you an even deeper impression of the language. I also recommend the han4yu3 jiao4cheng2 di4yi2 ce4 Chinese General Comprehensive course, first volume textbook described on webpage http://www.marchollingsworth.net/Folders/Webpages/ChineseLanguageResourcesEC.html of this website as a good place to begin a study of basic Chinese grammar. This textbook is used in the first-year Chinese language courses in China to teach Chinese to non-native speakers.

This webpage is contained in website: www.marchollingsworth.net


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

If you have any questions about the pronunciation of the Chinese words contained in this document, you can go to the Chinese Pronunciation webpage http://www.marchollingsworth.net/Folders/Webpages/ChinesePronunciationChartEC.html of this website for further guidance and direction. If you have any questions about the content of this document, please email me:
http://www.marchollingsworth.net/Folders/Webpages/contactEC.html.

The examples supplied in this guide are arranged alphabetically by pinyin and structured as follows:

example sentence pinyin for above characters direct English translation native English translation

-> -> wo3 mei2you3 bie2de wen4ti2 -> I not have other questions -> I dont have any more questions (ie. to ask you)

In addition the following abbreviations are used: m.w. indicates a measure word part. indicates a particle [ ] - brackets mean the surrounded text is optional

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vocabulary word, pinyin, English definition ->

bie2de other


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Pronouns :
A pronoun is a substitute for a noun and is a word which represents a person, place or object.
bie2de other

wo3 mei2you3 bie2de wen4ti3 not have other questions

I dont have any more questions (ie. to ask you). ci3 this (advanced) da4jia1 everybody

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da4jia1 dou1 xi3huan1 ni3 everybody all likes you

Everyone likes you. di4fang place

na4ge di4fang zai4 na3r that m.w. place at where

Where is that place? duo1shao how much, how many

zhe4ge duo1shao qian2 this m.w. how much money

How much does this cost? gai1 - it, this, that, the above mentioned (advanced) hou4zhe3 the latter

(advanced) ji3 several, used when the amount is relatively small ie. less than 10

you3 ji3 ge4 have how many m.w.

How many are there?


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

mei3 every

na4 that

na4 shi4 shei2 that is who

Who is that? na3ge which

Which thing is it? (Of these objects, which one is it?) na4ge that one, that

That thing (Of these objects, its that one) na3r where

Where is he? na4r there

Where are you now?

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na3ge dong1xi which m.w. thing na4ge dong1xi that m.w. thing ta1 zai4 na3r he at where ta1 zai4 na4r He at there

wo3 mei3tian1 dou1 qu4 I every day all go

Everyday I go (there).

Hes there. na3li where

ni3 xian4zai4 zai4 na3li you now at where


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

na4li there

Where are you from? ni3men you (plural)

nin2 you (polite)

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wo3 zai4 na4li I at there

Im there. na4me like that, in that way, so

na4me yuan3 so far

Its so far. na4xie1 those

na4xie1 hua1 hen3 piao4liang those flower very pretty

Those flowers are pretty. na4yang4 that way (method)

ni3 na4yang4 zuo4 bu4xing2 you that way do not good

Its not good (for you) to do it that way. ni3 you

ni3 hao3 you good

Hello.

ni3 lai2zi4 na3li You come from where

ni3men yao4 qu4 ma you want go question-part.

Do you all want to go?

xian1sheng1 nin2 hao3 sir you good

Hello sir.


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

(advanced) qi2zhong1 among, among which, thereinto, of which

(advanced) qian2zhe3 the former (previous)

(advanced)

shei2 - who

ta1 shi4 shei2 he is who

Who is he? shen2me what

zhe4 shi4 shen2me this is what

What is this? shen2me shi2hou when

wo3men shen2me shi2hou dao4 bei3jing1 we what time arrive beijing

When will we arrive in Beijing? ta1 he, him

ta1 shi4 wo3de peng2you he is my friend

Hes my friend. ta1 she, her

ta1 shi4 wo3de peng2you she is my friend

Shes my friend. ta1 it (gender neutral)

ta1 shi4 wo3de gou3 It is my dog

Its my dog.

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qi2 - refers to somebody or sth mentioned earlier, "that" , similar to


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

wo3 I, me

ta1men they

ta1men dou1 shi4 wo3de tong2xue2 They all are my classmates

Theyre all my classmates. wei4shen2me why

ni3 wei4shen2me xiang3 qu4 kan4 ta1 you why want go see him

Why do you want to go see him?

We all want to go see him. xie1 some

What should we do? (how should we handle this situation?)

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wo3 shi4 ma3ke4 I is Marc

Im Marc. wo3men us

wo3men dou1 xiang3 qu4 kan4 ta1 We all want go see him

yi4xie1 ren2 some person

some people zen3me how

wo3men zen3me qu4 We how go

How should we go? (ie. by what transportation method)

zen3me ban4 ne how handle part.

bu4 zen3me nan2 not how difficult

not so difficult


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

zen3meyang4 how about sth, making a suggestion

We all want to go see him.

zan2men dou1 xiang3 qu4 kan4 ta1 We all want go see him

We all want to go see him. zhe4 this

zhe4 shi4 wo3de jia1 This is my home

This is my home. zhe4ge this one, this

jiu4 shi4 zhe4ge just is this one m.w.

Its just/exactly this one. (pointing out an item) zhe4r here

ta1 zai4 zhe4r He at here

Hes here. zhe4li here

wo3 zhan4 zai4 zhe4li I stand at here

Im standing here. zhe4xie1 these

zhe4xie1 hua1 hen3 piao4liang these flower very pretty

These flowers are pretty.

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zuo4 che1 qu4 zen3meyang4 go by car go how about

How about [if] we go by car?

wo3men dou1 xiang3 qu4 kan4 ta1 We all want go see him

zan2men us, similar to

wo3men


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

10

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

zhe4yang4 this way (method)

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(advanced)
ni3 zi4ji3 zuo4 ba you yourself do part.

ni3 zhe4yang4 zuo4 hen3 hao3 you that way do very good

The way you did it is good. zhi1 - refers to a previously stated thing or idea (carries it forward)

zi4ji3 oneself

[You] do it yourself. (used

ba, so is a suggestion)


han4yu3 yu3fa3 yu3 ci2hui4 de gong1ju4shu1

11

Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Nouns :
A noun is a word which represents a person, place or object.
ban4 half

(advanced) dong1xi thing

zhe4ge dong1xi hen3 gui4 this m.w. thing very expensive

This thing is expensive.

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front side

zhe4 bian1r this side

yi2ge4 ban4 yue4 one m.w. half month

one and a half months bian1r side (direction)

this side

na4 bian1r that side

that side

qian2 bian1r front side

hou4 bian1r rear side

rear (behind) side

zuo3 bian1r left side

left side

you4 bian1r right side

right side ci3hou4 henceforth, thereafter


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

gan3jue2 a feeling

hou4 - behind

This year Ill go to Beijing. jin1tian1 today

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hai2 child

zhe4 shi4 wo3de gan3jue2 this is my feeling

This is my feeling. (about something)

zhe4 zhong3 gan3jue2 this kind feeling

this kind of feeling gang1cai2 just now

ni3 gang1cai2 shuo1 de you just now said part.

what you just now said

ta1 shi4 wo3de hai2zi he is my child

He is my child.

ta1 zai4 wo3 hou4bian1r he at my behind

Hes behind me. hou4lai2 afterwards (already happened)

hou4lai2 wo3 bu4 xiang3 qu4 kan4 ta1 afterwards I not want go see him

Afterwards, I didnt want to see him. jin1nian2 this year

wo3 jin1nian2 yao4 qu4 bei3jing1 I this year will go Beijing

wo3 jin1tian1 yao4 qu4 kan4 ta1 I today will go see him

Ill go see him today.


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

li3 inside

What is that inside of that box? mian4 face of sth (side)

Whats inside of it? (an object)

Whats your name? nan2 man

nian2 year

nian2 year

March 5th, 2007

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2007

li3mian4 you3 shen2me inside have what

na4ge xiang1zi li3 shi4 shen2me that m.w. box inside is what

shang4mian4 above face

above

xia4mian4 below face

below ming2nian2 next year

wo3 ming2nian2 yao4 qu4 bei3jing1 I next year will go Beijing

Next year Ill go to Beijing. ming2zi - name

ni3 jiao4 shen2me ming2zi you call what name

ta1 shi4 nan2 de he is man part.

Hes a man.

yue4 ri4 month day


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

nv3 woman

ta1 shi4 nv3 de she is woman

qian2 front, before

three days ago qu4nian2 last year

I saw him last year. ren2 person

every person ru2jin1 - nowadays, these days

shi4 a matter, affair

this matter shi2hou during a time

chi1fan4 de shi2hou eat food part. during

when eatting

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Shes a woman. nv3shi4 madame (polite form for woman)

san1 wei4 nv3shi4 three m.w. woman

three women (ladies)

san1 tian1 qian2 three days before

wo3 qu4nian2 kan4 guo4 ta1 I last year saw past him

mei3ge4 ren2 every m.w. person

(advanced)

zhe4 jian4 shi4 this m.w. matter


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

tian1 day

shi2jian1 time

ni3 xian4zai4 you3 shi2jian1 ma you now have time part.

Do you have time now?

Do you have time now? xing1qi1 week

What day (of the week) is it today?

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yi2ge4 xiao3shi2 one m.w. hour

wo3 mei3tian1 dou1 qu4 I every day all go.

Everyday I go (there). wen4ti2 a question, problem

wo3 xiang3 wen4 ni3 yi2ge4 wen4ti2 I want ask you a m.w. question

I want to ask you a question.

wo3 you3 yi2ge4 wen4ti2 I have a m.w. question

I have a question. xiao3shi2 an hour

one hour xian1sheng1 sir (polite form for man)

san1 wei4 xian1sheng1 three m.w. gentleman

three gentlemen xian4zai4 - now

ni xian4zai4 you3 shi2jian1 ma you now have time part.

jin1tian1 xing1qi1 ji3 today week which one


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

xing1qi1 yi1 Monday

Ill go see him on Monday. xing1qi1 er4 - Tuesday xing1qi1 san1 - Wednesday xing1qi1 si4 - Thursday xing1qi1 wu3 - Friday xing1qi1 liu6 - Saturday xing1qi1 tian1 Sunday

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yi3hou4 - after yi3qian2 before

jin1tian1 xing1qi1 yi1 today week one

Today is Monday.

wo3 xing1qi1 yi1 yao4 qu4 kan4 ta1 I Monday will go see him

wo3 chi1fan4 yi3hou4 yao4 qu4 kan4 ta1 I eat food after will go see him

After I eat Ill go see him.

yi3qian2 wo3 mei2you3 zhe4 zhong3 gan3jue2 before I have not this kind feeling

In the past, I havent had this kind of feeling. yi3shang4 the above mentioned

(advanced) yi3wang3 - former,formerly

(advanced) yi3xia4 - the below mentioned

(advanced) yi4shi2 - for a period of time

(advanced)


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

yi4si meaning

(advanced) zhi1hou2 - (the time) after (a situation happened)

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yue4 month

zhe4 shi4 shen2me yi4si this is what meaning

What does this mean?

wo3 zhe4ge4 yue4 yao4 qu4 kan4 ta1 I this m.w. month will go see him

Ill go see him this month.

wo3 yi1 yue4 yao4 qu4 kan4 ta1 I January will go see him

In January Ill go see him yi1yue4 January er4yue4 February san1yue4 March si4yue4 April wu3yue4 May liu4yue4 June qi1yue4 July ba1yue4 August jiu3yue4 September shi2yue3 October shi2yi1yue4 November shi2er4yue4 December

zhi1qian2 - (the time) before (a situation happened)

(advanced) zhong1jian1 middle

zuo4 zai4 ta1men liang3ge4 zhong1jian1 sit at them two m.w. center

sitting between (in the middle) those two (people) zui4jin4 recently

wo3 zui4jin4 jue2de wo3 bu4 xiang3 qu4 kan4 ta1 I recently feel I not want go see him

Recently I feel I dont want to go see him.


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

zuo2tian1 yesterday

wo3 zuo2tian1 qu4 kan4 ta1 I yesterday go see him

Yesterday I went to see him.

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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Numbers :
Numbers are words which represent a count or quantity of something.
ling2 zero

wan4 10,000,

liang3wan4 20,000,

shi2wan4 - 100,000

bai3wan4 - 1,000,000 yi2yi4 - 100,000,000

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qian1 1,000,

liang3qian1 2,000,

bai3 100,

liang3bai3 200,

jiu3bai3 - 900 jiu3qian1 9,000 jiu3wan4 90,000

er4shi2 20 , san1shi2 - 30, 70, ba1shi2 80, jiu3shi2 - 90

shi2yi4 11,

shi2jiu4 - 19 si4shi2 40, wu3shi2 50, liu4shi2 60, qi1shi2

yi1 one, er2 two, nine, shi2 10

si4 four,

wu3 five,

liu6 six,

qi1 seven,

ba1 eight,

jiu3


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Common Measure Words :
In Chinese, a number cannot quantify (be next to) a noun by itself, it must be accompanied by the measure word that is appropriate for the noun being used. Measure words can be seen as a way to divide up nouns into categories based on the nouns nature and physical characteristics. Measure words are abbreviated in the examples below as m.w. or m. word.
ba3 for chairs, tools, umbrellas, other things that can be held

ben3 for books

bian4 times

ci4 for times

ge4 a generic measure word that can be used for objects that dont have their own measure word

dian3 for suggestions, opinions, ideas, etc

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san1 ba3 yi3zi three m.w. chair

three chairs

san1 ben3 shu1 three m.w. book

three books

na4 ben3 shu1 wo3 kan4 le liang3 bian4 that m.w. book I read part. two times

Ive read that book two times.

san1 ci4 kao3shi4 three m.w. test

to test three times, the three times that one has taken a test

ta1 lai2 le san1 ci4 he come part. three m.w.

Hes come three times.

san1 ge4 dong1xi three m.w. thing

three things

san1 dian3 jian4yi4 three m.w. suggestion

three suggestions


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

What would you like to drink?

This is a little small. duan4 for time, sections

fen4 for newspapers

feng1 for letters

fu4 for paintings

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[ ] [

wo3 you3 yi4 dian3r leng3 I have a little cold

Im a little cold. [ ] [ ]

zhe4ge you3 yi4 dian3r xiao3 This m.w. have a little small

na4 yi2duan4 shi2jian1 that one m.w. time

that period of time

na4 yi2duan4 gong1lu4 that one m.w. highway

that section of highway

san1 fen4 bao4zhi3 three m.w. newspaper

three newspapers

san1 feng1 xin4 three m.w. letter

three letters

san1 fu4 hua4 three m.w. painting

three paintings

dian3 used to emphasize something unpleasant,

ni3 he1 yi4 dian3r you drink a little shen2me what

[ ] [

yi4 and

dian3 used to emphasize a little of something,

yi4 and

er2 are both optional

er2 are both optional


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

gen1 for long thing objects

jia1 for businesses

jian4 for clothes, gifts, matters

jie2 class periods, sections

ke4 for trees, plants

ke1 for small round things

kou3 for the number of people in a family or village

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san1 gen1 zhen1 three m.w. needle

three needles

san1 jia1 yin2hang2 three m.w. bank

three banks

san1 jian4 yi1fu three m.w. clothes

three pieces of clothing

san1 jian4 shi4 three m.w. matter

three matters (ie. for discussion)

liang3 jie2 ke4 two m.w. class

two class periods

san1 ke4 shu4 three m.w. tree

three trees

san1 ke1 dou4zi three m.w. bean

three beans

san1 kou3 ren2 three m.w. person

three people


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

kuai4 for things in chunks or solid pieces

liang4 automobiles

three cars men2 for classes

ming2 persons with professional or prominent social identities

pai2 for things in rows

pi2 for horses

pian1 for articles, papers

pian4 for slices and thin things

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san1 kuai4 shi2tou three m.w. rock

three rocks

san1 liang4 che1 three m.w. car

san1 men2 ke4 three m.w. class

three classes

san1 ming2 yi1sheng1 three m.w. doctor

three doctors

san1 pai2 zuo4wei4 three m.w. seat

three rows of seats

san1 pi2 mai three m.w. horse

three horses

san1 pian1 wen2zhang1 three m.w. article

three articles

san1 pian4 mian4bao1 three m.w. bread

three slices of bread


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

qun2 a group, crowd or flock

sheng1 for cries, shouts, utterances

shou3 for songs, poems, music

three songs shuang1 a pair

suo3 for buildings, houses, schools

tai2 for machines, equipment

tang4 for trips made, journeys, visits

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yi4qun2 niao3 one m.w. bird

san1 pian4 yao4pian4 three m.w. medicine tablet

three tablets of medicine

a flock of birds

ta1 han3 le wo3 liang3 sheng1 he call part. I two m.w.

He called me two times (twice).

san1 shou3 ge1 three m.w. song

san1 shuang1 xie2 three m.w. shoe

three pairs of shoes

san1 suo3 xue2xiao4 three m.w. school

three schools

san1 tai2 dian4shi4 three m.w. television

three televisions

shang4ge yue4 wo3 qu4 le san1 tang4 bei3jing1 last month I go part. three m.w. beijing

Last month I made three trips to Beijing.


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

tao4 for apartments, sets, suites of things

tiao2 for long, narrow things ie. pants, streets, information, human lives

wei4 polite measure word for people

xia4 for brief actions

zhang1 for flat things paper, tables, maps

zhen4 for wind, rain, etc

yi4 zhen1 feng1 one m.w. wind

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san1 tao2 fang2zi three m.w. apartment

three apartments

san1 tao4 ke4ben3 three m.w. book

three sets of books

san1 tiao2 ku4zi three m.w. pants

three pairs of pants

san1 wei4 xian1sheng1 three m.w. gentleman

three gentlemen

san1 wei4 nv3shi4 three m.w. woman

three ladies

wo3 qiao4 le san1 xia4 men2 I knock part. three m.w. door

I knocked three times at the door.

ta1 dian3 le ji3 xia4 tou2 he knodded his head several times

He knodded his head several times.

san1 zhang1 zhou1zi three m.w. table

three tables

a gust of wind


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

zhi1 for stick-like things, music

zhi1 for animals

zhang1 for thin flat items ie. paper, photo

zhi1 for pencils, pens, etc

zhong3 kind, can be used with most any noun

zuo4 for mountains, buildings, structures, bridges

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san1 zhi1 la4zhu2 three m.w. candle

three candles

san1 zhi1 ji1 three m.w. chicken

three chickens

san1 zhang1 zhi3 three m.w. paper

three pieces of paper

san1 zhi1 bi3 three m.w. pen

three pens

san1 zhong3 ci2dian3 three m.w. dictionary

three kinds of dictionaries

san1 zuo4 shan1 three m.w. mountains

three mountains


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Verbs :
A verb is a word which expresses action or occurrence.
ai4 to love

ba3 to hold

Take the translated and original document and briefly compare them. ban4 handle

ta1 hui4 ban4 shi4 he knows handle matter

(advanced)

bu2gu4- in spite of

(advanced) bu4guan3 regardless of

bu4guan3 ta1 regardless him

Dont pay him any mind. bu4ran2 - otherwise, (or) else

(advanced) bu2zai4hu not care

wo3 bu2zai4hu I dont at care

I dont care.

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bei4 noun+

wo3 ai4 ni3 I love you

I love you.

ba3 yi4wen2 he2 yuan2wen2 bi3jiao4 yi2xia4 hold translated document and original document compare brief

He knows how to handle things (matters). bei4+verb, the noun is the receiver of the verbs action, the nouns state changes


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

chi1 to eat

chi1fan4 de shi2hou eat food part. during

when eatting da3 to hit, dial

dai4 to bring

dang1 to serve as

dao4 arrive, reach

When will we arrive in Beijing? deng3 to wait

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He makes a phone call.

ta1 da3 le wo3 he hit part. me

He hit me.

ta1 da3 ge4 dian4hua4 he dial m.w. phone

ta1 mei2 dai4 qian2 he have not bring money

He didnt bring any money (with him).

ta1 dang1 lao3shi1 he serve teacher

Hes a teacher.

wo3men shen2me shi2hou dao4 bei3jing1 we what time arrive beijing

wo3 deng3 ni3 I wait you

Ill wait for you. deng3tong2 to equate

(advanced)


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

dong3 to understand

du2 to read

fang4 put

gei3 give

guo4 to spend (time passed)

guan1 - close

he1 - drink

What would you like to drink?

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guan1men2 close door

ni3 dong3 ma you understand part.

Do you understand?

ni3 du2 guo4 zhe4 ben3 shu1 ma you read have this m.w. book part.

Have you read this book? fa1sheng1 to happen

shen2me shi2hou fa1sheng1 what time happen

When did it happen?

fang4 zai4 na4r put at there

Put it there.

zhe4 ben3 shu1 wo3 gei3 ni3 this m.w. book I give you

Ill give this book to you.

guo4 yi2ge4 xing1qi1 jiu4 ke3yi3 le spend one m.w. week just can part.

After a weeks time it will be allright (the problem will be resolved)

Close the door.

ni3 he1 dian3r shen2me you drink a little what


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

hen4 to hate

huan2 to return sth to someone (ie. You borrowed)

hui2 return

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When did he come back? hui4 have studied sth so now can do it

ji2 namely (advanced) jian4 - meet

wo3 hen4 ni3 I hate you

I hate you.

wo3 huan2gei3 ni3 shu1 I return give you book

Ill return the book to you.

ta1 hui2 jia1 he return home

He went home. hui2lai2 to come back

ta1 shen2me shi2hou hui2lai2 Ihe what time return come

ta1 hui4 shuo1 zhong1wen2 he can speak chinese

He can (knows how to) speak Chinese.

ni3 jian4dao4 ta1 le mei2you3 you meet complete he part. have not

Have you met him? jie4shao4

wo3 gei3 ni3 jie4shao4 I give you introduction

Ill give you an introduction (to someone or something).


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

kai1 open kan4 see

jue2de to feel or think

wo3 zui4jin4 jue2de wo3 bu4 xiang3 qu4 kan4 ta1 I recently feel I not want go see him

Recently I feel I dont want to go see him.

Where are you from? ling4 - to cause (advanced)

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lai2 come

kai1men2 open door

Open the door.

wo3 kan4 ni3 I see you

I see you. ke3yi3 can, may, passable

ni3 ke3yi3 zou3 le You can leave

You can leave now.

hai2 ke3yi3 relatively passable

Its ok, not bad.

ta1 lai2 le san1 ci4 he come part. three m.w.

Hes come two times. lai2zi4 to come from a place

ni3 shi4 lai2zi4 na3li you is come from where


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

na2 to take or hold sth

neng2 can

qing3 please

qu4 go

rang4 to ask, let

rang3 to cause (advanced) ren4shi to know somebody or something

ru2 similar to (advanced)

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wo3 na2 gei3 ni3 I take give you

Ill give (this thing) to you.

ni3 ming2tian1 neng2 qu4 ma you tomorrow can go part.

Can you go tomorrow?

qing3 wen4, zhe4ge di4fang zai4 na3li please ask, this m.w. place at where.

May I ask (please), where is this place?

ni3 ming2tian1 neng2 qu4 ma you tomorrow can go part.

Can you go tomorrow?

rang1 wo3 xiang3 yi4 xiang3 let me think one think.

Let me think about it.

ni3 ren4shi ta1 ma you know him part..

Do you know him?

ni3 ren4shi zhe4ge zi4 ma you know this m.w. character part..

Do you know this character?


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

shi3 - to cause (advanced) shi4 is

Who is he? shi4bu2shi4 - is it or isn't it

(advanced)

shi4 to try

shuo1 speak

What did he say? ting1 to listen

wei2 to mean or to serve as (advanced) wen4 - ask

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ta1 shi4 shei2 he is who ni3 shi4 guo4 le mei2you3 you try before part. have not

Have you tried it before?

ni3 shi4 yi2xia4 you try brief

You can try it.

ta1 shuo1 shen2me he say what

ta1 xi3huan1 ting1 yin1yue4 he like listen music

He likes to listen to music. tong2shi2 - at the same time

(advanced)

wo3 xiang3 wen4 ni3 yi2ge4 wen4ti2 I want ask you a m.w. question

I want to ask you a question.


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

xiang3 think, want

What do you want to eat? xi3huan1 to like

This year Ill go to Beijing. ying1gai1 should

you3 to have

Do you have time now? yi3 to use (advanced)

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wo3 xi3huan1 ni3 I like you

xie3 to write

yao4 will, want to

I like you. (advanced)

ni3 xiang3 chi1 shen2me you want eat what

ta1 xi3huan1 ting1 yin1yue4 he like listen music

He likes to listen to music.

xi1wang4 to hope

ta1 xi1wang4 dang1 yi1sheng1 he hope become doctor

He hopes to become a doctor.

wo3 gei3 ni3 xie3 xin4 I give you write letter

Ill write a letter to you.

wo3 jin1nian2 yao4 qu4 bei3jing1 I this year will go Beijing

ni xian4zai4 you3 shi2jian1 ma you now have time part.


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

yu3 the process of a movement, to give, with, and (advanced)

zou3 walk

zuo4 to do

zuo4 to sit

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wo3 zhan4 zai4 zhe4li I stand at here

zhan4 - stand

Im standing here. zhi1dao4 to know

wo3 bu4 zhi1dao4 zhe4 jian4 shi4 I not know this m.w. matter

I dont now about this matter.

ni3 zhi1dao4 ma You know part.

Do you know (about this matter or fact)?

wo3 bu4 zhi1dao4 I not know

I dont know.

wo3men zou3lu4 qu4 we walk go

Lets go by foot.

zuo4 shi4 do matter

to do something

qing3zuo4 please sit

Please sit down (have a seat).


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Adverbs :
An adverb is a word that serves as a modifier to a verb, adjective or another adverb.
bi3jiao4 compare, comparatively

(advanced)

bu4 not

wo3 bu4 zhi1dao4 I not know

I dont know.

(advanced)

bu2yong4 need not

bu2yong4 pa4 not use afraid

Dont be afraid. chang2 - often

zhe4li ni3 chang2 lai2 ma here you ofen come part.

Do you often come here? ceng2jin1 formerly

(advanced)

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bu4jin3

tong2shi2 not onlyalso(at the same time)

(advanced)

ba3 yi4wen2 he2 yuan2wen2 bi3jiao4 yi2xia4 hold translated document and original document compare brief

Take the translated and original document and briefly compare them.

bian4he2 similar to

bian4 similar to

bi3jiao4 rong2yi4 relatively easy

relatively easy jiu4, then

(is both

kou3yu3 spoken and

shu1mian4 written)


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

cong2bu4 never

duo1 how much, long, etc, indicating degree or extent

How old is this child?

How long will he stay here? fei1chang2 really

(advanced)

gang1 just (now)

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(advanced) dou1 all

wo3 cong2bu4 chou1yan1 I never smoke cigarettes

I never smoke cigarettes. da4dou1 mostly

da4gai4 about, approximately

da4gai4 liang3ge4 xiao3shi2 approximately two m.w. hours

about two hours

wo3 de xue2sheng1 dou1 hen3 you3 jin4bu4 I part. student all very have progress

All of my students have made a lot of progress.

zhe4ge hai2zi duo1 da4 le this m.w. child how old part.

ta1 yao4 zai4 zhe4li dai1 duo1 jiu3 he will at here stay how long

fei1chang2 zhong4yao4 really important

really important gan3dao4 when

wo3 gang1 hui2lai2 I just return come

I just came back.


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

hai2 also, in addition, still

hen3 very

ji2 extremely (advanced) ji4 already, as well as (advanced) jiu4 just, indicating emphasis

Maybe/its possible Ill go. li4ji2 immediately

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(advanced)
dui4 right jiu4 shi4 zhe4ge just is this ke3neng2 wo3 qu4 possible I go

ni3 hai2 you3 wen4ti2 ma you still have question part.

Do you still have questions?

zhe4ge hen3 zhong4yao4 this m.w. very important

This is really important ji1hu1 almost,nearly

wo3 ma3shang4 jiu4 hui2lai2 I moment just return come

Ill be back in a minute. jiu4shi4 its just

Right, its this (this is the one)! ke3neng2 possible

(advanced)


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

ma3shang4 immediately

tai4 very, too (negative)

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mei2 did not

wo3 ma3shang4 jiu4 hui2lai2 I moment just return come

Ill be back in a minute.

shao3 few, less, seldom

(advanced) (advanced)

wo3 mei2 qu4 guo4 I have not go past

I havent been/gone there (before). mei2you3 to not have, did not

wo3 mei2you3 bie2de wen4ti2 I not have other questions

I dont have any more questions (ie. to ask you).

ta1 de peng2you hen3 shao3 he part. friend very few

He doesnt have many friends.

ta1 hen3 shao3 kan4 dian4shi4 he very seldom watch television

He seldom watches television. shen4zhi4 so much that, even, so far as to

shi4fou3 - whether or not

tai4 hao3 le very good part.

Thats great!

tai4 hao3 le very excellent part.

Thats really excellent!


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

xian1 first

ye3 also

Im an American and so is he.. yi2ding4 surely, certainly,definetly, be sure to

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tai4 gui4 le too expensive part.

Thats too expensive!

ni3 xian1 lai2 ba you first come part. .

You (can) go first.

wo3 shi4 mei3guo2 ren2 ta1 ye3 shi4 I is american person he also is

ta1 yi2ding4 hui4 cheng2gong1 he certainly can/will succeed

He will definetly/is definetly able to succeed. yi3jing1 already

ta1 yi3jing1 wang4 le he already forget part.

He already forgot. yi3lai2 since

(advanced) yi3shi4 already is

(advanced) yi4qi3 together

wo3men yi4qi3 chi1fan4 we together eat food

Lets eat together. yi3xian4 already now

(advanced)


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

yi4zhi2 continuously

zhi3 only

yu3 yi4zhi2 xia4 le yi4 tian1 yi4 wan3 rain continuously part. one day one night

Its been raining continuously for a day and a night. you2 shi2hou sometimes

zheng4 just, right, precisely

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you4

yi4 nian2 you4 yi4 nian2 one year again one year

ta1 you3shi2hou xiang3 jia1 he sometimes miss home

Sometimes he misses home. you4 again, as well

year after year

ta1 you4 chong2fu4 le ta1 de hua4 he again repeat part. her part. words

He again repeated her words. you4 indicating repetition of acts (similar to and)

ta1 you4 kan4 wo3 you4 kan4 ta1 he again look me again look her

He both looked at me and looked at her.

ta1 zheng4 zai4 ting1 yin1yue4 he right at listen music

Hes just now listening to music. zheng4shi4 - just about, no other than, because

(advanced)

ta1 zhi3 you3 wu3 kuai4 he only have five dollars

He only has five dollars. zhi3shi4 - merely, just, no more than

(advanced)


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

zhi4jin1 up to now

zui4 most

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(advanced)

[ ] zong3shi4 always

wo3 zong3shi4 jue2de ta1 hen3 hao3 I always is feel he very good

I always feel hes a good person.

wo3 zong3shi4 wang4 le I always is forget part.

I always forget.

wo3 zui4 xi3huan1 ta1de ge1 I most like he part. song

I like his songs the best.


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Adjectives :
An adjective is a word that modifies a noun.

chang2 long cuo4 wrong What you said is wrong. da4 big This room is very big. dang1ran2 of course

bu4tong2 different

zhe4 liang3 zhong3 gan3jue2 shi4 yi2yang4 hai2shi4 you3 yi4xie1 bu4tong2 this two kind feeling is same or have some different

Are these two feelings the same or are there some differences?

This character is wrong (the wrong one, or written one).

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His hair is long.

ta1 de tou2fa hen3 chang2 he part. hair very long

hen3 chang2 shi2jian1 very long time

a long time

zhe4ge zi4 shi4 cuo4 de this m.w. character is wrong part.

ni3 shuo1 de cuo4 you say part. wrong

hen3 da4 de yi2ge4 wen4ti2 very big part one part. problem

a very big problem

zhe4ge fang2jian1 hen3 da4 This m.w. room very big

(advanced)


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

duan3 short

dui4 right

What you said is correct.

This (item) is wrong. gao1 high

This building is very high. gui4 expensive

This thing is too expensive. jin4 close

jiu4 old

This thing is very old.

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jiu4 yi1fu old clothes

hen3 duan3 shi2jian1 very short time

a short time

ni3 shuo1 de dui4 you say part. right

zhe4ge bu2dui4 this m.w. not right

zhe4ge lou2 hen3 gao1 This part. building very high

zhe4ge dong1xi tai4 gui4 le This part. thing too expensive part.

wo3 de jia1 li2 zhe4li hen3 jin4 I part. home from here very close

My home is close to here.

zhe4ge dong1xi hen3 jiu4 This part. thing very old

old clothes jue2dui4 absolutely

(advanced)


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

kuai1 quick

lao3 old (in age)

man4 slow

mang2 busy

mei3 beautiful

That place is very beautiful. nan2 difficult

This is very difficult.

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ta1 hen3 lao3 he very old

ta1 zuo4 de kuai4 he do part. quick

He did it quickly.

Hes very old.

ta1 zou3 de man4 he walk part. slow

He walked slowly.

ta1 hen3 mang2 he very busy

Hes very busy.

na4ge di4fang hen3 mei3 that m.w. place very beautiful

zhe4ge hen3 nan2 this m.w. very difficult

bu4 zen3me nan2 not how difficult

not so difficult piao4liang pretty

ta1 hen3 piao4liang she very pretty

Shes very pretty.


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

pian2yi4 cheap (not expensive)

This thing is very light. rong2yi4 - easy

This is very easy. shang4 upper

wan3 late

xia4 lower

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zhe4ge hen3 pian4yi this m.w. very cheap

This is very cheap. qing1 light

zhe4ge dong1xi hen3 qing1 This part. thing very light

zhe4ge hen3 rong2yi4 This part. very easy

shang4deng3 upper grade

high grade/quality te4bie2 especially

te4bie2 hao3 ting1 especially good listen

sounds especially (really) good (ie. music)

te4bie2 hao3 chi1 especially good eat

tastes especially (really) good

shi2jian1 hen3 wan3 time very late

Its late now.

xia4deng3 lower grade

low grade/quality


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

xiao3 small

This dog is very small. xin1 new

This car is new. xing2 allright

yuan3 - far

wo3 de jia1 li2 zhe4li hen4 yuan3 I part. home from here very far

zao3 early

zhen1 really

wo3 zhen1 xi3huan1 ni3 I really like you

zhong4 heavy

This thing is very heavy.

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shi2jian1 hen3 zao3 time very early

zhe4 zhi1 gou3 hen3 xiao3 this m.w. dog very small

zhe4 liang4 che1 shi4 xin1 de this m.w. car is new part.

wo3men yi4qi3 qu4 xing2 ma we together go allright part.

Lets go together, allright? yi2yang4 the same

zhe4 liang3 zhong3 gan3jue2 shi4 yi2yang4 hai2shi4 you3 yi4xie1 bu4tong2 this two kind feeling is same or have some different

Are these two feelings the same or are there some differences?

My home is far from here.

Its early now.

I really like you.

zhe4ge dong1xi hen3 zhong4 This part. thing very heavy


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

zhong4yao4 - important

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fei1chang2 zhong4yao4 really important

really important

zhe4ge hen3 zhong4yao4 this m.w. very important

This is really important.


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Prepositions :
A preposition is word that combines with a noun or pronoun to form a phrase. It often indicates direction or place.

(advanced)

cong2 from

dui4 to

gei3 to

She has already spoken to me about this matter. gen1 with, and

ju4 - according to (advanced) li2 away from some point

wo3 de jia1 li2 zhe4li hen4 yuan3 I part. home from here very far

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cong2 zhe4r dao4 na4r da4gai4 you3 wu4 liu6 bai3 mi3 from here to there about have five six hundred meter

From here to there its about five or six hundred meters.

ta1 dui4 ta1 shuo1 wo3 xi3huan1 ni3 she to he say I like you

She said to him, I like you.

zhe4 jian4 shi4 ta1 yi3jing1 gei3 wo3 shuo1 guo4 this m.w. matter she already to me say past

wo3 gen1 ni3 yi4qi3 qu4 I with you together go

Ill go together with you.

(advanced)

My home is far from here.

jiu4lian2

chu2le[

yi3wai] except for

similar to even


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

sui2zhe - along with

(advanced)

wang3 towards

wang3 qian2 zou3 towards front walk

walk towards the front wei4 - indicates an objective or the object of one's act, by way of, in the interest of, for the sake of (advanced)

(advanced) zai4 at, on

wo3 zai4 zhe4li I at here

I am here.

ta1 bu2zai4 he not at

Hes not here/not in.

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zai4...

zhi1shang4 upon

(advanced)

tong2 with (another personhas a feeling of equality) (advanced) yi3 according to (advanced) you2yu2 - as a result of

(advanced) zai4

yu2 similar to


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Conjunctions :
A conjunction is a word that joins together sentences, clauses, phrases, or words.

(advanced)

bing4qie3 - furthermore, and besides

(advanced) bu2dan4 not only

(advanced)

(advanced) bu4ran2 - or else, otherwise, if not

(advanced) suo3yi3, a basis to the previous statement

(advanced)

ci3wai4 - besides, moreover, in addition

(advanced) cong2er2 - consequently, thereby, accordingly

(advanced) dan4shi4 - but, yet usually indicates there no other possibility

(advanced)

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ta1 xiang3 shuo1 dan4shi bu4 zhi1dao4 shuo1 shen2me he want speak but not know speak what

He wants to speak, but doesnt know what to say. dui4yu2 - regarding, about

(advanced)

er2 - expresses coordination between two things ... ...

cai2 similar to

bu2guo4 indicates other possibility, different than

bian4 similar to

jiu4, showing possible concession

dan4shi4


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

[ ]er2qie3 - moreover, furthermore (advanced) hai2shi4 or, gives a choice (alternative) between two options

wo3 he2 ni3 I and you

me and you

bei3jing he2 shang4hai3 dou1 hen3 da4 Beijing and Shanghai both very big

Beijing and Shanghai are both very big. huo4zhe3 or, used in indicative sentences where both options are possible

wo3 chang2 chang2 zai4 jia1 kan4shu1 huo4zhe3 kan4 dian4shi4 I often at home read book or watch television

At home I often read a book or watch television.

qing3 ba3 zhe4ge dong1xi gei3 ta1 huo4zhe3 ta1 please take this m.w. thing give hi or her

Please give this thing to him or her (either one is ok).

(advanced)

(advanced)

(advanced)

jin4guan3 - even though, in despite of, for all, notwithstanding

(advanced)

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ji4

you3zhe

- and, as well

ji2qi2

ji2 means and,

ji2 and, similar to

he2

he2 connects nouns ie.

ni3 qu4 hai2shi4 wo3 qu4 you go or I go

Do you go or do I go?

ni3 xiang3 chi1 ji1rou4 hai2shi4 niu2rou4 you want eat chicken or beef

Do you want to eat chicken or beef?

refers to the thing stated before

ji2 and functions similar to

zhi1


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

na4me so then, used to introduce a new thought

(advanced)

(advanced) yi3ji2 as well as, along with

(advanced) er2 - because ofso therefore

(advanced)

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yin1

yi2

jiu4- the first thing stated is a premise to the second

ran2er2 whereas

na4me shi2jian1 hen3 wan3 wo3men hui2 jia1 ba so time late we return home part.

Its late now, so lets go home.

(advanced) reng2ran2 all the same, however

(advanced) ru2guo3 if

ru2guo3 ni3 xiang3 qu4 jiu4 gao4su4 wo3 if you want go just tell me

If you want to go, just tell me. suo3yi3 - so, therefore

ta1 jin1tian1 sheng1bing4 le suo3yi3 qu4 kan4bing1 he today sick part. so go see doctor

Hes sick today, so he went to see the doctor. tong2shi2 - moreover, furthermore

(advanced) er2( suo3yi3) zuo4de - in order to...so therefore did/make something

wei4


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

(advanced)

(advanced) zhi3you3

(advanced)

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zhi3yao3

jiu4 - only if, provided that

cai2 - only if

yu2shi4 thereupon (advanced) ze2 - however (advanced) zheng4ru2 for even as (advanced) (advanced)

yin1wei4...suo3yi3 - because...so therefore

yin1wei4 ta1 jin1tian1 sheng1bing4 le suo3yi3 qu4 kan4bing1 because he today sick part. so go see doctor

Hes sick today, so he went to see the doctor.

zhi4yu2 as far as, in so far as, regarding

zhi1suo3yi3

(advanced) he2 and

yu3 similar to

shi4 emphasizes the result first

then the reason

-> reason


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Particles and Auxiliary Words :
In Chinese, these words are used to create changes in tone of voice, indicate a changed state of affairs, create possession, express result and degree, etc. This is just a small sampling of the particles. I encourage you to consult a dictionary for more details on usage.
a emphasizes admiration or warning

The weather is really good today!

This is really true! ba placed at end of sentence to create a suggestion or soften the tone of the speaker

hua1de yan2se4 flower part. color

the color of the flower/ the flowers color

tao2lun4 de wen4ti2 discussion part. problem

the problem for discussion c. used after an adjective

cong1ming2 de hai2zi smart part. child

a smart child

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the adjective is

cong1ming2 smart

b. used as an attribute after a verb, the verb is

a. used as an attribute after a noun, the noun is

de,

de,

de - There are three types of de particles: bai2shao2de and is used in the following situations: hua1 flower

1.

de this de is called

zhe3 shi4 zhen1 de a this is really part. part. ni3 zi4ji3 zuo4 ba you yourself do part.

duo1 hao3 de tian1qi4 a a lot good part. weather part.

You do it yourself (used

ba, so is a suggestion)

tao2lun4 discussion


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

hen3gao1 de shan1 very high part. mountain

very high mountains d. used after a pronoun to create possession

ta1 de yi1fu his part. clothes

his clothes e. used after a number

liang3 tian1 de shi2jian1 two day part. time

two days time/ of time f. used after a phrase

wo3 dui4 zhe4ge wen4ti2 de kan4fa3 I to this m.w. problem part. view

my view on this problem g. used between a verb and a noun, another form of possession similar to 1 d.

ta1 xie3 de shu1 he wrote part. book

the book he wrote

qu4nian2 mai3 de che1 last year part. car

the car bought last year

jin1tian1 de hui4 shei2 de zhu3xi2 today part. meeting who part. chairman

Who is the chairman for todays meeting? i. used after words belonging to the same parts of speech and functions similar to that of and so on, etc, in this case hua1 flower and cao1 grass are similar parts of speech

ta1 bu4 xi3huan1 hua1r cao3r de he not like flower grass part.

He doesnt like flowers, grass, and things like that.

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h. used between a personal pronoun and noun to show a role or recipient of action, the noun and shei2 is the personal pronoun.

the adjective is

gao1 high

hui4 meeting is


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

j. attached to a verb, noun, pronoun, or adjective to create a nominalizer (a name)

mai3 shu1 de sell book part.

the bookseller (a person)

you3 hong2 de have red part.

the red one

ni3 gang1cai2 shuo1 de you just now say part.

what you just said

zhe4 liang4 che1 shi4 xin1 de this m.w. car is new part.

This car is a new one/This car is new.

ting1lu4 transcription and

ting1lu4 yuan2lai2 de dui4hua4 transcription original part. conversation

the conversation transcription

ting1lu4 de yan3jiang3 transcription part. speech

the conversation transcription

dui4hua4 conversation is the noun and

dui4hua4 shuo1ming2 conversation explain

the conversation explanation

biao1ti2 jie3shi4 headline explain

the headline explanation

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biao1ti2 headline is the noun and

jie3shi4 define is the verb:

l. when there is a noun plus a verb, then dont use

ting1lu4 transcription and

k. when two nouns are together,

should be used dui4hua4 conversation are both nouns:

yan3jiang3 speech are both nouns:

the adjective

hong2 red becomes a noun

hong2de red one:

shuo1ming2 explain is the verb:


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

m. to create a mood or emphasize tone

a. used between a verb and its complement to indicate result

xie3 de fei1chang2 hao3 write part. very good

written very well

wo3 na2 de dong4 I take part. move

I can carry it.

ban4 de dao4 handle part. succeed

can be done b. used between an adjective and an adverb or adjective to indicate degree

hao3 de hen3 good part. very

very good

tian1qi4 leng3 de hao3 weather cold part. alot

The weather is very cold.

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leng3 cold is the adjective and

hao3 a lot is the complement (

hao3 good is the adjective and

hen3 very is the complement (

ban4 handle is the verb and

dao4 succeed is the complement (

na2 carry is the verb and

dong4 move is the complement (

dong4 move is a verb):

dao4 succeed is a verb):

hen3 very is an adverb):

hao3 a lot is an adjective):

xie3 write is the verb and

2.

de this de is called

n. to create a

its his

shi4 ta1 de is he part.

ta1 shi4 mei3guo2 de he is american part.

He is American. ru2guo3 if construction

you3 shi2jian1 de hua4 have time part. word.

when (you) have time shuang1ren2de and is used in the following situations:

fei1chang2 hao3 is the complement (

hao3 is the adjective):


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

c. used between a verb and a verb to indicate possibility

ming2tian1 wo3 hui2 de lai2 have time part. word.

Tomorrow Ill probably come back.

ta1 hen3 kuai4 de shuo1 he very quick part. speak

He spoke quickly. le the particle is used in the following situations: a. used after a verb or adjective to indicate completion of work or change

shui3wei4 yi3 jiang4di1 le liang3 mi3 water level already drop part. two meter

The water level has dropped already by two meters.

na4 ben3 shu1 wo3 kan4 le liang3 bian4 that m.w. book I see part. two times

Ive read that book two times b. placed at the end of a sentence in the form of a modal particle to indicate a change The thing that has changed is ta1men they which previously were at one place, but now are at another place wai4jiao1 bu4 diplomatic department:
ta1men xian4zai4 shi4 wai4jiao1 bu4 de gan1bu4 le they now is diplomat department part. cadre part.

Now they are a cadre at the diplomatic department. c. placed at the end of a sentence to show a past event

shang4 xing1qi1tian1 ta1 dai1 hai2zi shang4 dong4wu4yuan2 le last Sunday he take children achieve zoo part.

Last Sunday he took his children to the zoo.

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The past event is shang4 dong4wu4yuan2 zoo which happened xing1qi1tian1 last Sunday:

kan4 read is the verb and the thing that has changed is

shu1 book (its been read twice):

jiang4di1 drop is the verb and the thing that has changed is

kuai4 quick is the adjective and

3.

de this de is called tu3di4de and is used after an adjective, a noun or a phrase and before a verb to express how the verb was done. shuo1 speak is the verb:

hui2 return is the adjective and

lai2 come is the complement (

lai2 come is an verb):

shui3wei4 water level:

shang4


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

d. placed at the end of an imperative sentence to indicate advice

bie2 shuo1hua4 le dont talk part.

Dont talk/stop talking!

zou3 le, zou3 le walk part. walk part.

Lets go, lets go! ma placed at end of sentence to create a question

ni xian4zai4 you3 shi2jian1 ma you now have time part.

Do you have time now? ne placed at end of sentence to create an affirmative tone Creates an interrogative sentence:

zen3me ban4 ne how handle part.

What should we do? (how should we handle this situation?) Creates emphasis:

hai2 yuan3 zhe ne still far part. part.

Its still far away! (emphasizing right now we are still far away from our destination)

(advanced)

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zhi serves a purpose similar to


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Chinese Grammar and Vocabulary Guide

Grammatical Terms :
sheng1mu3 initial (consonant) yun4mu3 final (vowel) sheng1diao4 tone yu3yin1 phonetics yin1jie2 syllable zhu3yu3 subject wei4yu3 predicate bin4yu3 - object zhu3ti2 - topic bu4yu3 complement fen1ju4 clause fu4ju4 complex sentence ding4yu3 attribute zhu4ci2 particle aux word dong4ci2 verb fu4ci2 adverb zhuang4yu3 adverbial ming2ci2 noun dai4ci2 - pronoun xing2rong2ci2 adjective liang4ci2 measure word shu4liang4 number (quantity) / yi2wen4 dai4/fu4 ci2 interrogative pronoun/adverb li2he2ci2 a word that can be broken up into two pieces and other words put between

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ie.

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A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Five Chinese Lessons

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Five Chinese Lessons Notes

This chapter contains Chinese lessons which make use of both files which are stored as follows: MP3 sound files and PDF

ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChinese.zip:
This ZIP file contains all of the MP3 sound files used in the Chinese lessons (including the Dialogues, Readings and Songs). This ZIP file contains all of the PDF files used in the Chinese lessons (including the Dialogues, Readings and Songs).

ChineseLessonsDialoguesReadingsSongsMP3.zip

ChineseLessonsDialoguesReadingsSongsPDF.zip

Once you have decided which one of the lessons you wish to study from this chapter, you can then ZIP files to retreive the lessons MP3 and PDF files. open the

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

Chinese Lessons :
Thank You to the people who helped me !! These lessons are divided into three categories: Dialogue, Readings and Songs. Each lesson has both an Adobe PDF file and an MP3 file. First click on the Adobe PDF file to see the text, then click on the MP3 file (R=original source recording, T=teacher's recording) to listen to the dialogue / reading or song. Please click here for information about how to download all of these lessons. Adobe PDFMP3Adobe PDF MP3 ( 'R' 'T' ) : Dialogue Meeting People Over The Telephone First Love Most Difficult Day To Get Through China Chairman Hu Jin Tao Yale Speech China Chairman Hu Jin Tao Visits Morocco The Decade of Turmoil Pre-Engagement Traditional Blind Date Readings : Lighten Students' Burden Spitting In Public Your Children Are Not Your Children Early Kunming Water Sellers Development PDF . MP3 o R . T

R . T

R . T

PDF . MP3 o T

 Asleep on the Street Songs Blue Lotus Flower . September.Hopes and Dreams Lover Heart Forever Free Persistence Hometown The Swan's Travels Journey

PDF . MP3 o o

How to Download all of the Chinese Lessons If you would like to download all of the Chinese lessons, please click here to download the PDF files (includes all of the Dialogues, Readings and Songs) and click here to download the MP3 files (includes all of the Dialogues, Readings and Songs). All of these materials can also be downloaded from the Downloads webpage. PDF MP3

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Six Chinese Language Resources

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

Chinese Language Resources: :

I have found these resources to be useful in learning Chinese: Table of Contents I. II. III. IV. V. Dictionaries Writing Chinese Characters Software Textbooks Other

I. Dictionaries :
1. Oxford English/Chinese Dictionary Large, standard paper-back dictionary, published by Oxford University Press

2. Longman Electronic Dictionary Electronic dictionary based on Longman dictionary (British English). This dictionary is for Chinese speakers learning English. As of now, electronic dictionaries for English speakers do not exist. Includes Kingsoft PowerWord software. http://www.bbkusa.com/proddetail.asp?prod=LM5980 (English) http://www.eebbk.com/prod_list.asp?classid=1 (Chinese)

3. Chinese Characters: A Genealogy and Dictionary Explains the meaning and genealogy of traditional (not simplified) characters' components, shows how characters are derived from components arranged in a well organized tree-like fashion, by Rick Harbaugh. : Rick Harbaugh

4. Chinese-English Frequency Dictionary Defines and provides usage examples of the 500 most commonly used characters. This book is a good place to start if you would like to begin studying Chinese characters, but don't know which character to begin with, by Yong Ho.

5. Analysis Of Chinese Characters han4zi4 yan2jiu1 Defines and explains from an historic perspective 1000 radicals and characters, contains a mixture of traditional and simplified characters, useful for gaining deeper insight into radical meanings, by William Mcnaughton and Li Ying.

6. Modern Chinese Dictionary xue2sheng1 shi2yong4 xian4dai4 han4yu3 ci2dian3

Practical/modern high-school Chinese dictionary, also contains synonyms and antonyms (no English), published by xin1jiang1 qing1shao4nian2 chu1ban3she4.

7. Modern Chinese Small Dictionary xian4dai4 han4yu3 xiao3 ci2dian3 Standard modern Chinese dictionary, contains more words than the above high-school dictionary, also contains an index for characters that are difficult to look-up, does not contain synonyms or antonyms (no English), published by ji2lin2 da4xue2 chu1ban3she4.

8. Xin Hua Student Idiom Dictionaryxin1hua2 xue2sheng1 cheng2yu3 ci2dian3 High school level idiom dictionary, provides a short history of the idiom and usage examples, very useful for getting an introduction into Chinese idioms (no English), Published by xin1jiang1 qing1shao4nian2 chu1ban3she4.

II. Writing Chinese Characters :

1. Chinese Character Dictionary Clear explanations of how to write characters using proper stroke order for the most common 2,000 characters, also contains structure, stroke count, radical and sample words for each character, a very useful reference, by Cheng and Tsui.

2. Learn to Write Chinese Characters Teaches the aesthetics and technique of writing proper strokes and characters, teaches basic stroke order and basic radical definitions, useful for self-study, by Johan Bjorksten. : Johan Bjorksten

3. Reading and Writing Chinese Shows stroke order, stroke count, explanations and definitions for 2000 characters, by William McNaughton and Li Ying.

III. Software :
1. Kingsoft PowerWord jin1shan1 ci2ba4 Powerful bidirectional English/Chinese word-by-word dictionary look-up software. Allows you to quickly look-up unknown words as they appear on computer webpages/documents. If you buy the Longman electronic dictionary (described above on this webpage), this software is included for free. I highly recommend buying and installing this software on your computer. http://push.cb.kingsoft.com/cb06/index.htm (Chinese)

IV. Textbooks :
1. First year college textbooks These are the books used in the first year Chinese courses in China, used extensively throughout China in the teaching of Chinese to non-native speakers. a. Chinese General Comprehensive course, first volume han4yu3 jiao4cheng2 di4yi2 ce4 Teaches basic grammar. b. Chinese Listening course han4yu3 ting1li4 jiao4cheng2 di4yi2 ce4 Teaches basic Pinyin and listening skills. c. Chinese Speaking "crash" course han4yu3 kou3yu3 su4cheng2 Teaches basic sentence patterns. d. Easy Way To Learn Chinese Characters han4zi4 su4cheng2 ke4ben3 Teaches basic stroke order,radical definitions, character structures and character types, an excellent book for beginners, highly recommended. a. b. c. d.

Published by Beijing Foreign Language University bei3jing1 yu3yan4 da4xue2 chu1ban3she4

2. Mandarin Chinese: A Functional Reference Grammar Highly detailed research on Chinese grammar, not for beginners but useful for those who have already studied Chinese for several years, by Charles N. Li and Sandra A. Thompson.

3. Beginner's Chinese Takes 10 lessons and explains in detail grammar, conversation, vocabulary, expressions, also includes exercises. A useful book for self-study, by Yong Ho.

V. Other :
1. bei1bao1 xin1qing2 - Kunming FM 99.0, The Sound of Shang-ra-la FM 99.0 A nightly 10pm -11pm (start-time sometimes varies) talk-show radio program hosted by He2 Yu3. This excellent radio program accurately represents how Chinese people express ideas, thoughts and emotion. This program is the source of the dialogues contained in the Chinese Lessons of this website. 1011

If you would like to receive past recordings of this program, please contact me and I can send you MP3 files of the programs. 2. sheng1huo2 xin1bao4 Kunming, China locally published newspaper. This newspaper is the source of the articles contained in the Chinese Lessons of this website.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Seven Chinese Media

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

Chinese Media :
I highly recommend the following Chinese media: movies, radio and television programs and books for you to watch and listen to. I consider them to be true to real-life, educational and as well very interesting. If you are a student of Chinese, you will find them all to be an invaluable study tool. Table of Contents I. II. III. IV. V. Movies Television Programs Radio Programs Educational DVD DVD Chinese Books

I. Movies :
These movies can be downloaded from the internet and watched for free by going to www.tudou.com. They can also be purchased on DVD at just about any video store in China. 1. "A Time to Love" (qing2ren2 jie2) A love story set in Beijing between two people who are forced to wait a very long time before they can ultimately be together. This movie gives the viewer a good understanding of the matrimonial pressure an Asian family can put on it's children.

2. "The Subway Towards Spring" (kai1wang3 chun1tian1 de di4tie3) A mix of several young couples' love stories set in Beijing, slightly off-beat/alternative.

3. "The Suitcase" (xiang1zi3) A man finds a suitcase that one day mysteriously showed up at the guesthouse he manages. The scenery in this movie is beautiful and is set in Li Jiang, Yunnan Province .

4. "In the Mood for Love" (hua1yang4 nian2hua2) A French-style filmed romance set in 1960's Hong Kong. This movie, full of subtleties and overtones, is a classic and highly recommended.

5. "If You Are The One" (fei1cheng2 wu4rao3) A modern-day story about a man who places a personal ad in the newspaper for a wife and the story that ensues. This movie gives the viewer a good understanding of how Chinese men and women relate to one another.

6. "Underdog Knight" (ying4han4) A story about a young man who after being discharged from the army, decides to fight crime in his neighborhood.

7. "The Untold Secret" (bu4neng2 shuo1 de mi4mi4) A love story between two young music conservatory students.

8. "The King of Boxing" (quan2 wang2) A comedy starring the very famous and funny Hong Kong martial-arts actor hong2jin1bao3.

: II. Television Programs

These television programs are all available on DVD and can purchased at just about any video store in China. 1. "The Struggle" (fen4dou4) Set in modern-day Beijing, this is a series about young people in Beijing struggling for success and love.

2. "The Golden Wedding" (jin1hun1) A series that spans 50-years and tells the story of a man and woman, from the time they were married in 1956 up until they're 50th anniversary in 2005. The sets in this series are all authentic and gives the viewer an excellent impression of China before today's modernization took place. I recommend this series because it gives the viewer a good understanding of everyday life in a typical Chinese family.

3. "Shang Hai Bund" (xin1 shang4hai3 tan1) A series about the Chinese mafia and it's internal power struggles set in 1930's Shang Hai. A love-story involves the mafia boss's daughter and two men, both of whom love her, yet she loves just one. There are many versions of this series available, but the one that I like most has the actor huang2xiao3ming2 playing the lead role of xu3wen2qiang2.

4. "Ugly Betty" (chou3nv3 wu2di2) A comedy series based on the US television series "Ugly Betty" about a young girl working as a secretary in a large corporation. The humor in this series is hilarious and gives the viewer a good understanding of what makes Chinese people laugh.

III. Radio Programs :

1. (bei4bao1 xin1qing2) - Kunming FM 99.0, The Sound of Shang-ra-la Nightly from 10pm -11pm (though sometimes the start-time may vary), hosted by He2 Yu3. An excellent radio program that accurately represents how Chinese people express ideas, thoughts and emotion. People call-in and discuss with He Yu just about anything and everything that may be on their minds at the time. If you really want to get a good understanding of how Chinese people use their own language to express thoughts and emotion, I highly recommend this or any radio program similar to this one. If you would like to receive past recordings of this program, please contact me and I can send you MP3 files of the programs.

IV. Educational DVD DVD:

1. (yi4zhong1tian1 pin3san1guo2) A DVD lecture series given by the acclaimed professor yi4zhong1tian1 that explores in great detail ancient Chinese history. This man lectures in a way that is understandable, humorous and at times controversial.

V. Chinese Books :
These are some of the books I have purchased over the years or friends have recommended that I have found to be quite interesting to read. 1. "When There is Love There is Happiness" 2. "Being Beautiful is not as Important as Living Beautifully" 3. "The Seven Year Itch" - A love story about a Chinese woman and a Scandanavian man 4. "Don't Be Afraid to be Alone"

(This section is still in progress...)

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Eight Daily Use Language

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

Daily Use Language: :

ri4chang2 ju4

zai4 ri4chang2 sheng1huo2 zhong, jing1chang2 peng4dao4 de chang2yong4 ju4

These phrases and sentences are often used in daily life:

qing3 xuan3ze2 zhu3ti2 xue2xi2

Please select a topic:

1.
dang1 you3 shi4 fa1sheng1 shi2

When something happens

2.
zuo4 mou3 shi4

Doing something

3.
han2xuan1, liao2tian1, gao4bie2

Exchanging greetings (meeting), Chatting (being together), Saying goodbye (leaving)

4.
ping2jia4, ping2lun4

Judging people and situations

5.
ting1 he2 shuo1 de biao3da2

Listening, Defining, Explaining, Describing

6.
xiang3fa3, gan3jue2

Feelings, Emotion, Thinking

7.
ji4yi4

Forgeting, Remembering

8.
biao3shi4 mi2huo4 shi2

Expressing uncertainty and doubt

9.
biao3da2 xie4yi4

Expressing Thank You

10.
biao3shi4 fan3dui4

When not agreeing

11.
mai3 dong1xi, cheng2 che1, deng3

Buying things, On the bus, etc

12.
qing3 wu4 da3 jiao3

Asking people to be quiet

13. ""
guan1yu2 de yong4fa3

"About" usage

14.
guan1yu2 tian1qi4

Talking about the weather

15.
sheng1huo2

Life

:
dang1 you3 shi4 fa1sheng1 shi2

When something happens:

wo3 xiang3 gao4su4 ni3 yi2jian4 shi4

I want to tell you something

fa1sheng1 de shi4qing2

something specific that has happened

shi4qing2 fa1sheng1

[a] something that will happen

hai2 mei2you3 zuo4 de shi4qing2

have not yet done something

yi2jian4 shi4 fa1sheng1 le

a matter/situation happened

yi2jian4 shi4 mei2you3 fa1sheng1

a specific matter/situation that has not happened

wo3men ming2tian1 bu4 zhi1dao4 hui4 fa1sheng1 shen2me

We don't know what will happen tomorrow

wo3 bu4 zhi1dao4 zuo2tian1 fa1sheng1 le shen2me

I don't know what happened yesterday

zai4 ting1 bie2ren2 jiang3shu4 hen3hao3 de shi4qing2 de shi2hou, ni3 ke3yi3 zhe4yang4 shuo1

When listening to people talk about something good that happened (to them), you can reply this way:

na4 hai2 bu2cuo4

That's pretty good (what happened is not bad/allright/a pretty good thing)

/
hen3 hao3 ya1/a

That's good (what happened is a good thing)

gong1xi3

congratulations

zhu4he4

congratulations (a blessing with good wishes)

zhen1 xian4mu4 ni3

[I] really admire that (you)

zai4 ting1 bie2ren2 jiang3shu4 bu4hao3 de shi4qing2 de shi2hou, ni3 ke3yi3 zhe4yang4 shuo1

When listening to people talk about something bad that happened (to them), you can reply this way:

dui4buqi3, rang4 ni3 xiang3qi3 shang1xin1 de shi4 le

[I'm] sorry to have made you remember that

dui4buqi3, re3 ni3 shang1xin1 de shi4 le

[I'm] sorry to have made you (provoked/caused you) angry (what I just said caused you to remember something that previously had made you angry)

dui4buqi3, re3 ni3 bu4 kai1xin1 le

[I'm] sorry to have made you (provoked/caused you) upset (I'm sorry to have upset (unhappy) you)

dui4buqi3, rang4 ni3 shang1xin1 le

[I'm] sorry what I said hurt you (caused you to feel pain from a previous experience)

dui4buqi3, rang4 ni3 nan2guo4 le

[I'm] sorry what I said is making you go through a hard time

wo3 hen3 li3jie3 ni3

I [can] understand (how you feel, what you are feeling, your situation, etc.) ?
wo3 neng2 bang1zhu4 ni3 shen2me ma

Can I help you do anything? (help you with this problem or help you with anything else)

:
zuo4 mou3 shi4

Doing something:
wo3 zou3 zai4 ren2xing2dao4 shang4

I'm walking on the sidewalk

/?
ni3 zai4 gan4/zuo4 shen2me?

What are you doing [now]?

/?
ni3 xiang3 zuo4/gan4 shen2me?

What do you want to do?

/?
ni3 xia4ban1 yi3hou4 gan4/zuo4 shen2me?

What are you doing after work?

wo3 bu2 zuo4 yun4dong4, yin1wei4 wo3 de shi4li4 bu4 hao3

I don't play sports because my vision isn't good

/?
ta1 wei4shen2me zhe4 yang4 zuo4/shuo1

Why did he do/say this?

zhe4 ge4 wang3zhan4 shi4 zuo4 bu4 wan2 de

This website is not finished (not finished making it)

zhe4 ge4 wang3zhan4 yong3yuan3 zuo4 bu4 wan2

This website will never be finished (forever)

:
han2xuan1, liao2tian1, gao4bie2

Exchanging greetings (meeting), Chatting (being together), Saying goodbye (leaving):

ni3hao3

Hello

zai4jian4

Goodbye

[]?
[ni3] zui4jin4 zen3me yang4?

How have things been [with you] recently?

[]?
[ni3] guo4de zen3me yang4

How's it going [with you] (casual)?

[]?

[ni3] zui4jin4 guo4de zen3me yang4?

How's it [been] going [with you] recently?

[]?
[ni3] yi2qie4 dou1 hao3 ma

How's everything [with you] (is everything good)?

[]?
[ni3] zui4jin4 hao3 ma?

How have [you] been recently (have you been good recently)?

[]?
[ni3] zui4jin4 guo4de hao3 ma?

How have [you] been recently (has it been going good recently)?

[]
gai3tian1 [ zai4] jian4

See you later (another day)

[]
xia4ci4 [zai4] jian4

See you next time

[]
deng3 yi2hui4r [zai4] jian4

See you in a short while (in a bit)

wo3 ma3shang4 guo4lai2

I'll come/be there in a minute (a short time) (the other person is already there)

wo3 ma3shang4 guo4qu4

I'll come/be there in a minute (a short time) (the other person is not yet there )

yi2qie4 shun4li4

[I hope] everything goes well/smoothly (saying goodbye)

[]
[wo3] xi1wang4 ni3 zao3 yi4dian3r hao3

[I] hope you are [feeling] better soon (ie. person has a cold)

[]
[wo3] xi1wang4 ni3 zao3 yi4dian3r qi3lai2

[I] hope you are [feeling] better (up and about) soon (ie. a person has a cold)

[]
[wo3] xi1wang4 ni3 gan3mao4 zao3 yi4dian3r hao3

[I] hope you're cold is better soon

[]
[wo3] xi1wang4 ni3 zao3 ri4 kang1fu4

[I] hope you're back to health soon (person is recovering from an illness)

ni3 gen1 shei2 zai4 yi4qi3

Who are you with?

wo3 gen1 peng2you zai4 yi4qi3

I'm with a friend

/
wo3 he2 ta1/ta1 gang1 fen1kai1

I just left him/her (parted each other's company)

/
wo3 he2 ta1/ta1 gang1 li2kai1

We just left each other

[] <"">
qing3 ti4 wo3 gao4su4 ta1 [yi4sheng1] <"yi2 ju4hua4">

Please tell him I said <"words">

<"">
qing3 zhuang3gao4 ta1<"yi2 ju4hua4">

Please pass this message onto him <"words">

qing3 dai4 wo3 xiang4 ta1 wen4hao3

Please send him my regards/Please tell him I said hello

<"">
qing3 ti4 wo3 zhuang3da2 ta1 <"yi2 ju4hua4">

Please express these words to him for me <"words">

?
wo3men yi4qi3 chi1fan4 hao3ma?

Let's (go) eat together, ok?

?
ni3 xiang3 chi1 shen2me

What do you want to eat?

?
ni3 xiang3 qu4 na3li3

Where do you want to go?

<"">
xie4xie4 ni3 yao1qing3 wo3, dan4shi4 wo3<"yuan2yin">

Thank you for inviting me, but I <"reason"> (used in formal situations, ie. with boss, teacher, etc)

<"">
xie4xie4 ni3 yue1 wo3, dan4shi4 wo3<"yuan2yin">

Thank you for inviting me, but I <"reason"> (used in casual situations, ie. with friends)

<"">
wo3 bu4neng2 gen1 ni3 yi4qi3 qu4 yin1wei4 wo3 <"yuan2yin1">

I can't go with you because I <"reason">

ru2guo3 wo3 neng2 qu4, wo3 xia4 ge4 xing1qi1 gao4su4 ni3, hao3 ma

If I can go, I'll tell you next week, ok?

qing3 bu2yao4 gei3 wo3 ya1li4

Please don't pressure me (about making a decision, I need to think about it first)

wo3 xi3huan he2 ni3 liao2tian1, zhen1de hen3 you3 yi4si4

I like (enjoy) talking with you, (it's) really interesting (can be used with strangers or friends)

wo3men xiu1xi yi2xia4 ba

Let's rest for a little while

sui2bian4

Whatever is ok with me

sui2 ni3

Whatever you decide/want to do is ok with me

, ......
sui2bian4 ni3 shuo1 ba

Whatever you decide/want to do is ok with me, let me know/just tell me, ok...

wo3 cong2 zhe4bian1 zou3

I'll go this way (walk this way/direction)

?
ni3 zai4 kan4 shen2me

What are you looking at?

/
ta1 bu2 shi4 wo3de peng2you, ta1 shi4 yi2ge4 mo4sheng1ren2/ren4shi de ren2

He's not a (my) friend, he's a stranger/someone I know

.
wo3 bu4 zhi1dao4 wo3men hai2 neng2bu4neng2 jian4mian4, kan4 yuan2fen4 ba

I don't know when we can again meet, let's let fate decide, ok?

.
wo3 deng3 ta1de hui2yin1

I'm waiting for his reply (waiting for somebody to get back to you)

?
jin1tian1 sheng1yi4 zuo4 de zen3meyang4

How was business today?

......
wo3 cong2 ta1 mian4qian2 jing1guo4 de shi2hou

When I passed by/went past him...

wo3 cong2 ta1de mian4qian2 jing1guo4

I passed by/went past him

zen3me hui2da2 bie2ren2 de yao1qing3 , bi3ru2: san3dian3 zen3meyang4, he1 yi4 bei1 cha2 ma

ping2jia4, ping2lun4

Judging people and situations:

wo3 bu4 xiang3 qu4 ping2lun4 ta1 de xing2wei2

I don't want to comment on (judge/appraise/evaluate) his behavior/actions (what he does/did)

wo3 bu4 xiang3 qu4 ping2jia4 ta1

I don't want to comment on (judge/appraise/evaluate) him

wo3 bu4 xiang3 qu4 pan4duan4 ta1 de hao3huai4 shi4fei1

I don't want to judge his behavior/actions/what he did or does as good or bad, right or wrong

ni3 wu4hui4 wo3 le

You misunderstand (my intention) me

ni3 wu4jie3 wo3de yi4si4 le

You misunderstand my meaning (what I'm saying)

?
ni3 wei4shen2me pi1ping2 wo3

Why are you criticizing me?

? /
ni3 zai4 chao2xiao4/feng3ci4 wo3 ma

Are you ridiculing/mocking (laughing at) me?

ting1 he2 shuo1 de biao3da2

qing3 zai4 shuo1 yi2bian4

Ok good, sure, [thank you/thanks] Allright, sure, [thank you/thanks]

How to reply to people's invitations, for example: let's meet at 3 o'clock, [do you] want a cup of tea?

:
Listening, Defining, Explaining, Describing:

[ ]

,[

hao3, xie4xie4

xing2 , xie4xie4

Please say it again

wo3 zhao3 bu2 dao4

I could not/did not find [it]

?
qing1chu le ma?

Is it clear (understand)?

wo3 bu4 zhi1dao4

I don't know (the answer or about what you are talking about)

wo3 bu4 ming2bai2

I don't understand (not clear)

qing3 duo1 gei3 wo3 yi4dian3 shi2jian1

Please give me a little more time (to think, do something)

<"">
wo3 xiang3 miao2shu4 <"ci2"> zhe4ge4 ci2

I want to describe the word <"word">

wo3 miao2shu4 zhe4 ge4 dong1xi

I will describe this thing

<"">
wo3 ting1guo4 you3 ren2 shuo1 <ju4hua4>

I hear people say <"words">

wo3 jie3shi4 zhe4 ge4 ci2

I (will) define this word

wo3 shuo1ming2 zhe4 jian4 shi4

I (will) explain this matter (situation)

<"">
zhe4 ge4 ci2 biao3shi4 <"yi4ge4 jie3shi4">

This word expresses/indicates <"a definition">

?
zhe4 shi4 shen2me

What is this?

shen2me shi4 <"ci2">

?
zhe4 shi4 shen2me yi4si

What is <"

<"

">? ">?

What does this mean?

zhe4ge4 shi4 ke3 xuan3 de

This is optional

zhe4ge4 shi4 ke3yi3 xuan3ze2 de

This you can select/is optional

wo3 bu4 zhi1dao4 zen3me shuo1

I don't know how to say (something/it)

? ?
ni3 you3 wen4ti2 ma? ni3 yao4 wen4 wo3 shen2me?

Do you have a question? What do you want to ask me?

/
wo3 de xiang3fa3/kan4fa3 shi4 zhe4yang4 de

This is my understanding (of the matter/subject)

wo3 ren4wei2 zhe4 ge4 ju4zi zheng4que4 de biao3da2 zuo4zhe3 yuan2lai2 de yi4si4 (yuan2yi4)

xiang3fa3, gan3jue

Feelings, Emotion, Thinking:

wo3 xiang3 liao3jie3 ta1de gan3jue2

wo3 miao2shu4 yi4 zhong3 gan3jue2

wo3 biao3da2 wo3de gan3jue2

I will express my feeling

wo3 xi1wang4 ni3 neng2gou4 liao3jie3

I hope you can/are able to understand (this difficult situation)

wo3 neng2gou4 liao3jie3 ni3de gan3shou4

ta1 zheng4zai4 xiang3 de shi4qing2

ta1 xiang3 de shi4qing2

I think/feel this sentence correctly represents the writer's original meaning

I want to understand his feeling

I will describe a kind of feeling

I understand (I'm able to) your feeling (this difficulty)

What he is thinking about (right now)

What he is thinking about (now and previous)

wo3 xiang3 yi4 xiang3

ni3 zai4 xiang3 shen2me

ta1 hen3 xi3huan xiang3 wen4ti2

ta1 hen3 xi3huan si1kao3

wo3 jiang3shu4 wo3de gan3shou4

I will talk about/express my impression (of something)

ji4yi4

Forgeting, Remembering:
wo3 wang4 dai4 shu1 le

wo3 wang4 [ji4] le

wo3 ji4de

I remember

biao3shi4 mi2huo4 shi2

Expressing uncertainty and doubt:

[wo3 bu4 zhi1dao4] gai1 zen3me ban4

[I don't know] what to do (how [I should] to handle this situation)

[wo3 bu4 zhi1dao4] gai1 shuo1 shen2me

[I don't know] what to say (what I should say in this situation)

:
biao3da2 xie3yi4

Expressing Thank You:

[ ]

I'm thinking (about it, not yet decided, please wait a minute) ?

What are you thinking about?

He likes to think about things

He likes to ponder [things]

I forgot to bring my book

I forgot [to remember]

ta1 zong3 shi4 gei3 wo3 hen3 duo1 bang1zhu4

xie4xie4 ni3 ting1 wo3 <tan2 ji2ta1>

xie4xie4 ni3 bang1 wo3 (hai2 bao1kuo4 wei2 zhan4 zai4 tong2 yi2ge4 zhan4chang3 biao3shi4 gan3xie4 de yi4si

xie4xie4 ni3de bang1zhu4 (dui4 dui4fang1 de suo3 zuo4 biao3shi3 gan3xie4)

Thanks for your help (a 'thank you' you can give to the other person that includes all kinds of thanks) (You can use this for an everyday/ordinary kind of help/thank you)

bie2ren2 kua1jiang3 ni3 de shi2hou, ni3 ke3yi3 zhe4yang4 hui2da2

biao3shi4 fan3dui4

When not agreeing:

wo3 dui4 <"shi4qing2"> mei2you3 xing4qu4/bu4 gan3 xing4qu

wo3 bu4 xiang3/xi3huan tan2lun4 <"zhu3ti2">

wo3 bu4 jie4yi4

Not really (what I've done is really nothing, not worthy of this praise/compliment)

I'm not interested in <"something"> / <" ">

I don't want to/like to talk about <"subject">

hai2 xu1yao4 ji4xu4 nu2li4 ne

( ( <

He always gives me alot of help >

Thank you for listening to me <play guitar> )

Thank you for helping me (also includes this meaning: standing at a similar position as another person and expressing thank you), (you're in a difficult situation ie. an argument/fight, and someone helps you) )

When people compliment you, you can reply this way:

na4li na4li

xie4xie4 [kua1jiang3]

Thanks/Thank you [for your/the compliment] ( )

hai2 ke3yi3 ba (you3 yi4dian3 zi4man3

Yeah, it's allright (it is a little self-satisifying) (what I've done is ok, but not great)

hai2 cha4de2 yuan3 ne (wo3 zuo4 de hai2 bu2gou4 de yi4si4)

It's ok,but still short of where I want it to be/where it should be(means what I've done is still not enough)

It's ok, but I still have to keep/continue working hard

<"

">

I don't care (about this matter, maybe you are angry, maybe you have been criticized)

:
mai3 dong1xi, cheng2 che1, deng3

Buying things, On the bus, etc:

xie4xie4

Thank You

bu2 yong4 xie4

wo3 yao4 [mai3]

I want [to buy]

[qing3wen4], zhe4ge4 shi4 duo1shao qian2

[Excuse me], how much is this (does it cost)?

[ma2fan ni3] ke3yi3 rang4 yi2xia4 ma, wo3 yao4 xia4 che1 (zuo4 zi4ji3 de shi4qing2)

[Excuse me], can you let me pass, I want to get off the bus (when you are own affairs, not doing something related to work/business) (this can be used anytime/where) ("Excuse me, please let me pass")

qing3 rang4 yi2 rang4/xia4

Please let me pass (let me by you/I want to pass by you) (this is typically used during work situations or some other special time when the purpose for passing is not related to 'yourself') ( )

qing3 rang4 wo3 yi2xia4 (zuo4 zi4ji3 de shi4qing2)

Please let me pass (by you) (when you are own affairs, not doing something related to work/business) (this can be used anytime/where) ?

yao4 wo3 rang4 yi2xia4 ma

Do want me to let you pass (you want to pass me)? ?

nin2 zai4 pai2dui4 ma

Are you in line?

wo3 zai4 nin2 qian2mian4, qing3 bu2 yao4 cha1dui4

I'm in front of you, please don't butt in front (break the line). /

ta1 shi4 xian1/hou4 lai4 de

He came first/last (to wait in line)

ni3 xian1 lai2 ba

You (can) go first (in front of me)

[ ]

You're welcome ]

ni3 lai2 zhe4li3/r zuo4 ba

zai4 na3li3 shang4/xia4 che1

wo3 sui2bian4 kan4kan

rang4 wo3 zi4ji3 kan4kan hao3ma

dui4buqi3, ma2fan ni3 le

zhe4ge4 <"dong1xi"> huai4 le

wo3 lai2 na2 wo3de <"dong1xi">

qing3 ba3 na4 ben3 shu1 gei1 wo3 kan4 yi2 xia4 hao3 ma

qing3 wu4 da3 jiao3

Asking people to be quiet:

qing3 an1jing4, da4jia1 dou1 zai4 du2 shu1

qing3 xiao3sheng1 yi4dian3r

qing3 an1jing4

Please be quiet (you want complete silence)

qing1 yi4dian3r

Please be quiet (the noise (ie. a knocking/banging, usually not speech) you are making is too loud)

: ""
guan1yu2 de yong4fa3

You (can) sit here /

I [just] want to look by myself (I don't need any help/assistance)

Please be quiet, there's alot of students studying

<" "> <"

Where (can I) get on/get off the bus

I'm just looking (browsing, don't want to/not ready to buy) ?

I'm sorry for bothering you

This <"thing"> is broken ">

I (have) come to pick-up my <"thing"> ?

Please (pickup and) give me that book (so that/because) I (want) to look at it, ok?

Please (speak) a little softer (you're talking too loud)

"About" usage:
zhe4 shi4 yi4 ben3 guan1yu2 zhong1guo2 de shu1

ni3 xiang3 tan2/liao2 shen2me

What do you want to talk about? ?

ni3 xiang3 shuo1 shen2me

guan1yu2 zhe4 jian4 shi4, wo3 bu4 zhi1dao4 shei2 shi4 dui4 de

About this/regarding this (matter), I don't know who is right

:
tan2tan tian1qi4

Talking about the weather:

jin1tian1 feng1 da4

It's windy today

jin1tian1 tian1qi4 you3 yi4dian3r re4

zhe4 liang3 tian1 fei1chang2 leng3

:
sheng1huo2

Life:
zhe4ge4 dong1xi bu4 neng2 qie4shi2 de fan3ying4 zhen1shi2 de sheng1huo2

zai4 xian4shi2 sheng1huo2 dang1 zhong1/zhong1

zai4 zhen1shi2 sheng1huo2 zhong1

zai4 zhen1shi2 de sheng1huo2 dang1 zhong1

In real life...

In real (practical) life... ......

/ ?

This is a book about China

In real life...

What do you want to say?

The weather today is a little hot/It's a little hot today

It's been really cold these past two days

This thing does not (cannot) realistically represent real life / ......

......

zhen1shi2 sheng1huo2

[this is] real life

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Nine The Music of Xu Wei

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Nine The Music of Xu Wei

Notes
This chapter introduces the music of Chinese rock musician Xu Wei. His albums can be downloaded from either one of the following webpages: http://www.marchollingsworth.net/Folders/Webpages/XuWeiEC.html http://www.marchollingsworth.net/Folders/Webpages/DownloadsEC.html

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

The Music of Xu Wei :

The first time I heard Xu Wei's music was when I first arrived in China, in August of 2004. His music immediately moved me and ever since has been my constant daily companion. 's music is the perfect combination of deep and tender vocals, angelic-like guitar work and sensitive, moving lyrics. I'm using this web page as a way to introduce and his music to those who have never before heard it. I hope you will enjoy his music as much as I have. On this page you can look at 's photo album, read his biography and listen to his music. His albums can be downloaded from this page or from the Downloads page. Table of Contents I. , The Person 1. 's Photo Album 2. 's Biography II. 's Music 1. "At Another Place" 2. "That Year" 3."Through Time" 4."Every Moment is New" 5. "On The Road" 6."Love Is Like Youth" 7."A Decade of Golden Hits" I. , The Person : 1. 's Photo Album :

Portrait 2008 - in the studio Young and solo on stage Kneeling

2005 - Live in Beijing

2. 's Biography : is one of China's most prolific and successful rock musicians. He has had a musical career spanning over 20 years and to this date continues to create music. My purpose in writing this is to help people understand , the person behind the music. was born on July 21, 1968 in Xi An (xi1an1), a northwestern province in China. His father was an avid reader of Confucius (ru2jia1) and their home had a large collection of these books. As a child, as a way to encourage his son to adopt good literary habits, his father would have him recite Tang dynasty poetry (tang2shi1). 's deepest impression is when it was time to eat lunch, his parents would have him first recite a poem. Only after the poem was recited could everyone then eat. At that time, the only choice was to read, but for the young , he just wanted to be carefree and play. One time, his mother gave him a book called "1,001 Evenings" (yi4qian1ling2yi2 ye4). The book's story was fresh and magical and it was almost as if had found a brand new world. Although at that time he could not completely understand the content, curiousity would not let him put the book down, and little by little he became infatuated with the world inside. His mother was a school teacher and once a week she would take the young to the school library. It was during that time he read books such as "The Yang Family Generals" (yang2 jia1 jiang1), "All Are Brothers" (shui3 hu2 chuan2), "The Armed Forces Behind Enemy Lines" (di2hou4 wu3gong1dui4) as well as many Nobel-prize winning books. But after a while, the books in the library could no longer attract and he turned delinquent. In his freshman year of high school, he would always get into fights and was often sent to the police station. His father was deeply distressed over this, and so in 1984 at the age of 16, bought his son a guitar. He hoped it would give him something to do and that he wouldn't again want to get into trouble. No one could have ever imagined that the guitar would change 's life in the way that it did. He would practice guitar incessantly, so much that the time he spent with his guitar was more than that he spent with his family. Two years later in 1986, entered a guitar/vocal music competition in Xi An and took first place in the duet category. After this, he wrote his first song ever and from here began a zealous persistence for music. It was also in this year that abandoned his college entrance exams... (This article is still in progress......) II. 's Music : has six album releases plus a collection of singles. Each album is listed below; you can click on the

Signature on album cover given to me by my friend He Li in 2009

Photograph copy of an original given He Li in 2009 to me by my friend during Xu Wei's visit to Yunnan, Hong He in 2005

album cover to download the entire album (in ZIP file format). In some cases, I have taken the original Chinese lyrics and translated them into English. In that case, you can also click on the lyrics link to download and read the lyrics. As time permits, I'll add more of his song lyrics to this web page. 1. "At Another Place" - 1997 (zai4 bie2chu4)

Song Title: 1. My Autumn 2. At Another Place 3. The City I Miss 4. Tree 5. Perpetual 6. II Bluebird II 7. Water Sprite 8. The Road's End 9. Quietly Silent 10. Far Away 2. "That Year" - 2000 (na4 yi4nian2)

Lyrics:

Song Title: 1. Bluebird 2. Two Days 3. Tonight 4. Simple 5. Hometown 6. September 7. Direction 8. Flow 9. Warm 10. Light Of The Twinkling Space 11. Lover 12. That Year

Lyrics:

o o

3. "Through Time" - 2002 (shi2guang1 man3bu4)

Song Title: 1. The Swan's Travels 2. Perfect Life 3. Time 4. Blue Lotus Flower 5. One Day 6. A Gift 7. Roaming 8. Starry Sky 9. Summer's Day Wind 10. Flat

Lyrics: o

4. "Every Moment is New" - 2004 (mei3 yi2ke4 dou1 shi4 zhan3xin1 de)

Song Title: 1. Pure, Sincere 2. Journey 3. The Former You 4. Go To Drink Tea 5. Sit And Watch The Rising Clouds 6. The Autumn Sea 7. Warm Season 8. Every Moment Is New 9. Heart Forever Free 10. The Fingerlings Ideal 11. Remote Sky 5. "On The Road" - 2006 (zai4 lu4 shang4)

Lyrics: o

This album is a compilation of songs that he wrote primarily for other artists to perform. Song Title: Lyrics: 1. Sunny Day 2. Rainbow 3. You 4. Free Like The Wind 5. There 6. Lilac 7. Pure 8. Free and Easy 9. Hallucination 10. Persistence o 11. Bluebird (alternate version) 12. Two Days (alternate version) 6. "Love Is Like Youth" - 2008 (ai4 ru2 shao4nian2)

Song Title: 1. Love 2. Rosy Clouds Peak 3. Story 4. Us 5. Home 6. Beautiful Woman 7. Happiness 8. Angel 9. The Road 10. Unforgettable Day 11. The Four Seasons 12. Youth 13. Quickly

Lyrics:

7. "A Decade of Golden Hits" - 2007 (huang2jin2 shi2nian2)

The following singles were released on this album.

Song Title: 1. The Door of Promise 2. A Gift * 3. A Record of Changes 4. Longing 5. Persistence (alternate version)

Lyrics:

* a different song from that of " A Gift" found on the album "Through Time"

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Chapter Ten Words of Encouragement

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

Words of Encouragement: :
guan1yu2 gu3li4 de jing1cai3 duan3ju4

, .
dang1 nan2guo4 de shi2hou, wo3 xi1wang4 zhe4xie1 hua4 neng2 an1wei4, zhi1chi2 he2 gu3li4 ni3

During times of difficulty, I hope these words are able to comfort, support and encourage you.

xi1wang4 ni3 zai4 ren2sheng1 lu4shang4 tan3dan4 yong3gan3 de qu4 mian4dui4 ni3de sheng1huo2

Hope that on life's road you broadly and bravely go face your life

, , ......
......dan4shi4, zhi3 yao4 ni3 bu2 pa4, ni3 jiu4 yi2ding4 neng2 shi2xian4 ni2de ke3wang4

...But if you're only not afraid, you can certainly realize what you long for

......, ......
......sheng1ming4 guo4de zen3meyang4, zui4 zhong4yao4 hai2shi4 qu3jue2yu2 zi4ji3 de xin1tai4......kan4 ni3 zen3me qu4 dui4dai4

...(Regardless of) how life is going/spent, most important is relying on your attitude/psychology...look at how you go handle it (a difficulty)

ying1gai1 xiang1xin4 zi4ji3 shi4 zhe4ge shi4shang4 zui4 xing4yun de ren2

(Should) believing in yourself is this world's most fortunate/lucky person

......
......ren4zhen1 de mian4dui4 zi4ji3 de sheng1huo2

...Conscientiously facing your life

cong2 xin1 kai1shi3

Start from the (your) heart

rang4 ai4 fei1yang2

Let (your) love rise/fly upward

 ............
......xi3huan ji1ji2 yi4dian3 de tai4du4......xi3huan ji1ji2 yi4dian3 wang3qian2kan4

...Like a positive attitude...like to positively look forward

......,
......you3 xie1 gan3qing2 de hua4, wo3 xiang1xin4 mai2 zai4 xin1 di3

...there are some feelings/affection, I believe are buried in the bottom of the heart

...... ............
......shei2 dou1 you3 ji1hui4......zuo4 zui4hao3 de zi4ji3......ni3neng2

...Everyone has a chance...do your best/make yourself the best you can...You can!

xiang3 de2dao4 bi3ci3 de zhen1ai4 shi4 ren2lei4 de tian1xing4

Wanting to obtain mutual real love is mankind's natural instinct

,
xi1wang4 ni3 mei3 yi4 tian1 dou1 neng2gou4 gao4su4 zi4ji3, zi4ji3 bing4 bu4 ke3lian2

Hope you everyday are able to tell yourself, you are not pitiful

ba3 zi4ji3 de xin1men2 chang3kai1

Open wide the door of your heart

,
ai4 yi2 ge4 ren2 bu4 yi2ding4 yao4 yong1you3, dan4shi4

When you love a person, it's not certain you will own them, but

yong1you3 yi2ge4 ren2 jiu4 yi2ding4 yao4 hao3hao1r de qu4 ai4 ta1

if you possess a person, it's certain that you must properly love him

wo3 yong3yuan3 ai4 ni3

I will forever love you

ba3 zui4 mei3hao3 de dong1xi na2 chu1lai2 gong4xiang3

Grasp and hold the most bright and beautiful things, bring them out and share them

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Appendix

This Appendix exists in two locations. 1. The first location is at the end of this book in the file called ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChinese.pdf 2. The second location is as a stand-alone appendix in the file called ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChineseAppendix.pdf Some of the chapters make use of a variety of different indexes, lists and tables. In order to facilitate to the user greater ease of navigation within a chapter, I decided to create this stand-alone version of the appendix. While reading this book, if you come across a chapter that seems too difficult to navigate, you can load the ASimplifiedGuideToLearningChineseAppendix.pdf file into your Adobe Reader and refer to it as needed during any particular chapter.

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Appendix Table of Contents

Character Frequency List Character Lookup Index Difficult To Lookup Character Index Radical Index Shape Radical Index Sound Radical Index Stroke Count Character Lookup Index

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

Character Frequency List:

chang2yong4 zi4 biao3

The following is a list of the 500 most frequently used characters in the Chinese language. The list contains three columns: 1. The first column is the Freq. # (frequency ranking) which shows where the character resides in terms of frequency of occurence in the Chinese language (a ranking from 1 - 500 with the most frequently occuring character ranked as 1 and the least frequently occuring character ranked as 500) 2. The second column is the Chinese character which contains the character as well it's pinyin (pronunciation) 3. The third column Definition is a brief English definition of the character.

Freq. # 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22.

Chinese character: - de

Definition: of one a grammatical aspect particle is I not at, on, in person indicates plural have come he, his this upper, go a grammatical particle indicating continuous action a grammatical classifier mainly used with numbers a grammatical particle which when describing an action turns an adjective into an adverb arrive, to big inside speak just

- yi1 - le - shi4 - wo3 - bu4 - zai4 - ren2 - men2 - you3 - lai2 - ta1 - zhe4 - shang4 - zhe - ge4 - de - dao4 - da4 - li3 - shuo1 - just

23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48. 49. 50. 51. 52. 53. 54. 55. 56. 57. 58. 59.

- qu4 - zi3 - de - ye3 - he2 - na4 - yao4 - xia4 - kan4 - tian1 - shi2 - guo4 - chu1 - xiao3 - me - qi3 - ni3 - dou1 - ba3 - hao3 - hai2 - duo1 - mei2 - wei4 - you4 - ke3 - jia1 - xue2 - zhi3 - yi3 - zhu3 - hui4 - yang4 - nian2 - xiang3 - neng2 - sheng1

go a grammatical particle used to distinguish certain kinds of nouns a grammatical particle used after a verb to mark a compliment of degree or result also and that want, will, require below see sky time cross come out small a grammatical suffix rise you all a grammatical classifier for things that one can hold good stilll more negative word for the word have (you3) all again can home study only in order to, according to main, owner able to, likely to kind, type year think, miss can give birth to, be struck with, raw

60. 61. 62. 63. 64. 65. 66. 67. 68. 69. 70. 71. 72. 73. 74. 75. 76. 77. 78. 79. 80. ......

- tong2 - lao3 - zhong1 - shi2 - cong2 - zi4 - mian4 - qian2 - tou2 - dao4 - ta1 - hou4 - ran2 - zou3 - hen3 - xiang4 - jian4 - liang3 - yong4 - ta1 - guo2

same old middle ten from self face before head path all after however walk very similar meet two use she country

(This webpage is currently under construction... ......) 500.

- xi4

thin

Character Look-up Index:

jian3zi4 biao3

The diagram shown below is an example of a Character Look-up Index as it appears in an actual Chinese dictionary. It contains a list of every character in the Chinese language. It is organized as follows: 1. The radical number contained in parenthesis. The radical number originates from the Radical Index . 2. Below each radical number is an image of the actual radical. 3. Below the radical image is a listing of the characters that contain that radical, sorted by stroke count. An example will clarify this organization: 1. First, find radical number (32) in the index. 2. The radical image for radical number (32) is (san1dian3shui3). Note bu4 next to the radical simply means "part/component" 3. Below the radical image is a listing of all the characters that contain , sorted by stroke count . It's important to note that the stroke count does not include/count the number of strokes in the radical. The stroke count only includes the strokes of the parts/components of the character that are not the radical. 4. Those characters containing 2 - 3 strokes are listed first and are indicated by the following heading: . For example, the character zhi1 is listed here because it's right side component contains 2 strokes - a heng2 horizontal stroke and a shu4 vertical stroke. Those characters containing 4 strokes are listed next and are indicated by the following heading . This organization structure continues down to the last heading which contains the characters having 17 or more strokes, indicated by the heading . You will also notice that some characters are contained in parenthesis. The parenthesis indicates that the character is a Traditional (complex) character and not a Simplified (modern) character . For example, under the 8 Stroke heading, the 8th character down is lei4, It is contained in parenthesis and so is therefore a traditional (complex) character. 5. You will also notice to the right of each character is Chinese pinyin. This pinyin is the pronunciation of the respective character and is used by the reader as an indexing mechanism into the dictionary. For example, the character is pronounced "zhi1". To find the definition of zhi1 in the dictionary, the reader would page to the section of the dictionary where the characters whose first letter of pinyin is "Z" are located, and then search for the character in the dictionary's lists of characters.

Difficult To Look-up Characters Index:

nan2jian3zi4biao3

Below is a list of the most common Independent Characters and Difficult To Look-up Characters sorted by stroke count and accompanied by pinyin. After you have located the character you wish to look-up in this index, you can then use the character's pinyin to alphabetically find the character in your dictionary. Notes: 1. If a character is contained in parenthesis ( ), it means that the character is a Traditional character and not a Simplified Character . 2. If a character is contained in brackets [ ], it means that the character is a Unusual Character (unusual in structure/shape). 3. The radical for each character is indicated by a notation of {r=} followed by the radical. This will be helpful if in the future you again need to look-up the same character. At that time you will then already know the character's radical and can just use the Radical Method to look-up the character in your dictionary. Notice that many of the character's radicals are actually the first stroke of the character. One Stroke: O ling2, yi1, le/liao3, yi3 Two Strokes: ba1 {r=}, ji3 {r=}, jiu3 {r=}, qi1 {r=}, you4 {r=}, ren2 {r=}, li4 {r=}, ding1/zheng1 {r=}, bi3 {r=}, nai3 {r=}, diao1 {r=}, mie1/nie4 {r=} Three Strokes: {r=} da4, kou3 {r=}, ma3 {r=}, nv3 {r=}, gan1/gan4 r={}, men2 r={}, gong1 {r=}, xia4 {r=}, xiao3 {r=} , xi2 {r=}, ye3 {r=}, shang1/shang4 {r=}, yi3 {r=}, san1 {r=}, yu2 {r=}, kui1 {r=}, zhang4 {r=}, wan4/mo4 {r=}, yu2/yu3/yu4 {r=}, cai2 {r=}, qi3 {r=}, chuan1 {r=}, yi4 {r=}, [] wang2, wan2 {r=}, me {r=}, jiu3 {r= }, ji2 {r=}, ya1 {r=}, zhi1 {r=}, wei4 {r=}, fei1 {r=}, jie2 {r=}, xiang1 {r=}, jue2 {r=} Four Strokes: feng1 {r=}, qi2 {r=}, jing3 {r=}, tian1 {r=}, fu1/fu2 {r=}, yuan2 {r=}, wu2/mo2 {r=}, yun2 {r=}, zhuan1 {r=}, gai4 {r=}, nian4 {r=}, () za1, sa4 {r=}, zhun1/tun2 {r=}, hu4 {r=}, ya2 {r=}, [] ran3, zhong1/zhong4 {r=}, wu3 {r=}, ren2 {r=}, yao1 {r=}, sheng1 {r=}, wu3 {r=}, [] za1, bu4 {r=}, fan3 {r=}, gong1 {r=}, ban4 {r=}, ba1 {r=}, xin1 {r=}, jian4 {r=}, shu1 {r=}, ri4 {r=}, qi4 {r=}, che1 {r=}, bi3 {r=}, pian4 {r=}, wen2 {r=}, yue4 {r=}, kai1 {r=}, wei2/wei4 {r=}, shou3 {r=}, chang2/zhang3 {r=}, yao2 {r=}, fa2 {r=}, dan1 {r=}, shi4/zhi1 {r=}, wu1/wu4 {r=}, bian4 {r=}, yin3 {r=}, guai4 {r=}, che3/chi3 {r=}, [] diao4, chou3 {r=}, yi3 {r=}, yu2/yu3 {r=} Five Strokes: ran3 {r=}, bai2 {r=}, ben3 {r=}, dong1 {r=}, ju1/qie3 {r=}, si4 {r=}, yong4 {r=}, dian4 {r=, }, pi2 {r=}, ban4 {r=}, chu1 {r=, }, wei4 {r=}, mo4 {r=}, ji1 {r=}, jian1 {r=}, zheng1/zheng4 {r=}, gan1 {r=}, shi4 {r=}, shu4/zhu2 {r=}, pi1 {r=}, ke3/ke4 {r=}, bing3 {r=}, zuo3 {r=}, you4 {r=}, bu4 {r= }, wu4 {r=}, ping2 {r=}, ka3/qia3 {r=}, bei3 {r=}, tu1 {r=}, gui1 {r=}, shen1 {r=}, jia3 {r=}, you2 {r=}, shi3 {r=}, yang1 {r=}, () ce4, ce4 {r=}, ao1 {r= }, sheng1 {r=}, ga3 {r=}, shi1 {r=}, zha4 {r=}, qiu1 {r=}, chi4 {r=}, zhi1 {r= }, hu1 {r=}, cong2 {r=}, di1/di3 {r=}, shuai3 {r=}, cong1 {r=}, le4/yue4 {r=},

bao1 {r=}, lan2 {r=}, tou2 {r=}, bi4 {r=}, si1 {r=}, min2 {r=}, fu2 {r=}, [] pi3, si1 {r=} Six Strokes: tong2 {r=}, xi1 {r=}, mi3 {r=}, zi4 {r=}, nian2 {r=}, rong2 {r=}, kao3 {r=}, ya4 {r=}, gen4 {r=}, zai4 {r=}, li4 {r=}, qu/xu1 {r=}, zai4 {r=}, bai3/bo2 {r=}, er2 {r=}, shu4 {r=}, si3 {r=}, [] gen4, ga1/jia1/jia2 {r=}, yao2 {r=}, ji1 {r=}, shi1 {r=}, ye4 {r=}, qu1/qu3 {r=}, rou4 {r=}, zhu1 {r=}, diu1 {r=}, qiao2 {r=}, ping1 {r=}, pang1 {r=}, xiang4 {r=}, xin4 {r=}, hou4 {r=}, lu4 {r=}, zhao4 {r= }, chan3 {r=}, guan1 {r=}, zhou1 {r=}, xing1/xing4 {r=}, nong2 {r=}, jin3/jin4 {r= }, du1 {r=}, mai3 {r=}, cheng2 {r=} Seven Strokes: shen1 {r=}, yan2 {r=}, li3 {r=}, jie4 {r=}, yan2 {r=}, wu1 {r=}, fu3 {r=}, geng1/geng4 {r=}, shu4 {r=}, liang3 {r=}, li2/li4 {r=}, qiu2 {r=}, lai2 {r=}, mi3 {r=}, chuan4 {r=}, wo3 {r=}, [] tu4, cong1 {r=}, [] zhi1, xi1 {r=}, zuo4 {r=}, gui1/jun/qiu1 {r=}, luan3 {r=}, dao3 {r=}, dui4 {r=}, di4 {r=}, jun1 {r=} Eight Strokes: yu3 {r=}, feng {r=}, wu3 {r=}, biao3 {r=}, () chang2/zhang3, zhe3 {r=}, () ya4, sang1 {r=}, () dong1, huo4 {r=}, shi4 {r=}, () liang3, zao3 {r=}, mai4 {r=}, () lai2, fei1 {r=}, xie1 {r=}, guo3 {r=}, chang4 {r=}, chui2 {r=}, guai1 {r=}, bing3 {r=}, yu2 {r=}, ru3 {r=}, xiao1 {r=}, mang2/meng2 {r=}, juan3/juan4 {r=}, chan2/dan1/shan4 {r=}, su4 {r=}, li4 {r=}, cheng2 {r=}, ji2/qi4 {r=}, jin3 {r=} Nine Strokes: yin1 {r=}, zou4 {r=}, zai1 {r=}, shen4 {r=}, hang4/xiang4 {r=}, jian3 {r=}, wai1 {r=}, mian4 {r=}, jiu3 {r=}, lin2 {r=}, yu2 {r=}, you1 {r=}, bai4 {r=}, chong2/zhong4 {r=}, yu3 {r=}, qiu2 {r=}, yin4 {r=}, [] miao4, yang3 {r=}, [] chuang4, pan4 {r=}, shou3 {r=}, ju3 {r=}, zhou4 {r=}, zhi3 {r=}, [] fei1, gui3 {r=} Ten Strokes: yan4 {r=}, yuan2 {r=}, yu4 {r=}, ge1 {r=}, ge2 {r=}, nao1 {r=}, () xie4, cheng2/sheng4 {r=}, () dao3, () shi1, chang4 {r=}, () mu3, li2 {r=}, () chuang2, ruo4 {r=}, neng2 {r=} Eleven Strokes: yan {r=}, () zhi2, jin3 {r=}, huang2 {r=}, qian2 {r=}, () gan1, se4 {r=}, () zhuan1, qi1 {r=}, pao2 {r=}, shuang3 {r=}, chi2/shi {r=}, [] wu3, () xiao1, xiang4 {r=}, gou4 {r=}, kui2 {r=}, [] gou4, shu2 {r=}, () chan3, shou4 {r=}, nu3 {r=} Twelve Strokes: () yao2, [] zhe2, () bao4, () sang1/sang4, [] su1, ji2 {r=}, () zao3, bi4 {r=}, hui1 {r= }, () chan2/dan1/shan4, sheng1 {r=}, () qiao2, () zhong4, yue4 {r=}, shu1 {r=}, jiu4 {r=}, ku4 {r=}, qiu2 {r=}, () fa1, () ji1/ji3 Thirteen Strokes: gu3 {r=}, () sheng4, [] xian3, [] gan1, () se4, si4, () luan4, () qiong2, () su4, () hui, die2 {r=} Fourteen Strokes: ai4 {r=}, jia1 {r=}, () tai2, jie2 {r=}, he4 {r=}, () shou4, [] gan1, wo4 {r=},

jing1 {r=}, gu3 {r=}, () er3, zang1 {r=}, () qiu2, huo3 {r=}, () chang4, wu3 {r=}, yu4 [r=}, gao1 {r=}, nai4 {r=}, fu1 {r=}, yi2 {r=}, ji4 {r=} Fifteen Strokes: [] mao2, [] mao2, shi4 {r=}, dai4 {r=}, ze2 {r=}, () you1, zi1 {r=}, kao4 {r=}, [] pu4, guo2 {r=}, xie2 {r=}, yu4 {r=} Sixteen Strokes: [] li4, tian2 {r=}, han4 {r=}, e4 {r=}, zheng3 {r=}, zhen1 {r=}, () ju3, [] guan3, [] yan4, ying2 {r=} Seventeen Strokes: dai4 {r=}, () li4, bin1 {r=}, () kui1, (), bi4, nian2 {r=}, jue2 {r=}, ying2 {r=}, guo2 {r=}, () xiang4 Eighteen Strokes: [] li2, gui1 {r=}, () dong1, () yi1, () gui1, () gui1/jun1/qiu1, chan3 {r=} Nineteen Strokes: pi2 {r=}, () wa1, tao2 {r=}, luo3 {r=}, lei2 {r=}, jiang1 {r=} Twenty Strokes and above: xin1 {r=}, yao4 {r=}, () ku4, pi2 {r=}, pin2 {r=}, [] gan4, gan4 {r=}, [] luo3, yi4 {r=}, nang1/nang2 {r=}, () chan3, () dai4, () ji1, () luo2, juan1 {r= }, dao4 {r=}, () yan4, chu4 {r=}, [] ai4, () xin4, [] yan4, () yu4

Radical Index:

bu4shou3 biao3

Radicals are the indexing mechanism for looking-up characters in a dictionary. The Radical Index lists all of the radicals contained in the Chinese language. The index is sorted by radical stroke count with those radicals containing the least number of strokes listed first. The index contains 5 columns: 1. Bushou - The first column is labeled Bushou (bu4shou3) and displays the actual radical as it would appear inside a character. 2. Name - The second column is labeled Name (ming2cheng1) and contains the name of the radical in both Chinese and English. In general, radicals are named / categorized based on the radical's location in a character. There are 6 basic radical categories: 1. Stroke (bi3hua4) - These are radicals that contain just one stroke. They are located under the column called "One Stroke Radicals". For example (heng2 - Horizontal) is a stroke-type radical because it contains just one stroke. These kinds of radicals are often found in Independent Characters . 2. Head (tou2) - These are radicals that tend to be located on or around the top of a character. For example (xiao3zi4tou2 - Small head) is a Head-type radical because in the character sheng3 (province), it is located at the top of the character. 3. Cover (gai4) - These are radicals that function as a cover or a top to a character. For example, (guang3zi4tou2 - Room/Building head) is a Cover-type radical because in the character dian4 (a store), it is covering the inside component (). 4. Frame (kuang4) - These are radicals that function as a frame around a character. For example, (men2zi4kuang4 - Door frame) is a Frame-type radical because in the character jian1 (room), it frames the inside component (). 5. Side (pang2) - These are radicals that tend to be located on the side / are flanking a character. For example, (jin1zi4pang2 - Gold radical) is a Side-type radical because in the character zhong1 (a bell), it is located on the left-side of the component. 6. Bottom (di3) - These are radicals that tend to be located on the bottom of a character. For example, (min3zi4di3 - Vessel/container bottom) is a Bottom-type radical because in the character jian1 (inspect), it is located on the bottom-side of the character. 3. Definition - The definition column provides of definition to the radical. However, this is just a general definition and is not to say that all of the characters which contain the specified radical have a meaning exactly related to the definition of the radical. For example:

The (li4dao1pang2 - Standing knife) radical has a definition of: " Related to hard things or knife". However the characters gang1 defined as " just now " and bie2 defined as " don't " are not tightly related to the the definition of the radical " knife ". Yet in some cases, a person may believe the radical and these characters are related in meaning. For example, gang1 " just now " implies something just happened, a split second of time whose duration is very short, thin like that on the blade of a knife. We could also say the same thing about bie2 " don't ", where we use this word to urge someone not to do something, but in the event the person does not listen to an urging, perhaps the consequences could be severe, similiar to the injury a sharp knife blade is capable of inflicting. 4. Sample Characters - The sample characters contain examples of characters that contain the specified radical. When looking at the sample characters, pay particular attention to the position of the radical inside the character and notice how the radical can change shape and position depending on any given character. Realizing that radicals can change shape and position inside a character will greatly help you in identifying the character when you encounter it at a later time. It will also help you develop a rapid skill for looking up characters in a dictionary. In addition, when looking at the sample characters, pay attention to the character structure of the character and try to identify which of the Character Structures the character belongs. If the radical can itself be a radical, then it will be listed as the first character in the examples. For ease of understanding, a brief English definition of each sample character is also provided. 5. Radical Shape Variations - Once a radical resides inside a character, there is a tendency for the radical to assume a change in shape. The Radical Shape Variations column attempts to provide the reader these variations. The following example provides a suggested way in which to use the entries contained in this Radical Index . Example: The radical is located in the Seven Stroke Radicals section of the Radical Index: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations:

zu2zi4pang2 - Foot, ample radical Related to foot zu2 - foot, ample, pao3 - run, tiao4 - jump, lu4 - road, gen1 - with, bie2 - sprain In the above example, the is the Bushou (radical). It's Chinese name is "zu2zi4pang2" and

it's English name is called "Foot, ample radical". It has a definition of " Related to foot". Notice that in the sample characters, is the first character in the list, so this indicates that the radical is also a character named zu2. We also see that although is a Side radical, the sample characters represent 3 different kinds of character structures: zu2 is an Independent character and so thus is an Independent Character Structure. pao3, tiao4, lu4 and gen1 are all Compound Component Characters and so are thus Compound Component Character Structures of the Left-Right Structure type (the characters are horizontally structured with two components: one on the left and one on the right). bie2 is also a Compound Component Character and so is also thus a Compound Component Character Structures of the Top-Bottom Structure type. Finally, we see that when the radical resides in characters that are of the Left-Right Structure type, the radical has a shape variation of .

One Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: dian3 - Dot None yi4 - meaning, tou2 - head, zhi1 - a pronoun heng2 - Horizontal None yi1 - one, san1 - three, ding4 - cubes, gan1 - dry, shang4 - above, xia4 - below - Vertical shu4 None zhong1 - center, feng1 - plentiful - Left-Falling pie3 None jiu3 - nine, nai3 - be, bi3 - spoon heng2zhe2wan1gou1 - Horizontal Bend Curve Hook None yi3 - (the) second, ye3 - also, fei1 - fly, xi2 - practice , ,

Two Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: liu4zi4tou2 - Six Head "" None, similar to the number 6

wang2 - forget, jiao1 - teach, shi4 - city liang3dian3shui3 - Two water drops Related to cold chong1 - rinse, kuang1 - condition tu1bao3gai4 - Bare cover Related to a cover, the covering of things xie3 - write, jun1 - army yan2zi4pang2 - Language radical Related to speaking yan2 - character, word, ji4 - write down, rang4 - to let er2zi4pang2 - Two radical None er4 - two, kai1 - open, yun2 - cloud shi2zi4pang2 - Ten radical None shi2 - ten, hua2 - magnificent, xie2 - assist chang3zi4pang2 - Factory radical Related to roof chang3 - factory, ting1 - hall, li4 - experience san1kuang4er3 - Three-sided frame None qu1 - district, yi1 - medicine bu3zi4pang2 - Divination radical None bu3 - divination, wai4 - outside, wo4 - lie(down), zhen1 - loyal, ka3 - card, zhan4 - occupy, zhuo1 - table - Standing knife radical li4dao1pang2 Related to hard things or knife gang1 - just now, bie2 - don't tong2zi4kuang4 - In-common frame None tong2 - common,same, rou4 - meat /ba1zi4tou2/di3 - Eight head/bottom None ba1 - eight, gong1 - public, fen1 - separate, bing4 - not, guan1 - close, di4 - brother, shou3 - head (first), qian2 - before, xing1 - prosper, zhen1 - real, dian3 - standard work, ,

ren2zi4pang2 - Person radical Related to people or things that are propped up Has a meaning to cover things ren2 - person, cong2 - from, yi3 - according to, jin1 - today, san3 - umbrella, na2 - get, wu1 - wizard dan1ren2pang2 - Single person radical Related to people shen2 - what, xiu1 - rest bao1zi4tou2 - Wrap head None shao2 - spoon , wu4 - not /er3zi4tou2/di3 - Child head/bottom None er3 - child, chong1 - to fill, guang1 - light, xian1 - first /ji3zi4tou2/di3 - Ancient seated mat head/bottom None ji3 - how many, feng1 - wind, fan2 - ordinary, kai3 - triumphant, ping2 - based on si1zi4tou2 - Personal head None qu4 - go, tai2 - platform, can1 - join, neng2 - can you4zi4pang2 - Repeat radical Related to the hand you4 - again, huan1 - cheerful, fa1 - send out bian4 - change, shou4 - receive, shu1 - uncle jian4zhi1pang2 - Construct radical None ting2 - feudal court , jian4 - build dan1er3dao1 - Single-ear knife None wei4 - protect, yin4 - mark(stamp), que4 - yet, wei1 - danger, juan3 - rolled zuo3er3dao1, shuang1er3dao1 - Left-ear knife, Double-ear knife Related to area dui4 - team, yuan4 - courtyard, pei2 - accompany, sui2 -along with you4er3dao1, shuang1er3dao1 - Right-ear knife, Double-ear knife , Related to city, fence na4 - that, you2 - postal, dou1 - all, bu4 - part kan3zi4pang2 - 3-side enclosure radical None

()

()

ji1 - strike, chu1 - out, tu1 - protruding, ao1 - concave, you1 - secluded dao4zi4pang2 - Knife radical Related to knife dao1 - knife, ren4 - blade edge, qie1 - to cut, fen1 - separate, zhao4 - convene, chu2 - hay, wei1 - danger, xiang4 - resemble, jian3 - to cut li4zi4pang2 - Strength radical Related to strength li4 - strength, ban4 - handle (a matter), quan2 - a right, jia1 - to add, wu4 - affair (business), nan2 - man

Three Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: san1dian3shui3 - Three water drop Related to water mei2 - not, qi4 - steam, vapor, fa3 - method shu4xin1pang2 - Vertical heart radical Related to mood qing2 - feelings, affection, mang2 - busy, kuai - fast bao3gai4tou2 - Cover/Roof head Related to building, room, roof etc. wan2 - finish, su4 - lodge, jia1 - home jiang1zi4pang2 - Support radical None - will, going to, zhuang4 - strong, zhuang4 - strong jiang1 guang3zi4tou2 - Room/Building head Related to house guang3 - wide, vast, dian4 - a store, zuo4 - seat, kang4 - health men2zi4kuang4 - Door frame Related to door men2 - door, gate, bi4 - shut, jian1 - room, wen4 - ask zou3zhi1pang2 - Walking radical Related to walking bian1 - side, guo4 - past, zhe4 - this, jin4 - near gong1zi4pang2 - Labor radical

None gong1 - labor, zuo3 - left, qiao3 - ingenious, shi4 - type, gong4 - tribute, wu1 - wizard, cha1 - difference ti2tu3pang2 - Up from the ground radical Related to ground - tu3 - soil, earth, qu4 - go, zai4 - at, zhi4 - to, until, di4 - floor, chang3 - site, si4 - temple, zuo4 - sit shi4zi4tou2 - Scholar, soldier head Related to scholar, soldier shi4 - scholar, soldier, zhuang4 - strong, zhi4 - will, aspiration, ji2 - lucky, sheng1 - sound, xi3 - pleased , gu3 - drum cao3zi4tou2 - Grass head Related to plants hua1 - flower, ku3 - bitter, ping2 - duckweed, fei3 - humble, jun1 - fungus da4zi4tou2 - Large head None da4 - big, tai4 - too, yang1 - centre, kua1 - praise, jian1 - tip, feng4 - revere, ji4 - send, mei3 - beautiful nong4zi4di3 - Do/play with/fetch bottom None hui4 - grass, yi4 - different, unusual, nong4 - do, play with, fetch you2zi4pang4 - Particular radical None you2 - particularly, wang1 - rickety, gan1ga4 - feel awkard cun4zi4pang2 - Unit of measurement radical None cun4 - very short, dui4 - right, si4 - temple, shou4 - longevity, jiang1 - will yi4zi4pang2 - Arrow radical None shi4 - style, yuan1 - a bird of prey ti2shou3pang4 - Lifting-hand radical Related to seek, hit, beckon, wave da3 - hit, zhi3 - point, zhi2 - persist xiao3zi4tou2 - Small head None xiao3 - small, jian1 - needle, shao3 - few, er3 - you(ancient), guang1 - light, dang1 - to be, sheng3 - province, chang2 - to taste, hui1 - shine kou3zi4pang2 - Mouth radical

Related to the mouth and things that are eatten kou3 - opening, gu3 - ancient, ye4 - leaf, you4 - right side, ke3 - can, hao4 - number, zhi3 - only, zhi1 - know, chi1 - eat, zhou4 - malediction, zui3 - mouth, a1 - eh, e4 - shocking, qi4 - a ware fang1kuang4er3 - Pane/frame Related to circumference and boundary qiu2 - imprison, yuan2 - round, tu2 - picture, hui2 - return /jin1zi4pang2/di3 - Cloth radical/bottom Related to cloth jin1 - piece of cloth, bi4 - coin, shi4 - city, bu4 - cloth, shi1 - skilled, diao4 - a string of sth., zhang4 - account book, credit, chang2 - often, bang1 - help shan1zi4pang2 - Mountain radical Related to mountain shan1 - mountain, yu3 - island, sui4 - year, cha4 - fork, dao3 - island, you1 - secluded shuang1ren2pang2 - Two-person radical Related to people hang2 - line, row, de - grammar particle, hen3 - very, jie1 - street san3pie3er3 - Three left-falling strokes Related to hair xing2 - shape, can1 - join, xu1 - beard, biao1 - clear, evident, yiing3 - image xi1zi4pang2 - Evening radical Related to evening xi1 - evening, chuan3 - to be in error, ming2 - name, sui4 - year, duo1 - alot, meng4 - dream dong1zi4tou2 - Winter head None dong1 - winter, chu4 - location, wu4 - (business) affair, fu4 - again fan3quan3pang2 - Reversed dog radical Related to animals fan4 - infract, gou3 - dog, zheng1 - ferocious, lang2 - wolf, kuang2 - crazy shi2zi4pang2 - Food radical Related to food fan4 - rice, guan3 - shop, jiao3 - dumpling xue3zi4pang2 - Snow radical None gui1 - return to, ling2 - clever, xun2 - seek

shi1zi4tou2 Corpse radical Related to human/animal body and housing shi1 - corpse, chi3 - unit of length, ju2 - office bureau, jin4 - utmost, ceng2 - storey /ji3zi4tou2/di3 - Oneself head/bottom None ji3 - oneself, ba1 - bar, bao1 - bag, yi3 - already, dao3 - guide, qi3 - how, ji4 - jealous, hang4 - alley gong1zi4pang2 - Bow radical Related to bowstring gong1 - bow, yin3 - cite, zhang1 - spread, xian2 - string, wan1 - curve, tan2 - pluck che4zi4pang2 - Ancient grass radical None cao3 - grass, chi1 - ignorant, chu2 - fodder nv3zi4pang2 - Female radical Related to the female sex nv3 - female, nai3 - breast, wang4 - absurd, ru2 - such, ta1 - she

yao1zi4pang2 - Young, small radical None xiang1 - native place, rural, huan4 - illusory, you4 - young, you1 - secluded, ci2 - now zi3zi4pang2 - Child radical Related to child zi3 - child, jie2 - lonely, kong3 - hole, hai2 - child, cun2 - deposit, xue2 - study, meng4 - eldest brother jiao3si1pang2 - Wrap silk radical Related to silk hong2 - red, yue1 - invite, xian4 - string, zong1 - sum-up, xu4 - continue ma3zi4pang2 - Horse radical Related to horse ma3 - horse, chuang3 - rush, chi2 - gallop, qi2 - ride, jia4 - drive, teng2 - gallop, ma4 - to curse at sbdy chuan1zi4pang2 - River radical None chao1 - suppress, yong1 - harmonious, zai1 - calamity

Four Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name:

 Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: si4dian3di3 - Four-point bottom Related to fire and heat dian3 - a point, re4 - heat, zhu1 - cook, ran2 - however, zhao4 - photo Ancient drinking cup radical dou3zi4pang2 Related to household utensils/wares dou3 - cup, zhen1 - pour, wo4 - to turn sth wen2zi4pang4 - Character, writing radical Related to literature wen2 - character, qi2 - complete, lin4 - stingy, wen3 - confused, qian2 - sincere, ban1 - speckle fang1zi4pang2 - Direction radical None fang1 - direction, fang2 - house, fang4 - put, lv3 - travel, pang2 - beside huo3zi4pang2 - Fire radical Related to fire huo3 - fire, deng1 - lamp, geng3 - honest, just, mie2 - extinguish, zai1 - disaster, hui1 - ash, ling2 - quick , zhi4 - roast, yan2 - inflammation, tang4 - very hot, xin1zi4di3 - Heart bottom Related to heart xin1 - heart, bi4 - must, wang4 - forget, ji4 - anxious, men4 - depressed hu4zi4tou2 - Door head Related to door hu4 - door, fang2 - house, bian3 - is flat, suo3 - place shi4zi4pang2 - Show radical Has a benedictory meaning li3 - ceremony, shi4 - watch, shen2 - spirit wang2zi4pang2 - King radical Related to king, money, valuables wang2 - king, zhu3 - owner, quan2 - complete, nong4 - do, wan2 - play, huang2 - sovereign, xi3 - seal, wang4 - hope, qin2 - musical instrument, e4 - shocking wei3zi4pang2 - Leather radical None wei2 - leather, ren4 - tenacious, tao1 - conceal mu4zi4pang2 - Wood radical Related to tree, plants and wood

mu4 - wood, shu4 - skill, ben3 - this, wei4 - not, mo4 - end, tip, zhu1 - vermilion, zha2 - wood strip, ji1 - chance, chuang2 - bed , sha1 - kill, duo3 - flower, za2 - mixed, xing4 - apricot, shu4 - bind, tiao2 - strip, zao3 - date quan3zi4pang2 - Dog radical Related to dog quan3 - dog, zhuang4 - account, xian4 - offer, li4 - crime, ku1 - cry dai3zi4pang4 - Evil radical Related to doom dai3 - evil, lie4 - kind, arrange, si3 - die, su4 - early in the morning, bi4 - to be killed che1zi4pang2 - Vehicle radical Related to vehicle che1 - vehicle, ya4 - roll, hui1 - bright, jun1 - army, bei4 - lifetime, hong1 - bang, yu2 - carriage ge1zi4pang2 - Dagger radical Related to ancient arms/weapons ge1 - dagger, hua2 - paddle, zhan4 - battle, xi4 - drama, play, rong2 - army, shu4 - defend, cheng2 - become, xian2 - salty, wei1 - by force, jie4 - abstain from, huo4 - or, zai3 - hold, carry, wo3 - I bi3zi4tou2 - Compare head None bi3 - compare, bi4 - finish, bi4 cautious wa3zi4pang4 - Tile radical Related to earthen pottery ware wa3 - tile, weng4 - earthen jar, ci2 - porcelain, ping2 - bottle zhi3zi4pang2 - Stop radical None zhi3 - stop, ci3 - this, qi2 - branch, fork, chi3 - humilate, wu1 - military, ken3 - consent, bu4 - step, wai1 - crooked, zheng4 - correct, positive pu1zi4pang2 - Knock radical None qiao1 - knock ri4zi4pang2 - Day radical Related to sun and time ri4 - day, dan4 - dawn, zao3 - early, jiu4 - old, xun2 - 10 days, shi2 - time, pu3 - general, universal mao4zi4tou2 - Emit radical None yue1 - say, call, qu3 - song, zhi3 - aim, ye4 - tow, zhe3 - person, mao4 - emit, ceng2 - once before, zui4 - most

/bei4zi4pang2/di3 - Cowrie radical/bottom Related to money bei4 - cowrie, fu4 - to bear, cai2 -wealth, zhi4 - quality, lai4 - elude jian4zi4pang2 - Look radical Related to looking jian4 - meet, guan1 - watch, shi4 - look at, jue2 - feel fu4zi4tou2 - Father head Related to father fu4 - father, ye2 - grandfather, ba4 - father /niu2zi4pang2/di3 - Cow radical/bottom Related to cow niu2 - cow, wu2 - substance, gao4 - tell, kao4 - rely on, li2 - plough, lao2 - pen, firm, prison /shou3zi4pang2/di3 - Hand radical/bottom Related to hand - hand, cheng2 - bear, bai4 - obeisance, quan2 - boxing, shou3 na2 - take, get, mo2 - rub mao2zi4pang2 - Fur radical Related to animal fur mao2 - hair, wei3 - tail, end, zhan1 - felt (fabric), hao2 - fine, long hair, hui1 - to command qi4zi4tou2 - Gas,air head Related to gas, air qi4 - gas, air, qing1 - hydrogen, an1 - ammonia, yang3 - oxygen fan3wen2pang2 - Reversed character radical Related to action, movement shou1 - receive, gan3 - dare, fang4 - put Piece radical pian4zi4pang2 Related to bamboo pieces and carving pian4 - piece, ban3 - edition, pai2 - product brand, die2 - dish (disk) jin1zi4tou2 - Unit of weight head Related to ax jin1 - unit of weight, chi4 - to scold, xin1 - new, fu3 - ax, suo3 - place, xin1 - glad /zhua3zi4tou2/di3 - Claw head/bottom Related to hand zhua3 - claw, talon, shou4 - endure, cai3 - pick, pa2 - climb, ru3 - milk, fu1 - incubate yue4zi4pang2 Month radical

 Related to body and meat when positioned on the left Related to time and light rays when positioned on the right yue4 - month, you3 - have, gan1 - liver, xiao4 - be like, jian1 - shoulder, peng2 - friend, qi1 - period of time qian4zi4pang2 - Owe radical Related to mouth and mood qian4 - owe (money), yu4 - desire, wish, qi1kuan3 - funds, ci4 - the next, ruan3 - soft feng1zi4pang2 - Wind Related to wind feng1 - wind, sa4ju4 - hurricaine, piao1 - wave to and fro shu1zi4pang2 - Ancient weapon Related to an ancient kind of weapon ban1 - kind, sort, duan4 - section yu4zi4pang2 - Law radical Related to criminal law li4 - be subordinate to, su4- respectful, si4 - wantonly, yi4 - study, zhao4 - initiate wu4zi4di3 - Ancient "no" radical None wu2 - no, mu3 - mother, mei3 - every, du2 - toxin, guan4 - linked together /shui3zi4tou2/di3 - Water head/bottom Related to water shui3 - water, yong3 - always, qiu2 - request, gong3 - mercury, lu4 - record, niao4 - urinate, ta4 - crowded, repeated, tai4 - peaceful, quan2 - spring, fountain, - thick liquid

Five Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: /xue2bao3gai4/zi4pang2 - Opening treasure cover Related to cave xue2 - opening, qiong2 - poor, kong1 - empty, chuan1 - to wear li4zi4pang2 - Establish/stand radical None li4 - establish/stand, chan3 - produce, qin1 - relative, zhang1 - chapter, yi4 - meaning, shu4 - erect, upright, zhan4 - station

bing4zi4tou2 - Illness head Related to disease and illness liao2 - treat, bing4 - disease, ill, teng2 - ache, painful, tong4 - ache, painful yi1zi4pang2 - Clothes/covering radical Related to clothes bu3 - mend, patch, chu1 - originally, bei4 - by, quilt shi4zi4di3 - Show bottom Related to promulgate and proclamation shi4 - show, nai4 - how, jin4 - prohibit shi2zi4pang2 - Rock radical Related to rock, stone shi2 - rock, kuang4 - a mine, beng4 - pump, long2 - wet stone long2zi4tou2 - Dragon head None long2 - dragon, long3 - ridge in a field, kan1 - niche, shrine ye4zi4tou2 - Industry head Related to manual labor ye4 - industry, ye4 - mansion, zao2 - to chisel, zhi3 - needlework, fu2 - badge mu4zi4pang2 - Eye radical Related to eyes mu4 - eye, item, ding1 - stare, xiang1 - appearance, mang2 - blind, sheng3 - a province, to save, kan4 - look, dun4 - shield, mei2 - eyebrow tian2zi4pang2 - Field radical Related to plowland, farm, and soil tian2 - field, jia3 - the first, shen2 - to state, you2 - due to, dian4 - electric, pi2 - adjoin, bei4 - prepare, mu3 - a unit of area, nan2 - male, si1 - think, consider, jie4 - boundary min3zi4tou2 - Vessel/container head Related to official position fa2 - punish, penalize, luo2 - net, trap, zui4 - crime min3zi4di3 - Vessel/container bottom Related to household utensils, containers pen2 - basin, dish, pot, ying2 - be filled with, jian1 - inspect, gai4 - to cover, he2 - a box jin1zi4pang - Gold radical Related to metal zhen1 - needle, zhong1 - a bell , gang1 - steel, yin2 - silver

shi3zi4pang2 - Arrow radical Related to arrow shi3 - arrow, yi4 - already, zhi1 - to know, duan3 - short he2mu4pang2 - Standing-grain wood radical Related to plants, emblems he2 - standing grain, li4 - sharp, advantage, he2 - and, tu1 - hairless, bald, ji4 - season, bing3 - grasp, hold bai2zi4pang2 - White radical None bai2 - white, bai3 - one hundred, jie1 - all, zao4 - soap, huang2 - emperor, quan2 - water spring, de - a grammar particle gua1zi4pang2 - Melon radical Related to melon gua1 - melon, piao2 - gourd, ban4 - petal, valve, lamella niao3zi4pang2 - Bird radical Related to bird niao3 - bird, ji1 - chicken, tuo2 - ostrich, jiu4 - vulture, ying1 - hawk, eagle yong4zi4di3 - Use bottom None yong4 - use, shuai3 - throw off, lu4 - the name of a place,fu3 - just, only, beng4 - don't needn't, yong3 - the name of a place mao2zi4pang2 - Spear radical None mao2 - spear, rou2 - soft, flexible, mild, jin1 - conceited pi3zi4pang2 - Ancient accounts/reckoning radical None xu1 - petty official, dan4 - egg, shu1 - thin, sparse, scattered, chu3 - clear, neat, yi2 - doubt, suspect pi2zi4pang2 - Leather, skin radical Related to leather, skin pi2 - leather, skin, zhou4 - wrinkle, crease, po1 - considerably, cun1 - chapped, cracked skin

Six Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: yi1zi4di3- Clothing bottom Related to clothes yi1 - clothes, biao3 - guage, meter, zhong1 - inner feelings,

zhuang1 - to fill, install, cai2 - to cut /yang2zi4tou2/pang4 - Sheep radical Related to sheep yang2 - sheep, ling2 - antelope, qun2 - flock, yang3 - support, provide for cha4 - not up to standard, poor, mei3 - beautiful, zhe - grammar particle, gai4 - to cover, xian4 - admire, envy mi3zi4pang2 - Rice/grain radical Related to grain and rice mi3 - rice, lei4 - kind, type, su4 - millet, liao4 - material, feed, stuff, zhou1 - porridge, lin2 - crystalline Ancient plough radical lei3zi4pang2 Related to an ancient plough tackle geng1 - furrough, plow-up, yun2 - to weed, hao4 - consume, cost, waste lao3zi4tou2 - Old head Related to people who are aged lao3 - old, kao3 - take a test/exam, qi2 - senior, old er3zi4pang2 - Ear radical Related to ear and hearing er3 - ear, qu3 - get, wen2 - news, da1 - big ears chen2zi4pang2 - Feudal official Ancient official responsible to an emporer responsible chen2 - feudal official, wo4 - lieing down, yin2 - ruthless, ignorant, zang1 - satisfied, content xi1zi4tou2 - West head None xi1 - west, yao4 - want, will, fu4 - cover, overturn ye4zi4pang2 - Page radical Related to a person's head ye4 - page, ding3 - top, peak, shun4 - in the direction of, xu1 - must, a beard, fan2 - annoyed, ying3 - intelligent, ke1 - grain, pearl, ti2 - subject, topic, xiao1 - clamour hu3zi4tou2 - Tiger head Related to a person who has an aura of power, yet the power is an illusion hu3 - tiger, lu3 - captive, prisoner, guo2 - clawed print, qu4 - gaze, look, biao1 - young tiger chong2zi4pang2 - Insect radical Related to insect/pod chong2 - insect, worm, bug, xia1 - shrimp, shi1 - louse, sui1 - although, gu3 - venemous parasite, dan4 - egg, zao3 - flea

fou3zi4pang2 - Earthen alcohol cover radical Related to pottery/porcelain gang1 - crock, jar, earn, que1 - be short of, lack, ying1 - a large round jar with a small opening she2zi4pang2 - Tongue radical Related to tongue she2 - tongue, luan4 - in disorder, chaotic, tian2 - sweet, shu1 - relax, comfortable, ci2 - diction, phraseology, resign, she3 - to give up, abandon zhu2zi4tou2 - Bamboo head Related to bamboo zhu2 - bamboo, bi3 - pen, xiao4 - laugh, smile, di4 - ordinal particle, deng3 - wait, gu1 - a hoop /jiu4zi4tou2/di3 - Mortar head/bottom None jiu4 - mortar, yu4 - mother's brother, yu2 - good, er2 - child, yu2 - carriage, chong1 - pestle, pound zi4zi4tou2 - Self head None zi4 - self, xi1 - news, breath, chou4 - foul smelling xue4zi4pang2 - Blood radical Related to blood xie3 - blood, xin4 - dispute, quarrel, pei1 - coagulated blood zhou1zi4pang2 - Boat radical Related to boat zhou1 - boat, shan1 - shampan, hang2 - boat, ship, pan2 - tray /yu3zi4tou2di3 - Feather head/bottom Related to feather yu3 - feather, cui4 - emerald green, weng1 - old man, ling2 - tail feather, qiao4 - rise on one end, fan1 - turn over, shan1 - a fan, chi4 - wing, han4 - writing brush gen3zi4pang2 - Blunt/straighforward radical None liang2 - good, jian1 - difficult, ji4 - as well as, ji2 - namely, ken3 - earnestly, ji4 - and

si1zi4di3 - Thread bottom Related to silk thread xi4 - system, tie, wen3 - disordered, su4 - white, plain, xlei4 - tired, jin3 - tight, urgent strict

Seven Stroke Radicals:

 Bushou:

Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: xin1zi4pang2 - Laborious radical Related to something "hard to do" xin1 - laborious, gu1 - guilt, crime, ci2 - take leave, resign, la4 - hot, peppery, ruthless, bian4 - argue, debate yan2zi4pang2 - Language radical Related to talking, speech yan2 - language, yu4 - reputation, fame, teng2 - , shi4 - copy, transcribe, jing3 - vigilant, warn, police mai4zi4pang2 - Wheat radical Related to foodstuffs, provisions mai4 - wheat, fu1 - bran zou3zi4pang2 - Walk radical Related to walking, on foot zou3 - walk, qi3 - rise, qu4 - interesting, amusing, yue4 - exceed, get over, qu1 - tend, towards chi4zi4pang2 - Red (in the face), loyal, bare radical None chi4 - red (in the face), loyal, bare, he4 - condone, pardon, zhe3 - reddish-brown dou4zi4pang2 - Bean radical Related to bean dou4 - bean, jiang1 - cowpea, duan3 - short, deng1 - ascent, mount yi1 - long version of the number "1" you3zi4pang2 - Alcohol radical Related to alcholol - chief of a tribe, jiu3 - alcohol, suan1 - acidic, sour, zui4 - drunk, qiu2 xing3 - to wake, pei4 - compound, mix, deserve, be worthy of,jiang4 - sauce chen2zi4tou2 - Celestial bodies, time, day None chen2 - celestial bodies, time, day, ru3 - disgrace, humiliation, chen2 - morning, chun2 - lip, shen4 - large clam shi3zi4di3 - Swine, hog, pig radical None shi3 - swine, hog, pig, xi1 - swine, hog, pig, yu4 - comfort, please, jia1 - home, xiang4 - appearance, hao2 - person of great talent, tuan4 - a famous Chinese literary work, bin1 - name of an ancient city, xian3 - to burn lu3zi4pang2 - Stew radical

 lu3 - stew

None

li3zi4pang2 - Inner/inside radical None li3 - inner, inside, ye3 - wild, zhong4 - heavy, liang4 - measure, quantity, li2 - a unit of length zu2zi4pang2 - Foot, ample radical Related to foot zu2 - foot, ample, pao3 - run, tiao4 - jump, lu4 - road, gen1 - with, bie2 - sprain zhi3zi4pang2 - A footless insect Related to animal genus chai2 - jackal, bao4 - leopard, diao1 - mink gu3zi4pang2 - Valley radical Related to cereal - valley, yu4 - desire, longing, wish, huo1 - slit, break, crack gu3 bian4zi4pang2 - Distinguish/differentiate radical None xi1 - know, learn, fan1 - kind(type), shi4 - explain shen1zi4pang2 - Body radical Related to body shen1 - body, she4 - shoot, fire, tang3 - lie, recline jiao3zi4pang2 Corner radical Related to ancient drinking vessel (bull's horn) jiao3 - corner, jie3 - understand - separate, divide, understand, chu4 - to be touched, moved, bi4 - ancient pipe instrument

Eight Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: qing1zi4pang2 - Blue/green/young radical None qing1 - blue, green, young, jing4 - quiet, jing4 - peace, pacify /qi2zi4pang4/tou2 - Pronoun radical/head None qi2 - other, he, she, shen4 - very, ji1 - base, foundation, si1 - this Rain head yu3zi4tou2 Related to weather and natural phenomena

yu3 - rain, xue3 - snow, ling2 - zero, zhen4 - shake chi3zi4pang2 - Tooth radical Related to teeth chi3 - tooth, ju3 - discord, ling2 - age, years, yin2 - gum(of teeth) jin1zi4di3 - Gold bottom Related to gold jin1 - gold, jian4 - inspect, pan4 - ancient pot handle zhui1zi4di3 - Short-tailed bird bottom None juan4 - plump, fat(of a bird), nan2 - difficult, que4 - sparrow, shou4 - sell yu2zi4pang2 - Fish radical Related to fish yu2 - fish, lu3 - rash, rude, xian1 - fresh

Nine Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: yin1zi4pang2 - Sound radical Related to music yin1 - sound, zhang1 - chapter, jing4 - finish, yun4 - rhyme ge2zi4pang2 - Leather, change (transform) radical Related to leather ge2 - leather, change, le4 - bridle, rein in, xie2 - shoes, ju1 - to bow gu3zi4pang2 - Bone radical Related to bone gu31 - bone, ku1 - skull, hai2 - skeleton, sui3 - marrow shi2zi4pang2 - Food radical Related to foodstuffs/provisions shi2 - food, can1 - meal, food, xiang3 - feast gui3zi4pang2 - Ghost radical Related to spirts, apparitions gui3 - ghost, kui2 - chief, head, po4 - soul

Ten Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations:

()dou4zi4pang2 - Fight radical , Only used in traditional characters, there are no simplified characters that use this radical biao1zi4tou2 - Drooping (of hair) head Related to beard hair ji4 - bun hair, zong1 - animal neck hair, quan2 - curly(hair)

Eleven Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: ma2zi4tou2 - Hemp radical None - hemp, numb, tingle, hui1 - despatch, mo4 - touch lu4zi4tou2 - Deer head Related to deer lu4 - deer, lu4 - foot of a mountain, ao2 - fight fiercely (in war), she4 - musk deer, qi2 - mythical unicorn

Twelve Stroke Radicals: Bushou: Name: Definition: Sample Characters: Radical Shape Variations: hei1zi4pang2 - Black radical Related to silence hei1 - black, mo4 - ink, mo4 - silent, an4 - dim, gloomy shu3zi4pang2 - Mouse radical Related to mice shu3 - mouse, shi2 - an animal in ancient literature, fen2 - barn mouse bi2zi4pang2 - Nose radical Related to nose bi2 - nose, nang2 - snuffling, unclear sound from the nose, yi4 - cut off the nose (ancient punishment)

Dictionary Radical Index:

:
ci2dian3 bu4shou3 biao3

The diagram below is an example of a Radical Index as it appears in an actual Chinese dictionary.

Explanation of the above index: The radicals are arranged by stroke count with those radicals containing the least amount of strokes listed first: (yi1hua4) indicates one stroke radicals, (er4hua4) indicates two stroke radicals... (shi2er4hua4 yi3shang4) indicates those radicals containing 12 or more strokes. The number to the left of each radical is the radical's numerical name which is then later used when searching for characters in a Character Look-up Index . To the right of some radicals are values in parenthesis. These values are shape variations of the original radical and indicate that the original radical, when embedded in a character, can sometimes have a variation in shape. For example, the (/zhua3zi4tou2/di3) radical (number 102) can also assume a shape of . When looking up characters in a dictionary and during the process of identifying which component is a radical, keep in mind that a character's radical may have a change in appearance. In addition, due to shape similarities among radicals, when searching for a character's radical in a radical index, it's sometime's easy to mistake one radical for another. For example, to the right of the ( dou4zi4pang2) radical (number 138) is the following information " ( )", translated to mean "when dealing with che1 you should jian4 go to/see che1". This information tells the reader that the component is very similar in shape/appearance to the component, however the component is actually

a variation on the component. Therefore, if the character that the reader wishes to look up contains the component, the reader should not be mistaken in identifying the component as the character's radical. The reader should instead go to (jian4) the (che1zi4pang2) radical (number 84) and use that radical for finding characters that contain the component. An example will greater clarify this. If the reader wants to look-up the the zhuan3 character in a dictionary, the reader would be inclined to identify the component as the character's radical and then visually mistake the component for the component. In the event this mistake happens, the dictionary informs the reader that he/she should not use the component as the radical for zhuan3. Instead he/she should go to the component when looking-up the zhuan3 character in the dictionary. As a person gets more familiar and comfortable with radicals and looking characters up in a dictionary, this visual identification error will be less prone to occur.

Shape Radical Index:

xing2pang2 zong3biao3

The following is a list of the most common Shape radicals. When they reside inside a Pictophonetic character, they provide the reader with an approximate meaning of the character. The list contains four columns: 1. The first column Radical - Name shows the shape radical and it's given name. 2. The second column Meaning tells the reader that when the said shape radical occurs in a character, the character will have a definition related to this meaning (approximate). 3. The third column Char. Ex. provides an example character that contains the said shape radical. 4. The fourth column Pos. in Char. tells the reader the possible locations in the character where the shape radical could exist. This information is helpful because knowing the possible locations of the shape radical makes it easier to locate the radical in the character. Sometimes the radical can be located anywhere in the character and in this case the word "free" is used to indicate this condition. Example: The shape radical is called dan1ren2pang2 and is usually located on the left side of a character. When located in a character, the character will have a meaning related to "person". A sample character that contains the shape radical is ta1. Radical - Name: - dan1ren2pang2 - shuang1ren2pang2 - kou3zi4pang2 - yan2zi4pang2 - nv3zi4pang2 - ren2zi4pang2 - liang3dian3shui3 - san1dian3shui3 - ri4zi4pang2 - yue4zi4pang2 Meaning: person street, people mouth speaking knowledge female person cold water sun; time Char. Ex.: ta1 wang3 jiao4, he2, hao4 shuo1 shi2 jie3, yao4 hui4 bing1 jiang1 wan3, zao3, chun1 qi1 du4, shen4 yuan4 na4 lou2, zhuo1 na2 da3 zhi3 lei4 fen1, qie4 dao4 Pos. in Char.: left left free left left free top left left free right left, bottom left right free bottom left left middle bottom, right right

time; light body - shuang1er3dao1 fenced city, area trees - mu4zi4pang2 - /shou3zi4pang2/di3 hand - ti2shou3pang4 hand - jiao3si1pang2 silk silk - yao1zi4pang2 - dao4zi4pang2 knife - li4dao1pang2 knife

 - dao4zi4pang2 - xin1zi4di3 - shu4xin1pang2 - huo3zi4pang2 - si4dian3di3 - zou3zhi1pang2 - fang1kuang4er3 - jin1zi4pang - shi2zi4pang2 - fan3quan3pang2 - mu4zi4pang2 - zu2zi4pang2 - cao3zi4tou2 - zhu2zi4tou2 - bao3gai4tou2 - / xue2bao3gai4/zi4pang2 - guang3zi4tou2 - bing4zi4tou2 - shi1zi4tou2 - hu4zi4tou2 - shi4zi4pang2 - yi1zi4pang2 - yi1zi4di3 - qian4zi4pang2 - fan3wen2pang2 - ti2tu3pang2 - shi2zi4pang2 - shan1zi4pang2 - shen1zi4pang2 - er3zi4pang2 - ye4zi4pang2 - ma3zi4pang2 - /niu2zi4pang2/di3 - / yang2zi4tou2/pang4 - chong2zi4pang2 - yu2zi4pang2 - niao3zi4pang2 - wang2zi4pang2 - /bei4zi4pang2/di3 - min3zi4di3 - you3zi4pang2 - che1zi4pang2 - zhou1zi4pang2 - tian2zi4pang2 - mi3zi4pang2

knife thinking feeling fire fire walk; road border metal food animal eyes feet grass bamboo roof cave room illness room; body door pray, bless cloth cloth mood action soil stone hill body ear head horse ox sheep; goat insect fish bird jade money vessel alcohol vehicle boat farm grain

se4 wang4 mang2 shao1, yan2 re4 jin4, yuan3 tu2 qian2 fan4 gou3 yan3, kan, lei4 pao3 hua1 bi3 jia1 kong chuang2 bing4 wu1, wei3 fang2 zhu4 ku4 dai4 ge1 fang4 di4, ji1, zou3 po4 an4, dao3, ling3 tang3 wen2, qu3, nie4 ding3 qi2, jia4 wu4 qun2, zhe xia1 xian1, sha1 ji1 wan2, wang4 gui4, gou4 he2 jiu3, zui4, jiang4 liang4 chuan2, pan2 jie4, liu2, lve4 liang2

top bottom left left, bottom, right bottom left, bottom outside left left large left, bottom, right left top top top top top, left top, left top, left top, left left left bottom right right left, bottom top left, bottom, top free left free right left, bottom, right left right, top left, bottom, right left, bottom, right right, bottom, left left, bottom left, bottom bottom left, bottom, right left left, top left, top, bottom left, bottom, top

 - zou3zi4pang2 - jian4zi4pang2 - li4zi4pang2

run look strength

- /jin1zi4pang2/di3 cloth

gan3 lan3, guan1 dong4, nu2, jia1 dai4

left, bottom right, bottom right, bottom, left left, bottom

Sound Radical Index:

sheng1pang2 zong3biao3

The following is a list of the most common Sound radicals . When they reside inside a Pictophonetic character , they provide the reader with an approximate pronunciation of the character. The list contains three columns: 1. The first column Radical - Pinyin shows the sound radical and it's pinyin pronunciation. Please keep in mind that this pinyin is the pronunciation of the sound radical itself and not the pronunciation of the specific character you are currently dealing with. 2. The second column Character Examples provides sample characters that contain the specific sound radical. 3. The third column Pronunciation tells the reader the approximate pronunciation(s) of the character currently being dealt with. The pronunciation includes the sheng1mu3 Initial (consonant) and the yun4mu3 Final (vowel), but does not include the sheng1diao4 Tone. Please click on this link for more detailed information on Chinese pronunciation and pinyin. Example: When the sound radical ba1 (shown below in the first entry of the table) exists in a Pictophonetic character , the character will have one of two possible pronunciations "ba" or "pa". In the sample character ba4, the character will have an approximate pronunciation of "ba". Radical - Pinyin: - ba1 - ma3 - jing1 - ke3 - fang1 - qing1 - ji2 - gen4 - jiao1 - ji3 - kuai4 - she2 - cai3 - sheng1 - qi2 - gong1 - ding1 - fen1 - ling3,ling4 - di1 - jian1 - yang2 - jing1 - lian4 - bian3 Character Examples: ba4, ba1, ba3 / pa2 ma, ma1, ma3, ma4 jing1 / qing1 he2, he2 fang3 / pang2 qing1, qing3, qing2, qing2 / jing1 ji2, ji2 gen1, gen1 jiao4, jiao1, jiao3 / xiao4 ji4, ji4 kuai4, kuai4kuai4 hua4 / huo2 cai3, cai4 xing4, xing1, xing4 / sheng4, sheng1 qi1, qi2, qi2 jiang1 / hong2 / kong1 / gong1 ding4, ding3 / ting1 / deng1 fen4 / pan4 / pin2 ling3, ling2 ling2 / lin2 di1, di3 lan2, lan2 yang2, yang3, yang3, yang4 jing1, jing3 / ying3 lian4, lian4 bian4 / pian1 Pronunciation: ba / pa ma jing / qing he fang / pang qing / jing ji gen jiao / xiao ji kuai hua4 / huo cai xing / sheng qi jiang / hong / kong / gong ding / ting / deng fen / pan / pin ling / lin di lan yang jing / ying lian bian / pian

 - yi3 - guo3 - lun2 - zheng1 - ping2 - bi3 - bao1 - gu3 - liang2 - ji2 - piao4 - jian4 - fu4 - ju1 - zheng1,zheng4 - ting2 - man4 - dui4 - qie3 - xiang1, xiang4 - gang1 - yang2 - cang1 - jia1 - bai2 - yuan2 - jun1 - he - jing4 - zhuan1 - zhi2 - zhan1, zhan4 - cheng2 - wei2 - zhen1 - you2 - cao2

yi3, yi4, yi4 ke4, ke1, ke1 lun2, lun4 jing4, jing4 ping2, ping2 bi4 / pi1, pi4 bao4 / pao4 gu4, gu1 lang2, lang2, lang3 / niang2 jie2, jie2 piao1, piao4 qian3 / xian4 fu2, fu2, fu4 ju4, ju4 zheng3, zheng4, zheng4 ting2, ting3 man4, man2 shuo1 / tuo1 / yue4 zu1, zu3, zu3 xiang1, xiang1 gang1, gang1 yang2, yang4 qiang1, qiang3 shui2 / dui1 / tui1 bai3 / pa4 / pai1 yuan2, yuan4 qun2, qun2 he1 / ke3 jing4, jing4 zhuan4, zhuan3, zhuan4 zhi2, zhi2, zhi4 zhan4, zhan4, zhan1 cheng2, cheng2 wei3, wei2 zhen1, zhen3 / chen4 you1, you2 zao1, zao1

yi ke lun jing ping bi / pi bao / pao gu lang / niang jie piao qian / xian fu ju zheng ting man shuo1 / tuo / yue zu xiang gang yang qiang shui / dui / tui bai / pa / pai yuan qun he / ke jing zhuan zhi zhan cheng wei zhen / chen you zao

Stroke Count Character Look-Up Index:

bi3hua4 jian3zi4 biao3

The diagram below is an example of a Stroke Count Character Look-up Index as it appears in an actual Chinese dictionary. This index is just a partial representation of the actual index. An actual index will contain character entries for every character in the Chinese language. The index is organized as follows: 1. Characters are listed according to total stroke count. Those characters with the least number of strokes are listed first and those with the most number of strokes are listed last. For example, the characters under the heading "1" are those characters which contain one stroke, the characters under the heading "2" are those characters which contain two strokes...the characters under the heading "23" are those characters which contain twenty-three strokes. 2. To ease look-up of the more complex characters, each group of characters are then further sorted based on the first written stroke of the character. For example, under the "5" heading, those characters whose first written stroke is (heng2 Horizontal) are listed under the subheading of [ ], those characters whose first stroke is (shu4 Vertical) are listed under the subheading of [], etc. 3. To the right of each character in the index is the page number where the character's definition can be found in the dictionary. Note: Please refer to Chinese character Stroke Order Rules and Counting Strokes for more information on understanding stroke counts.

Note: pages containing 8 Stroke- 14 Stroke have been intentionally left out in order to conserve space.

A Simplified Guide to Learning Chinese

Acknowledgments

2009 www.marchollingsworth.net The contents of this book is copyrighted and may not be used without permission from the author.

I want to thank all of the people that helped me

The teachers at Yunnan Normal University: All of the teachers in the administration office for conscientiously arranging my class schedule and visa. Teachers Zhang Lei, Wang Li, Sun Li Ying, Chen E and Wang Juan for their never ending patience in teaching me Chinese and for allowing me to record their voices. The teachers at Kunming College: Teachers Xia Ling and Ha Jun Hua in the administration office for conscientiously arranging my class schedule and visa. Teachers Lu Xiang Hong and Xie Yan Qin for their never ending patience in teaching me Chinese and for allowing me to record their voices.

I send you all my most sincere Thank You! Marc