Chinese characters What is Chinese Character rn pnyn

汉字 Chinese characters

什么是汉字？ What is Chinese Character ? rén 人 pīnyīn 拼音 Hànzì 汉字

方块字 square shaped characters

你需要掌握多少汉字？ How many characters do you need to know? l 3500 l You will need 3000 -4000 characters to be able to read a newspaper, and more to read novels. l Literate , well educated Chinese people can recognize between 6000 -8000 characters

汉字的起源 Origins l 仓颉 Cāng Jié • a court official of the Yellow Emperor • tie knots in lengths of a rope • has four eyes • inspired by the foot prints of birds and beasts • observe the nature and create characters that had the characteristics of the things they represent • it rained grains and the ghosts cried at night when characters were invented

汉字的起源 Origins l 甲骨文 Oracle bone script date back to over 1000 years BC, Shang dynasty People inscribe questions on turtle shells and animal bones and heate them until cracks appear. The diviner will make the reading according to the cracks.

汉字的演变 The evolution of Chinese characters l 甲骨文 Oracle bone script l 金文 Bronze script l 小篆 Seal script l 隶书 Clerical script l 楷书 Regular script l 草书 The Grass script l 行书 Running script 鱼 yú

笔画 Strokes are the various dots and lines which are combined in different ways to form characters. They are the very basic unit of Chinese characters.

基本笔画 basic strokes A B C D E F 1. 横 （héng）Horizontal Stroke B 4. 点（diǎn）Dot Stroke A 2. 捺（nà）Right-falling Stroke E 5. 提（tí）Rising Stroke F 3. 竖（shù）Vertical Stroke C 6. 撇（piě）Left-falling Stroke D

基本笔画 basic strokes A B yī C shí D bā E mù F mǐ 一 十 八 木 米 one ten eight wood rice

派生笔画 derived strokes

笔顺 stroke order A B èr C shí D bā E mù F mǐ 二 十 八 木 米 two ten eight wood rice

汉字的结构 structures of Chineses characters 我 明 李 国 过 庆 谢 曼

汉字的结构 structures of Chineses characters 你 2 少 雪 爬 1 3 5 树 病 7 6

象形字 pictographic characters 人 person, human being rén Characters of this category derive from pictures and convey its meaning through its pictorial resemblance to a physical object. （4%）

eye wood 目 木 mù mù

hand mouth 手 口 shǒu kǒu

水 water shuǐ mountain 山 shān

sun moon 日 月 rì yuè

woman child 女 子 nǚ zǐ

指事字 Self explanatory characters 一 二 三 This type expresses an abstract idea through an iconic form , including iconic modification of pictographic characters or direct iconic illustrations.

上 above, up shàng 下 under, down xi à

会意字 associative characters 人 + 休 木 to rest xiū This type refers to the symbolical combination of two or more pictographic characters and self explanatory characters to suggest a third meaning. （13%）

日 + 月 = 明 míng tiān 明天 míng liàng tomorrow 明亮 bright

手 + 目 =看 kàn to see; to look

小 + 大 = 尖 jiān sharp, tip of. . .

形声字 pictophonetic characters The semantic part The phonetic part The combination of the two 父 女 马 巴 马 奇 爸 妈 骑 fù father nǚ female mǎ horse bā mǎ qí bà father mā mother qí to ride They are composed of two parts, one suggesting the general meaning of the character and the other indicating the approximate pronunciation. （80%）

偏旁 Radicals 氵→ 江 河 湖 海 讠→ 说 话 语 讲 口→ 吃 喝 叫 唱 扌→ 打 抱 拍 扔 ⻊→ 跑 跳 踢 蹲 女→ 妈 她 姐 妹 They are building blocks of Chinese characters. A radical may point to the meaning of a character, but this is not always the case.

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