Questions tagged [characters]

Questions about Chinese characters, called Hanzi.

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36 votes
10 answers
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How do we choose the correct characters for a Western name?

Since there are many characters that share a common pronunciation and sometimes also the same tone, how do we properly choose which character best represents our name? Is it totally arbitrary or are ...
Alenanno's user avatar
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16 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why is 月 used when speaking about anatomy?

One thing I've been curious about while learning Chinese is the use of 月 in many 汉字 representing anatomical features (for example, 脸, 腰, or 腿). What is the etymology of the use of 月 as a radical?
八带永's user avatar
  • 555
26 votes
17 answers
5k views

Techniques for learning and retaining characters

For many of us, memorizing characters is a difficult thing. In Chinese, just because you can speak the word doesn't mean you can read it. Just because you can read it doesn't mean you can write it. At ...
mugetsu's user avatar
  • 1,023
7 votes
3 answers
406 views

Why does 他没看书 use 没 and not 不 in this dialogue?

I was reviewing some old Anki cards that I created from HSK Standard Course 1 by Jiang Liping and I came across this dialogue: A: 喂你在做什么呢 B: 我在看书呢 A: 大卫也在看书吗 B: 他没看书。他在学做中国菜呢 A: Hello, what are you ...
JBentley's user avatar
  • 307
5 votes
6 answers
3k views

Why use combined characters that have the same meaning?

(rèn shí ) both characters means ( to know)and when combined it still have the same meaning. So why can't I use only one of them ?
Jenin Hope's user avatar
52 votes
9 answers
24k views

How many characters do I need to learn?

How many Chinese characters would I generally need to learn to be able to handle most text in typical every day circumstances? How many would be required to be considered fluent? Are there any good ...
Cocowalla's user avatar
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44 votes
9 answers
7k views

Can Chinese readers scan large amounts of text faster/more accurately than their alphabet-using counterparts?

I was browsing one day and came across this comment in this discussion(italics mine): I feel English is a reading language, if you are reading an English book, you watch the word and make sound in ...
tao's user avatar
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27 votes
4 answers
3k views

Why is 足 both "foot" and "enough"?

足 is an ancient character meaning "foot". However, it also means "enough" or "sufficient", and this second definition is also very old. Consider this excerpt: 兵甲已足。——诸葛亮《出师表》 This is from 《出师表》, ...
congusbongus's user avatar
  • 8,557
23 votes
8 answers
25k views

Is there a site that can split characters into radicals?

For example, let's examine the character 天 (heaven). It has a 人 radical (men). And then we add a strip to become 大 (big). And then we add another strip to get 天 (heaven). Now, is there a site to do ...
user4951's user avatar
  • 525
13 votes
3 answers
2k views

How does CJK Decomposition compare to the Wikimedia Commons Chinese characters decomposition data?

I found two public databases that describe the composition of Chinese characters. 1 - CJK Decomposition Data 2 - Chinese Characters Decomposition on Wiki Commons I can see how the formats they use ...
Sjors Provoost's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
2k views

What are the relative literacy rates in for simplified and traditional characters?

I'm trying to decide whether it would be better to use traditional or simplified characters for an iPhone game I'm making. If something is written in traditional, how many people will be able to read ...
Rasterman's user avatar
  • 127
4 votes
3 answers
3k views

What would a non-binary tā (他/她) look like?

He and she in Mandarin looks like this: Male tā: 他 Female tā: 她 What would a non-binary tā look like? 也? 它 is for animals and inanimate objects, not exactly fitting. 祂 is for gods, not really ...
Mou某's user avatar
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28 votes
5 answers
9k views

How can one determine the radical for a given character?

Many times, when reading Mandarin, I will happen across a character that I don't know. Usually, the radical along with some context will clue me into the meaning, but if I can't determine the radical, ...
brc's user avatar
  • 499
19 votes
2 answers
1k views

Are 乒 and 乓 used in classical chinese?

乒乓 is the modern word for ping pong, based around onomatopoeia (and similarity to 兵 for phonetic element) and, as some people claim, shape. I was wondering if this shape explanation is true, or little ...
sqrtbottle's user avatar
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18 votes
7 answers
2k views

What is the glyph origin of '奇'?

Lost Glyph Origin 奇 ( jī | qí ) is a character that means strange but the glyph origin appears to have been lost. At least as far as I can tell after researching offline books, zhongwen.com, and ...
Tommie C.'s user avatar
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14 votes
3 answers
5k views

What's the actual difference between 文 and 语?

Both mean "language" with some other related meanings. A friend of mine told me that while 文 refers more to the written language, 语 is more related to the spoken one. Is this a difference and is it ...
Alenanno's user avatar
  • 6,485
13 votes
7 answers
10k views

Can one learn to comprehend Chinese texts while being unable to read aloud?

I've been enjoying the book Chineasy and it make me wonder if it would be possible to read Chinese without knowing how to speak it phonetically. Technically it might not be "reading Chinese" because ...
MmM's user avatar
  • 271
9 votes
5 answers
12k views

Where to look for history and etymology of Chinese characters? For example 工

Is there a website where I can look for history and etymology of Chinese characters? For example 工. It can be a Chinese website (I am VERY new to Chinese). But better in English. Please also drop ...
ALeX inSide's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
295 views

Help please me find out what this means

I’m looking to find out what this means. Please help was handed down to me from my family
Greg's user avatar
  • 41
3 votes
1 answer
320 views

How to determine if character can be used separetely?

This question might be weird, but I haven't been able to find an answer to this. Some characters seem to be used only in combination with other characters. For instance, I believe 儿 cannot be used ...
MrVocabulary's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
185 views

Mnemonics for 汉字: examples and resources

Where can one find other mnemonics similar to 横戌点戍空心戊 and 已半, 巳满, 不出己 ? Also, what in your opinion are the most common, useful or interesting such mnemonics? What is the term for such mnemonics in ...
goPlayerJuggler's user avatar
39 votes
11 answers
9k views

Etymology of the Chinese number characters (一二三四五六七八九十百千)

Main Question: What is the glyph origin of the Chinese number characters (一二三四五六七八九十百千)? Related question: Why isn't 四 four lines? (the origin of 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九) I decide to write a Q&A-style ...
Stan's user avatar
  • 6,083
38 votes
9 answers
11k views

What is the difference between 狗 and 犬?

狗 (gǒu) and 犬 (quǎn) both mean "dog" and both seem relatively common, but is there any difference between them? When should I use one and when should I use the other?
laurent's user avatar
  • 2,116
31 votes
5 answers
4k views

Why isn't 四 four lines? (the origin of 一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九)

A common experience of beginner hanzi students is their raised hopes and expectations when they learn 一 二 三 - "what a wonderfully elegant language!" - which are promptly crushed when they ...
congusbongus's user avatar
  • 8,557
24 votes
12 answers
5k views

Why do native speakers often say a character has "no meaning"?

Many times I will know all the characters in a name but one & I'll ask what that one character means. 9 times out of 10 the response is, "That character has no meaning". While it might be true ...
aelephant's user avatar
  • 1,160
24 votes
4 answers
49k views

How to look up seal script characters?

When we know a modern Hanzi, finding its seal script equivalent in a dictionary is not a problem. However, a more common case is that we have an existing seal script character we cannot identify, and ...
米好 '-''s user avatar
  • 1,660
23 votes
4 answers
3k views

How can I get better at reading handwriting?

How can I get better at reading handwriting? Are there fonts that look like it, or web sites with examples for practice? Are there some common shortcuts that people take when writing by hand?
Don Kirkby's user avatar
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21 votes
7 answers
12k views

How do Chinese speakers pronounce unknown characters?

I'm wondering what do Chinese speakers do when they are reading aloud and encounter a character they don't know (sometimes it happens, isn't it?). In phonetic languages, there is a possibility to ...
Dmitry's user avatar
  • 311
18 votes
3 answers
7k views

Characters which have several different shapes

For those who might not read the question fully: this not about simplified vs traditional characters. While the traditional and simplified version of a character can be considered the same, they at ...
Szabolcs's user avatar
  • 848
18 votes
3 answers
3k views

Why 纹 is the wrong character to write for tattoo?

I've only ever known tattoo (wénshēn) to be written as 纹身. I was reading an article from 凤凰财经 yesterday called 猪躺着也能挣:一张纹身猪皮值百万. What struck me, though, were all the comments on the article saying ...
Mou某's user avatar
  • 36k
16 votes
1 answer
403 views

Is there a rule that tells what characters can be omitted?

I have a habit of using too many characters when I speak and write. For example: 我回我的家。 我的 is not needed, and we can simply say 我回家。 Is there a grammar rule for when to cut characters? A ...
MaoYiyi's user avatar
  • 509
16 votes
4 answers
3k views

List of hanzi and their components

I would like to be able to compute the distance between 2 hanzi according to their components. My idea is that a hanzi like 式 is made of 工 and 弋. 2 hanzi are close if they share common components. ...
qdii's user avatar
  • 789
16 votes
4 answers
455 views

How to Find Characters in a Dictionary?

In English we would look words based on their alphabetical order. But how are Chinese dictionaries ordered to allow you to find what you are looking for - is it based on the radicals, number of ...
Cocowalla's user avatar
  • 3,455
13 votes
1 answer
26k views

What is the character with the greatest number of strokes?

I have seen an old and very rarely used character that consisted of four traditional dragons (龍). As I remember it meant "talkative." That makes a total of 64 strokes, are there any other characters ...
Lars Andren's user avatar
  • 1,438
13 votes
2 answers
1k views

Why do HSK lists differ from character frequency lists?

I have been wondering how come the HSK list be so different from the list of the most used Chinese characters. The only list I know about character frequency is Jun Da's list. On the first 2635 most ...
Enrico Brasil's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
553 views

How to differentiate "radical plus 0 strokes" characters?

There are (at least) six characters that consist of radical 102 plus 0 strokes: 田 由 甲 申 甴 电 In each of the variants the middle vertical stroke is made shorter, longer or twisted at the end. Is there ...
Sjors Provoost's user avatar
12 votes
5 answers
1k views

Why was the rice component added to 气 to form 氣?

气 is an ancient character that has roots in an oracle bone pictogram, but according to this, the rice radical was added in the Tang dynasty to form 氣. What were the reasons for this? What does 气, ...
congusbongus's user avatar
  • 8,557
11 votes
1 answer
2k views

Analog of Hong Kong grade level for Chinese characters?

The Unihan database lists a kGradeLevel for each entry. This is the primary grade in the Hong Kong school system by which a student is expected to know the corresponding character. Is there a similar ...
Drux's user avatar
  • 484
11 votes
3 answers
980 views

Two-character homonyms with same meaning

This is question about synonymous homonyms in Chinese, in particular, two-character words with same sound, tone. Edit: to keep the question simple and broad, I am using the word "homonym" in a non-...
daniel's user avatar
  • 400
10 votes
5 answers
3k views

Searching for characters by parts

Are there any online or computer dictionaries that allow searching for characters by any sub-part of the character? Occasionally it I see a character the parts of which I can already type. But I can'...
Szabolcs's user avatar
  • 848
10 votes
4 answers
3k views

Origin of beautiful kingdom and hero kingdom

Why in Mandarin chinese, USA is beautiful kingdom and England is hero kingdom?
Pooya's user avatar
  • 203
9 votes
1 answer
1k views

What is the story or reason of how 龙 came from 龍?

I'm just beginning to learn Mandarin and I have an excellent teacher. She tells me a lot of stories of how the characters came to be. Today we talked about the character for dragon, but she doesn't ...
Klik's user avatar
  • 193
9 votes
5 answers
2k views

How many distinct characters are there in a typical Chinese book?

This post gives some great statistics on Chinese character frequency, but I'm curious about the total number of distinct characters that appear in a "typical" book. By "typical" I mean something like ...
WillG's user avatar
  • 201
8 votes
4 answers
2k views

How to type these old and rare Chinese characters?

I've tried to google these old Chinese characters using their closest approximations but still haven't found out any. I want to find these characters so that I can copy and paste them instead of ...
Einsteingen's user avatar
8 votes
3 answers
458 views

Visual puns and phrases

Some characters are visual puns: 尜 (小大小), 尖 (小大); others are a phrase written as a single character: 膥 (未成肉), 籴 (入米), 汆 (入水), 奀 (不大). What are some other characters which fit into these categories?
jogloran's user avatar
  • 1,979
7 votes
4 answers
596 views

Is there an authoritative list of most frequent to most infrequent pronunciations for individual Chinese characters?

I'm working on a dictionary tool that provides, as an auto-assist, transcription of Chinese characters into corresponding (Modern Standard Mandarin) pinyin+tones on a naive, character-per-character ...
Master Sparkles's user avatar
7 votes
4 answers
478 views

What is na4zi4pang2 (pinyin) in the decomposition of na4 (那)?

The New Practical Chinese Reader introduces the following decomposition: na4 (那) = na4zi4pang2 + yi4 (阝). I understand that 阝 represents radical 163 (yi4). Na4zi4pang2 (pinyin) looks close to ...
Drux's user avatar
  • 484
7 votes
5 answers
1k views

When do we use "廿", "卅" and "卌"?

I am aware of a related question and I know that "廿" means 20. "卅" means 30. "卌" means 40. But I am wondering how to use them correctly. When and how do we use "廿", "卅" and "卌"? For example, are ...
Zuriel's user avatar
  • 2,005
7 votes
2 answers
672 views

Character 瞓: where did the pronunciations come from?

The character 瞓 is a Cantonese character meaning "sleep". It is pronounced xùn in mandarin and fan3 in Cantonese. I was wondering how two so different pronunciations (I would expect xun to match syun ...
MickG's user avatar
  • 2,310
7 votes
5 answers
2k views

When to use 想 versus 喜欢?

Could someone please give we a hint when to use either of those?! My take is that 想 is used for actions and 喜欢 for things!? Am I right?
user137313's user avatar