Tips to remember the pronunciation of these words: 旅，斿，施，旋，族? [closed]

Question

I often misread these words and got mistaken between each other:

as each of them doesn't have related phonetic indicator that I can use as clue to remember their pronunciations.

Any tips to remember their pronunciations?

To add more to the headache: 旋 and 游. I remember when I was a kid I always mistook 旅 and 旋 and sometimes wrote 游 as 氵旅. I don't have good tips though; all it takes is concentration of mind and lots of practice. — NS.X., Jun 10 '14 at 22:20
游 is pretty easy - you probably already know the word 游泳 and 游 has 三点水 - kind of looks like someone swimming too with the 子 under there... — Mou某, Jun 11 '14 at 8:49
施 and 旋 have phonetic indicators. But this is beside the point, you need to know the vocabulary behind the characters very well as a start, for any tips to have any benefit. — dROOOze, Jul 24 '20 at 23:23

雪花飘飘 · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-25 00:52:42Z

Well, I suppose the only useful tip is practice :)

But if a little imagination may help, perhaps I can say a little about 施.

Now, I am sure you noticed these five words have the same "left-portion" and the "upper-right portion" in the way they are written.

So take a look at what's left over if we take those portions out.

You will see a 也. You may think of 也是，couple this 也 to a 是, which pronounces as SHI!

Then you might be able to remind yourself 施 is pronounced as SHI!

HAHA! :p Anyway don't worry, practice more, then you'll be fine.

Firmin Martin · Accepted Answer · 2020-07-26 02:06:15Z

In fact, as @dROOOze mentioned, two of them have phonetic indicators. But they won't help you at all.

施's phonetic indicator is 也(ye3). You may wonder why?! I'd say that 也 contributes to 施's uncommon sounds yi2/yi4.
旋's phonetic indicator is 疋(pi3/ya3/shu1). Again, you can't relate them. In fact, from the Kangxi dictionary, you can find that 疋 has been pronounced xu1/xu4 as well (historically?).

又【集韻】寫與切，音胥。又所據切，音絮。義同。

To conclude, I'd recommend to

make words and write down them ;
find sinograms using themselves as a phonetic indicator, e.g. 旋：漩(xuan2)渦、族：簇(cu4)擁、斿：遨遊(you2).

2 Answers 2