Chinese is written completely with Chinese characters or hànzi. Learning to write Chinese characters is one of the most difficult aspects of learning Mandarin Chinese. There are thousands of different characters in China, and the only way to learn them is by memorization and constant practice like a new baby.
Most Chinese characters are composed of radicals. Almost all Chinese characters are based on radicals, and other radicals may be used as part of the more complex character.
Character dictionaries were classified by radicals, and many modern dictionaries still use this method (among others) for looking up characters. Other classification methods include phonetics and the number of strokes used for drawing characters.
Here I share some simple and easy ways to learn Chinese characters.
Recognizing Radicals
One way of studying Chinese characters is to group them by radical. This is particularly useful when the characters also have a related theme, such as characters having to do with heart which are based on the radical 心 (xīn )，it’s usually in down.
Here are a few examples of characters based on the radical 心 (xīn ):
忘 – wàng – forget
想 – xiǎng – think；suppose
思 – sī – miss
忍 – rěn – tolerate，bear with
急 – jiāng – worry
Most characters which are based on the radical 心 (xīn ) have something to do with one’s feelings. So radicals can be a useful tool for remembering the meaning of Chinese characters.
Pictographs
Pictographs are simple diagrams meant to represent objects.
Here are some examples of pictographs：
Their Phonetic Series
北 – běi – north
This character originally meant “the back (of the body)” and was pronounced bèi. It is now represented by the character 背.
Here are a few examples of characters based on the Phonetic series:
Study Characters Together-Radical Phonetic Compounds
These are characters which combine phonetic components with semantic components. These characters for example have no real relationship to each other.Learning them together helps you differentiate between them so that you don’t confuse them later on.
We will group and order the most common Chinese characters in the following and share with you.
Tags: How to Learn Chinese Characters, simple and easy ways to learn Chinese characters
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