regional dialects which over time became separate languages—as different from one another as the languages of Europe. As these languages changed and new words developed, people needed to know how to pronounce the characters used for those words. Thus, for example, an existing character which had the sound shù 尌 was added to mù 木 to represent a new word meaning “tree” which was pronounced as shù 樹. Here, the element 木 indicates that 樹 means “tree,” while the element 尌 shows how it is pronounced—as shù. In more recent times, the complicated traditional form 樹 was simplified to 树. Today, about 80% of all Chinese characters combine a semantic element (something which gives meaning) and a phonetic element (something which gives a clue to pronunciation). Here are some examples:
water radical 氵(a variation of 水) ＋ phonetic yáng 羊 (sheep) ＝ yáng 洋 (ocean)
woman radical 女 + phonetic mǎ 马 (horse) = mā 妈 (mother)
rain radical 雨 + phonetic lìng 令 (to order) = líng 零 (falling [rain]; zero)
grass radical 艹 (from the old character
In the characters above, the phonetic element adds nothing to the meaning: it just provides the sound.
As they became more complicated, Chinese characters also became more difficult to learn and remember, as well as more difficult and time-consuming to write. The process of using simplified or shorthand forms for the characters had been going on for a long time, and was accelerated dramatically in the 1950s and ’60s by the Chinese government, which created simpler versions of many characters—now called “Simplified Chinese Characters”—to promote literacy in China. Under this new system, many common Hanzi elements were simplified.
For example, when yán 言 (to speak) is used as a part of another character, it is rendered as 讠 and not
Writing Chinese characters
Each Hànzì character is made up of a number of individual lines or “strokes” that were traditionally written using a brush and ink. The order of strokes, along with the writing of the strokes themselves, follows the convention of top to bottom and left to right, although there are some exceptions. Not all strokes are in a single line; some involve a change of direction. For example, the character yuè 月 (meaning “moon” or “month”) has only four strokes, and is written:
Note that the second stroke begins at the left, and then hooks straight down. It should be written in one continuous motion, without the pen or pencil leaving the paper.
If a character has multiple components, the general rule is to go from left to right, and from top to bottom. For example, this is the stroke order for the character qǐng 请 (please):
Sometimes, one element of a character encloses another character. The general rule is that you write the enclosing element first, except for the final closing stroke, which is written last. For example, guó 国 (country):
Finally, some characters have an element that encloses another element, but only on the left and the bottom. In this case, you usually write the enclosing character last. An example is sòng 送 (to send):
Word formation in Chinese
In most cases in Chinese, Hànzì are not used alone to form words. Rather, words are formed with two or sometimes three Hànzì. In some cases, the same Hànzì is just repeated. This is particularly true of family names, such as māma 妈妈 (mother), bàba 爸爸 (father) and dìdi 弟弟 (younger brother). In other cases, the Chinese characters form compound nouns just as in English, for example, gāoxìng 高兴 (“high spirits,” i.e., joyful), qǐchuáng 起床 (“rise up [from] bed,” i.e., wake up) and dòuyá 豆芽 (bean sprouts). Finally, there are many cases where both Hànzì characters in a word have the same or very similar meanings, for example, yāoqiú 要求 (to request), xuéxí 学习 (to study), and wǔdǎo 舞蹈 (dance). In such cases, you may only need to know one of the characters in the compound to guess the meaning of the word from context.
Learning the characters
The traditional method of learning Chinese characters is to write them over and over again thousands of times, until they stick in your memory. Rote memorization is still required to some extent, no matter what. But it also helps a great deal if you learn the Hànzì, either individually or in combinations, as parts of words or phrases. And, of course, it is always better if you are able to spend time in a Chinese-speaking country where you are seeing and using the characters all the time. It is also useful to associate the meaning and pronunciation of each character with a memorable story or picture (these are called “mnemonics”). Just to give you an example of how this works, the character qǐng 请 (please) is made of the elements yán 言 (to speak) and qīng 青 (green). Through visualization or through a story, you can link yán 言 (to speak) and qīng 青 (green) in a way that will help you remember that these two elements combine to mean qǐng 请 (please). Learning Chinese characters is a bit like a puzzle or game and it can be quite fun! There are many books and flash cards on the market that use mnemonic devices such as these to help you learn the Hànzì.
