Welcome to Fun &Easy Chinese by ChineseClass101.com! |
嗨大家好,我是李殷如. (Hài dàjiā hǎo, Wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú). |
Hi everyone, Yinru Li here. |
Learning Chinese characters is not an easy task. But there’s a shortcut. To learn 汉字 (Hànzì) twice as fast, study their radicals and components. |
There are quite a few 汉字 (Hànzì) that are made up of copies of the same component. These 汉字 in Chinese are called 叠字 (dié zì), which literally means "stacked character." |
In this lesson, you’re going to learn some of the most commonly used 叠字 (dié zì) in everyday Chinese. |
[人,从,众] |
人 (rén) means "person." 人. |
For example, 好人 (hǎorén) means "good person" |
好人 (enunciated). 好人. |
When we put two 人 side by side, 两个人 (liǎng ge rén), "two persons", becomes |
从 (cóng), which means "to follow." |
One person following another person is 从. |
从 can also mean "from." For example, the phrase 从...到..(Cóng ...Dào …) means "from...to…" |
You can use 从什么地方到什么地方 cóng shénme dìfāng dào shénme dìfāng "from a certain place to a certain place," |
or 从什么时候到什么时候 (cóng shénme dìfāng dào shénme dìfāng shíhou) "from a certain time to a certain time." |
[SLOW] 从...到... |
What happens when we stack 三个人 (sān ge rén) "three persons" together? |
三个人 turns into the character 众 (zhòng), meaning "crowd," "lots of people." 众 (enunciated). 众. |
观众 (guānzhòng), for example, literally means "watching crowd" but translates as "audience" or "viewer." 观众. |
[口,吕,品] |
If you like this way of learning 汉字 (Hànzì) , great! I have more to show you. |
Have you seen this 汉字 (Hànzì), 口 (kǒu)? |
It means "mouth" or "opening." 口. |
For example, 入口 (rùkǒu) means "entrance." 入口 (enunciated). 入口. |
Be careful not to confuse 入 (rù) with 人 (rén), as they look very similar. |
The left stroke in 人 is longer, while the right stroke in 入 (rù) is longer. |
入口 (rùkǒu) means "entrance". 人口(rénkǒu) means "population." |
Now let’s stack two 口 (kǒu)up. |
Before we do that, I’d like to mention that when we put components together to build new characters, the shape of the component will often be changed a little so that the whole structure of the 汉字 (Hànzì) is more balanced. |
两个口 (liǎng ge kǒu), "two 口" together make 吕 (lǚ), with the lower 口 being bigger and flatter. |
This 汉字 (Hànzì) is mostly used as a surname 姓 (xìng), pronounced (lǚ). 吕 (enunciated). 吕. |
这个汉字有三个口. (Zhège Hànzì yǒu sān ge kǒu.) "This character has three 口:" Two smaller ones at the bottom, and a bigger one on top. |
This is pronounced as pǐn. 品 (enunciated). 品. |
If you think of 口 kǒu as a box, three boxes stacked together 品 (pǐn) means "product" or "commodity." |
For example, the word 物品 (wùpǐn) means "item" or "goods" 物品(enunciated). 物品. |
In a train or a bus, you may see this sentence on a sign "请保管好随身携带的物品." (Qǐng bǎoguǎn hǎo suíshēn xiédài de wùpǐn.) |
It means "Please take care of your belongings." |
[SLOW] 请保管好随身携带的物品. |
请保管好随身携带的物品. |
品 is also used as a verb, meaning "to savor." |
Using three mouths to taste is to take your time to appreciate something, as in 品尝(pǐncháng) which means "to savor." |
品尝 (enunciated). 品尝. |
[日,昌,晶] |
We know this is 口 (kǒu), but when we add a line in the middle, what character does it turn into? |
It’s 日 (rì), meaning "sun" or "day." 日 (enunciated). 日. |
For example, 日出 (rìchū) means "sun out" but translates as "sunrise." 日出 (enunciated). 日出. |
In the same way two 口 (kǒu) makes 吕, two 日 (rì) makes 昌 (chāng), with the lower 日 (rì) being flatter and wider. |
昌 means "prosperous." It’s often used in names for stores, towns, or people, such as the city 南昌 (Nánchāng). 南昌 (enunciated). 南昌. |
Also just as three 口 (kǒu) makes 品 (pǐn), three 日 stacked up the same way makes 晶 (jīng). |
晶 can be an adjective meaning "bright and shiny," since we have "three sun" 三个日, shining on us. |
It’s also used as a noun meaning "crystal," as in 水晶 (shuǐjīngI), "crystal." |
水晶 (enunciated). 水晶. |
[木,林,森] |
Let’s look at 木 (mù). It means "tree" or "wood." Doesn't it kinda look like a tree? |
木马 (mùmǎ), "wood horse" is a toy horse that rocks back and forth for kids to ride on. 木马 (enunciated). 木马. |
When two 木 (mù) are combined side by side, the right stroke of 木 gets a little shorter. It looks like this: 林 (lín), and it's pronounced lín. |
Two trees 林 make "woods." 林. |
三个木 makes 森. It's not just a small woodland, it’s a forest, as in 森林 (sēnlín) "forest." 森林. |
Can you count how many 木 (mù) are in this word 森林 (sēnlín) ? |
一二三四五 (yī èr sān sì wǔ) |
五个木. (Wǔ ge mù.) |
(Clean whiteboard) |
Clip 2 |
[朋,双,炎,多,磊] |
As a matter of fact, there are many 汉字 in Chinese that are used daily and have one repeated component. |
For example, one 月 (yuè) is "moon.” 月. |
Two 月 (yuè) side by side makes 朋 (péng). "Friend." Two moons together make "friends." |
We find it in 朋友 (péngyou). "Friend." |
朋友 (enunciated). 朋友. |
One 又 (yòu) is "again." 又. |
Two 又 makes 双 (shuāng), meaning "pair," as in 一双手 (yì shuāng shǒu) "a pair of hands." 一双手 (enunciated). 一双手. |
One 火 (huǒ) is "fire." 火 (enunciated). |
Two 火 is 炎 (yán), meaning "extremely hot" or "inflammation," as in 发炎 (fāyán), which is a verb phrase meaning "to become inflamed." 发炎 (enunciated). 发炎. |
In the earliest form of Chinese script, this symbol 夕(xī) represents "meat." Nowadays it means "dusk." |
When we put two 夕 together, on top of each other, "two pieces of meat" 多 means "a lot." |
In primitive society, two pieces of meat were considered "many." |
The compound word 多少 (duōshǎo)", which literally means "many few" is often used to ask "how many." 多少 (enunciated). 多少 . |
One more. |
One 石 (shí) is "rock." 石. |
Three 石 (shí) is 磊 (lěi), meaning "lots of rocks." |
磊 is often used in male names with the hope that this boy will be tough and strong like rocks. |
(quiz with cards) |
I hope this lesson gives you a new perspective on Chinese characters. |
Now let’s recap what we learned with a quiz. |
What is this 汉字?(card: 人) |
人 rén means "person" 人. |
What about three 人 together? (card: 众) |
众 "Crowd." 众. |
Between (card 晶) and (card: 品), which one means "to savor?” |
This one with 三个口. "Three mouths." to savor 品 (pǐn). 品. |
In this lesson, we mentioned a two-character compound word that is made up of 5 of the same repeated component. Do you remember that word? |
森林 (sēnlín), meaning "Forest." 森林. |
When you see this character (card: 炎) on a package of medicine, can you guess what this medicine would be used to treat? |
"Inflammation." 炎 (yán). 炎. |
Well done! |
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Thank you for learning 汉字 with me at ChineseClass101.com. See you next time! 再见 zàijiàn! |
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