Examples of Simplified Chinese. There is no end to learning 学无止境! By Serene Zawaydeh. January 22, 2024
In my previous article, I listed some
examples of Chinese characters: The
Ongoing Process of Learning Chinese, HSK5. By Serene Zawaydeh. January 10, 2024. In this blog, I would like to take a closer look at
Chinese characters and words.
Bearing in mind that English alphabets
starting with AB, and Arabic alphabets start with أ – ب. What do the Chinese characters that start with these sounds look
like?
We can start by typing pinyin that
starts with a. For example, “啊“，is used at the end of sentences; while “阿姨“
means “aunt”.
When typing “ba”, notice the different
forms that correspond to “ba”, each having a different shape. All these shapes
have to be memorized, and handwritten to be able to learn the language.
吧： b, neutral
tone, used at the end of sentences, to indicate approval.
把： ba, first
tone, used with a things with a handle, such as holding an umbrella, 把伞，
八： ba, first
tone, number 8.
爸爸
baba, fourth tone, neutral tone, means dad. It is interesting that 爷爷
means (grandfather, father’s father), both have the upper character, 父,
which means father.
In Arabic, the letter can have diacritics
(harakat), which change the sound of the letter. For example, the letter ب can
occur as بِ –
بُ – بَ – بْ - بٍ – بٌ - باً
If a person knows how to read the “b” in English, or the “ب” in Arabic, with the diacritics (harakat), they
will be able to read the word that has this letter. They can read new words, as
all words consist of a specific set of alphabets.
However,
when it comes to Chinese, a new word can consist a combination of characters
previously encountered, to give a new meaning. The sounds of the words are
similar to previously learnt words. Words can consist of more than one
character, and they are added up together to form a new word. A dictionary with
pictures that gathers words by topic is useful to look at to get a broader idea
of Chinese words.
The
words in Chinese, are written without spaces in between. The person has to know
which word consists of one character, or two characters, or 3 characters, or 4
characters.
Following is an example of a word that starts with “巴“.
The character is used in names of countries, such as
巴拉圭 Paraguay
Notice that the pronunciation of
Paraguay, starts with a B, and not a P. Furthermore, the letter “ra” is written
as “la” in pinyin.
While the Chinese written language is
very rich in terms of the variations of the written characters, on top of
adding the tones, the spectrum of sounds seems to be limited.
While the letter “r” is a very easy
sound to make, and is used a lot in many languages, it could be challenging for
Chinese native speaker to say the letter “r”, although there are words with
pinyin starting with “ru” such as “如果“。Meanwhile, in Arabic, the letter “r” and “l”
must be distinguished, as is the case when saying Nimer “نمر “ or
tiger, and Namel “نمل “ or ants.
Following are examples of similarity of
characters, and how radicals appear in different words.
入 to enter， 人 person，人口population
两
both， 俩
both,
众 crowd， 从 from，肉 meat，内 inside, 内容content
大 big, 太 a lot，太太wife , 天 sky, 太阳 sun which is also 日sun， day of the
month,
态
status, 态度
attitude， 心态
mentality
The sound “bi” appears in words like: 避免，闭门
Words like with the letter “c”
擦: to clean, 擦写:
to erase
四means
four. The sound is more like the letter ص
in Arabic, which is missing in English. It is different than the Arabic letter س for s. Therefore, the sounds in pinyin, do
not correspond to the pronunciation of English letters.
As for the sound “d”, and there are
several words, with the pinyin being “de”. Grammar points specify whether 的， 地， 得 should be used.
的，地， 得， 德
One word, 得， can be pronounced “得”
or “得”
with neutral tone, or first tone 得.
It can be at the beginning or the end of a word.
我得:
I should
记得:
remember
获得:
obtain, 得意:
proud of oneself
“地“ can be pronounced “de” or “di”.
地方 place; 地
earth;
地理 geography; 认真地 seriously
德 as in 德国
which
means Germany. It is also used in names, such as 理查德
for Richard, where again, Li is used instead
of the “Ri” sound in the English name.
Following are
examples for words that have the sound “E”
一，以，意，义，依，疑，衣，已
一
means
1; while 2 is 二， and 3 is 三.
“I” is so easy
to write in English. Meanwhile, in Chinese, I means “我”. The stroke order is
important when writing Chinese. My starting point for writing Chinese words was
with this word. I thought it must be important to know how to write “I”.
Practicing writing is very important starting from level 1. Otherwise, it would
be impossible to continue learning Chinese at higher levels, as the words will
be later shown without pinyin, and if one does not distinguish the characters,
they wouldn’t be able to continue.
It is
important to practice writing to distinguish the difference between words. For
example
我找到钱,
means I found money， where the characters 我，找，钱seem to be confusing at the beginning.
The character 我is part of
some other words, such as 饿
hungry，鹅
goose, 天鹅
swan which have similar
sounds, while the same sound is found in 鳄
which means crocodile.
Some more
interesting words.
口
mouth
,哭
cry
, 品
product,
器utensil, 机器
machine
噩
startling,
while 噩梦
and
恶梦both
mean nightmare.
In order to
get the required word, the two syllables of the word should be typed. For
example:
Examples of the
sound “fa”
发
in
头发hair,
发现
to
find, 发愁to
be anxious
火
is fire, 心
is heart, mind
法
in 法国
France,
法律
law
乏
short
of
之
seems to look like the Z. Other words
that have this sound are:
一直
always， 直接direct
报纸
newspaper
只
only
辞职resign
Several words
have the sound G, such as:
个
this，歌
song，哥哥older
brother，各自each,
隔离isolate
The sound of 好
sounds
like هاو and خاو。
The following words have different tones and sound more like خي and not like the English “he”.
喝
drink，盒
small box，河
river，合
together，何how
， 和
with. These words sound like خِي
Words like 会
can，回
return，悔
regret，汇
collection.
These words sound like خْوِي
悔has
a component found in 母
and
每
。 The
part on the left, is the radical 心written vertically.
The sounds
that are learnt at the beginning of level 1, appear in other forms and
meanings, and can be the first or the second part of another word. When looking
up the part of the word, it would be the similar to the meaning of two characters
combined. Words can be made of one character, two characters, 3 characters, or
4 characters.
活 live, 生活 life;
或or 或者 means or; 火车
means
train ; 火车站
means train station.
There are a
lot of 成语or
idioms or proverbs that consist of 4 characters, which have a story behind
them. Reading translations of Chinese proverbs into Arabic, makes learning process not only focused on
learning the Chinese language, but there is always food for thought as well.
The idiom 笨鸟先飞
means: the clumsy bird flies early, or
the slow need to start early, which means to work hard to compensate for one's
limited abilities.
The character 鸟
which
means bird, appears in the word 鹅
which
means goose, while 天鹅 means swan. 天鹅湖
means
Swan Lake.
湖
the first part indicates that there is water which means 水, although it does not contain the first part
with the two dots. The last part, 月， means moon, and also means month.
For example, 泪 means tear,
which has the first part, and the second part is 目which
means ey， which also
means 眼睛， while glasses means 眼镜.
It turns out to be that 眼镜蛇means
cobra. The last part, which means snake 蛇
has the
same pinyin and tones as 社， 设.
The following
words are variations for “shi”
是，师,
视， 实，时，式， 试，十，识
，事
，史,
诗
There are
interesting words, such as ，雨
rain，which appears
in 雷 thunder with
田 or farm
below it，while 雪
snow
is on top of 山
which is the mountain. Noting that in零
which
is Zero, the lower character is not the character found in今天
which
means today, but rather the character 令，as in
令人吃惊
which
is means to shock, or to amaze. It is important to pay attention to the details
of the characters.
Examples of
more words that need to be distinguished.
来
come, 米
rice, 木
tree, 术
skill
Pronunciation
of words and whether they are chang, cheng, zhang, zheng, sheng and saying the
words with the correct tones without having the pinyin is a challenge.
尝
taste，长
long, 校长president
with the character having two pronunciations, as 长
means to develop. When typing the word as 校长,
the pronunciation would be 长,
while it would be pronounced as 长 if typed alone. 张
has
a different tone, and is a classifier for flat objects.
While learning
new words, it becomes possible to know the pronunciation
正确
correct, 保证
guarantee， 整
whole, 整理
to
arrange
成功
success， 诚，城， 诚实honest， 城市
city
, 长城
the
Great Wall, 商城
shopping center
上
on
top， 生
be born, 学生student， 省province， economize， 剩
remain
生
born，王
king，玉
jade
The word 车means car, and
the character is seen in 辈,
连，轮
The word 非
appears in 辈， 靠
While 辈， 背， 被， 贝 ，北， 悲 have similar sounds
If the word
was not encountered previously, then it would not be possible to know how to
read it and how to pronounce it. Here is an example:
缓,
means the verb “to delay” and the adjective “slow”, or “relaxed”.
It has the
part 爱
which means to love, 爱情 love, romance， 爱护
to cherish / to love and protect，保护to
protect, 护照
passport.
The complexity
of the words and the topics discussed increases at higher levels, in addition
to having more idioms. Meanwhile, the pronunciation of new characters seems to
be like previously encountered words.
For example, there
is no way of knowing that 缓
has the same sound as 还给， 换， 欢.
This is another pronunciation for the same character 还
which contains the character 不，found in 否。To get the correct pronunciation, I had to
write 还给， otherwise,
only 还
would be obtained。
Writing the
new words is important, and this should be done not just once, but several
times. Therefore, I find writing the chapter’s text to be very useful. While
writing, I notice the differences between characters, as the text is designed
to draw the attention to the differences between characters. Not only do I write down the text, but I also
type it down, which helps with knowing if the word is right or wrong. For
example, 睡眼
to
sleep， and
睡眠
to
sleep seem to be similar in meaning, and in writing, but they are two different
words.
When typing Chinese sentences, no
space is added between words. With the word being 1 character, or a combination
of two characters, or even 3 or 4 characters, prior knowledge of the meaning of
the word means that the reading will improve reading skills, spelling out the
words and having corresponding pauses.
Chinese idioms provide a concise way
of conveying an idea. The following dictionary
of Chinese idioms sorts idioms by pinyin. As per the idiom, 学无止境 , indeed, there is no end to learning.
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