Chinese Characters 101

Although you may wish it to be so, Chinese people don't use the Latin "abc" alphabet to build their language. The Chinese 'alphabet' does not consist of letter symbols but rather of stroke symbols carrying a certain meaning or a certain sound. Several of these stroke symbols are combined to form a single character, representing a certain concept. In turn, one or several characters are combined to form the equivalent of a word. And these groups of characters are once again combined to make sentences. It's not unlike a lego box where you combine smaller building blocks into bigger and bigger structures, where underlying levels can still be discerned.

A few examples:
- the character ren2 人 refers to the concept "person, people, man"
- the character ye3 也refers to the word "also"

In the above examples, one single stroke symbol makes up the entire character. Alternatively, these two stroke symbols rén 人 and ye3 也 can be combined to form a new single character:
- the character ta1 他 refers to the word "he, him"

The etymology is not difficult to understand: combine "person" with "also" to arrive at "he, him". Many characters are formed in this way and simple connotations like "he=person+also" are a great help in recognizing and memorizing characters.

In characters like ta1 他, we refer to ren2 人and ye3 也 as subcharacters or keys. Note that in the case of ta1 他, both subcharacters' contribution is one of meaning.

Let's continue:
- the character men2 门 refers to the concept "door, gate"

Now we can combine ren2 人 with men2 门 to obtain men 们. This character men 们 is used to make plurals forms when talking about people, e.g. combining ta1 他 "he, him" with this men 们 for plural forms of people, brings us at ta1men 他们 meaning "they, them". See how the lego building works? For the single word "they" or "them" we use two characters, each of them in turn composed of two subcharacters.

Note that in the case of men 们, the key ren2 人 contributes meaning, while the key men2 门 contributes sound only. In other words, the men2 门 key indicates how the character men 们 is supposed to be pronounced. It's own meaning of "door, gate" is irrelevant in this case.

Indeed, Chinese subcharacters can be grouped into three categories:

1. pictographic -- the subcharacter is a simplified drawing, directly conveying its meaning,
2. ideographic -- the subcharacter represents an idea, indirectly conveying its meaning,
3. phonetic -- the subcharacter indicates how the full character is pronounced.

Many Chinese characters have their root in an actual drawing of an object. For example, the character rou4 肉 refers to "meat" and can be recognized as a drawing of the ribs in a chest.

Other characters convey an idea by combining certain subcharacters. Combining nu3 女 for "mother" with zi3 子 for "child" becomes the character hao3 好 for "good", implying that all is well when mother and child are united.

An example of subcharacters indicating pronunciation was already given above for the character men们 with phonetic subcharacter men2 门.

When studying Chinese characters, make it a habit to find out (from your teacher or from some other source) what function the subcharacters have: a picture, an idea or a clue for pronunciation. However, language is not math, so sometimes you will not find straightforward clues like these and you will have to revert to using your own tricks to help your memory.

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