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What are Chinese Characters

Chinese characters are symbols that have been given meaning. Think Egyptian, but Asian. Chinese words are often made out of 1 or 2 characters. Most characters are made up of radicals and other strokes that either bring the characters meaning or help with pronounciation. Sometimes the strokes and radicals don’t do either, they just help show the differences between characters.

Chinese

What are Chinese characters

Chinese characters are symbols that have been given meaning. Think Egyptian, but Asian. Chinese words are often made out of 1 or 2 characters.

Most characters are made up of radicals and other strokes that either bring the characters meaning or help with pronounciation. Sometimes the strokes and radicals don’t do either, they just help show the differences between characters.

Huo- Fire

This is the radical for fire. it is often shown as 4 dashes underneath characters. It looks like fire is cooking something on top of it. I often feel it looks like it is cooking a pot of soup.

The full character for fire is shown below

Fire 火

Shi - God

This is the radical for godly. This radical is often found to the left of other characters and radicals. It can also mean blessed.

The full character for God is shown below.

God 礻

Nv - Woman

This is the radical for woman. Shown above and can be placed anywhere in a character. Some of the most common places are underneath or to the left of other radicals or characters. This is the she of Chinese.

This is the full character for woman. It is used both as a radical and a character.

woman 女

Ren - Person

This is the radical for person or man. It is often shown as 1 dash on top of 1 line to the left of other radicals or characters. This radical can either mean a man or mankind. This is the he of Chinese.

The full character for person is shown below.

Person 人

Chinese Characters