Posted in All on 23. Feb, 2010
Character 中 has two pronunciations. One is zhōng, and another is zhòng. When 中 is read as zhōng, it means centre/middle, and 中 in the word 中国 (zhōng ɡuó) has this pronunciation. The reason 中 read as zhōng in the word 中国 (zhōng ɡuó) is because ancient Chinese people believe China is in the center of the earth. When 中 is read as zhòng, meaning of 中 is changed with pronuncation, which means to hit/fall into.
Posted in All on 22. Feb, 2010
In the post today I am going to introduce character 上(shàng). 上(shàng) means on/above. Each Chinese character was a picture in ancient time. Though many of them are changed to modern look after so many years, but we still can tell the pictures. Take 上(shàng) as an example, the short line is above the line line, which is close to the picture of 上(shàng).
Posted in All on 21. Feb, 2010
Since character 好 (hǎo) was written in the daily character post already, 你 (nǐ), 好 (hǎo)‘s good friend, need to be introduced as well. 你好(nǐ hǎo) is the very common greeting in Chinese. You can use 你好(nǐ hǎo) when you meet someone for the first time as well as when you see them again. If the person you are going to greet is older than you or his/her position is senior than you, you may use 您好(nín hǎo) to show your respect.
Posted in All on 20. Feb, 2010
The character 个(ɡè ) is one of the most frequently-used measure word, which is used for people, such as teacher, student,etc. To know more about Chinese measure word, you can read my post about Chinese Measure Word Introduction.
Posted in All on 19. Feb, 2010
The character 人(rén) is not only a character, but also a radical. Do you still remember 女 (nǚ), which also works as character and radcial. Picture of 人(rén) is a bit different from that of 女 (nǚ), which is a standing person. When 人(rén) is used as a radical, it is mostly related to people and their actions.
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