I can tell a character from a word, recognize the eight strokes and the eight radicals in familiar characters, and type my first characters on a Chinese keyboard.
Character, syllable and word. Strokes
Character, syllable and word. Strokes
A Chinese character is a written sign that is usually read as one syllable and carries part of the meaning. But a word is not a character: 朋友 péngyou “friend” is one word written with two characters; 东西 dōngxi means “thing”, although 东 dōng means “east” and 西 xī “west”.
A character doesn't tell you how to read it: the reading is learned with the word (that's why the course gives pinyin beside it).
Every character is built from strokes (the lines a character is written with). There are eight basic ones; their names are in the table (to recognize, not to write: there's no handwriting in the course).
Stroke order: top to bottom; left to right; 横 (horizontal) before 竖 (vertical); the frame first, then what's inside, and the bottom of the frame last; in a symmetrical character, the middle first, then the sides.
Common mistakes:
• NOT translating 东西 as “east-west” — it's the word “thing”.
• NOT reading a character “from its picture” — you know the reading only from the word.
• NOT starting 十 (shí, ten) with the vertical stroke — 横 comes first.
The eight basic strokes
Strokes are for recognizing: there's no handwriting in the course.
| Stroke | Name | How it's drawn |
|---|---|---|
| ㇐ | 横 héng | horizontal, left to right |
| ㇑ | 竖 shù | vertical, top to bottom |
| ㇒ | 撇 piě | a sweep down to the left |
| ㇏ | 捺 nà | a sweep down to the right |
| ㇔ | 点 diǎn | a short dot, like a drop |
| ㇀ | 提 tí | a short flick up to the right |
| ㇕ | 折 zhé | with a turn at an angle |
| ㇚ | 钩 gōu | with a hook at the end |
Stroke order
| Rule | Model character |
|---|---|
| top to bottom | 早 (zǎo, early) |
| left to right | 八 (bā) |
| horizontal before vertical | 木 (mù, tree) |
| the frame, then the inside, the bottom of the frame last | 日 (rì, day) |
| middle before the sides | 水 (shuǐ, water) |
Lesson notes
Character, syllable and word. Strokes
A Chinese character is a written sign that is usually read as one syllable and carries part of the meaning. But a word is not a character: 朋友 péngyou “friend” is one word written with two characters; 东西 dōngxi means “thing”, although 东 dōng means “east” and 西 xī “west”.
A character doesn't tell you how to read it: the reading is learned with the word (that's why the course gives pinyin beside it).
Every character is built from strokes (the lines a character is written with). There are eight basic ones; their names are in the table (to recognize, not to write: there's no handwriting in the course).
Stroke order: top to bottom; left to right; 横 (horizontal) before 竖 (vertical); the frame first, then what's inside, and the bottom of the frame last; in a symmetrical character, the middle first, then the sides.
Common mistakes:
• NOT translating 东西 as “east-west” — it's the word “thing”.
• NOT reading a character “from its picture” — you know the reading only from the word.
• NOT starting 十 (shí, ten) with the vertical stroke — 横 comes first.
Radicals
Many characters have a radical (the part of a character that hints at its meaning) on the left, at the top, or at the bottom. The eight common radicals of this level: 亻 person, 口 mouth, 女 woman, 氵 water, 讠 speech, 木 tree, 日 sun and day, 扌 hand. See the table.
A radical hints at the area of meaning, but not at the exact meaning or the reading: 你 “you” and 他 “he” have the “person” radical, 喝 “to drink” has the “mouth” radical.
We learn simplified characters, used in mainland China. Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional characters, with more strokes; the course leaves them until the last level.
How to type a character
You add the Chinese keyboard once (see the table for your device); choose Chinese, Simplified — Pinyin, not Traditional. It's a technical step, not knowledge of the language.
Type the pinyin without tones; the keyboard shows a list of candidate characters; pick one by tapping it or by its number. Type a whole word at once: nihao → 你好, xiexie → 谢谢.
Type ü as v: nv → 女 (lesson 4).
You don't type the tone, so you pick the character by the meaning of a word you already know. The first nine characters to type are in the table.
Without the keyboard you can answer in pinyin — that counts too; the answer is always shown in characters.