Comments on: How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components

By: Olle Linge

Olle Linge — Tue, 10 Mar 2026 16:34:56 +0000

In reply to Sean Forster 傅舜恩 Fù Shùnēn. Yes, you can do something like that. I use and recommend a different system which I think is easier to implement and has less risk of being confused with the actual mnemonic for the character components. I've written a specific article about this topic here: How to use mnemonics to learn Mandarin tones and pronunciation

By: Sean Forster 傅舜恩 Fù Shùnēn

Sean Forster 傅舜恩 Fù Shùnēn — Mon, 09 Mar 2026 22:56:28 +0000

Hwang He says: “but you are on you own to know the right tone.”
I’ve only dipped into this discussion of mnemonics. But I think I get the general idea. Forgive me if I’ve missed something, but Huang’s comment seems to indicate that tones aren’t actually covered in the system. This is actually the one thing that I was looking for in the discussion. (Maybe it’s covered somewhere, but I haven’t come across it yet.) I have come across it in a textbook which seemed to address the issue – but not very efficiently. The textbook said “think of first tone as a giant, second tone as a goblin…” or something like that. I think a much more straightforward way is to think of it as a bicycle: 1st tone is riding on levelground; second tone is going up the hill; third tone is going down into a dip and up again, (maybe falling off?) Fourth tone is going downhill. Just add a bike to your mental picture. Simple!

By: How to use mnemonics to learn Mandarin tones and pronunciation | Hacking Chinese

Mon, 07 Apr 2025 00:33:22 +0000

[…] a different approach. I wrote about learning and remembering abstract things with mnemonics in this article, so this article is a deep dive into tones and pronunciation […]

By: Don't use mnemonics for everything | Hacking Chinese

Don't use mnemonics for everything | Hacking Chinese — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 12:06:38 +0000

[…] How to create mnemonics for general or abstract character components […]

By: Olle Linge

Olle Linge — Mon, 17 Jun 2013 03:22:00 +0000

In reply to Daniel French Poole.

Hm… I think the principle of what you’re doing is right, but in my opinion, you’re not doing it entirely right. You should use the real character components, not split the characters in any way you think looks reasonable. For instance, 泳 consists of “water” 氵 and eternity 永 and you really, really should use this in your story instead. You will encounter these components again and it will pay off to know what they actually mean. Use real etymology as often as you can!

By: Daniel French Poole

Daniel French Poole — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 02:13:12 +0000

I tend to use mnemonics on words that I have trouble remembering, or ones that I confuse with other characters.

For example, to learn 游泳 (to swim) – I broke down the characters into their individual parts, and then made a story. The first character, 游, I broke down into:氵(water) 方 (used a lot in characters to do with places) and 子 (child). The second character, 泳, has the water part again,氵, and the other part looks like the full character for water 水. So, my story was ‘To go swimming, you need a place with water, and there are usually a lot of characters.’ The second character I used to emphasis the water part (lots of water!). I hope that makes sense.

By: Tim Löfstedt

Tim Löfstedt — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 04:57:05 +0000

The “making everything up” deviation degree reminds me of a guy I met who remembered 烤 as a person (火) standing next to a barbecue grill (考). Hearing this made me frustrated because remembering 火 erroneously as “person” is bound to become confusing and counter-productive in the long run if you are a serious learner.

By: Hwang He

Hwang He — Sun, 27 Jan 2013 06:55:16 +0000

I love your web site because it reminds me to keep trying.

Visual association and phonological association quite different. The mnemonics are very helpful with the visual aspect.

Some characters actually offer two clues — one for meaning and the other for phonology. Generally the radical is a meaning clue and some other component associates the phonological syllable… but you are on you own to know the right tone.

By: Matt Sikora

Matt Sikora — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 19:33:37 +0000

Great suggestions here Olle! I’m definitely going to go back and make some of my mnemonics more vivid.

By: Rachel M.

Rachel M. — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 16:09:39 +0000

“吾 – “I” in classical Chinese. I think of myself as a mutated monster with five mouths, devouring everything in sight. This is “monster me”.”

This is a good one. This one is actually in my anki deck. I didn’t have a problem remembering it, as it’s quite a simple combination. My mnemonic was, “five senses” make a person and a person has a mouth. Your mnemonic crushes my mnemonic to pieces, haha.