{"id":15383,"date":"2021-12-15T20:33:28","date_gmt":"2021-12-15T19:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/?p=15383"},"modified":"2024-01-10T08:11:30","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T07:11:30","slug":"the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-5-making-sense-of-chinese-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-5-making-sense-of-chinese-words\/","title":{"rendered":"The building blocks of Chinese, part 5: Making sense of Chinese words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-15395\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cizi-1-300x300.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cizi-1-300x300.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cizi-1.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cizi-1-150x150.png 150w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/cizi-1-768x768.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>How many Chinese characters do you need to know to be able to read?<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>How many characters are there in total?<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>These are common questions that are often based on a misunderstanding of how the Chinese writing system works. While it\u2019s possible to count how many unique characters a text in Chinese contains, let\u2019s say 3,000 in an ordinary novel, knowing all those characters doesn\u2019t mean that you can understand the novel.<\/p>\n<p>Even if you learnt all the characters that are in common use, maybe 6,000 or so depending on how \u201ccommon use\u201d is defined, this still only provides a foundation for reading ability, not reading ability itself.<\/p>\n<p><em>Tune in to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/podcast\/\">the Hacking Chinese Podcast<\/a> to listen to this article:<\/em><br \/>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/anchor.fm\/hackingchinese\/embed\/episodes\/71---The-building-blocks-of-Chinese--part-5-Making-sense-of-Chinese-words-e1bouol\" width=\"400px\" height=\"102px\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><br \/>\n<em>Available on <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/hacking-chinese-podcast\/id1536284827\">Apple Podcasts<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.google.com\/feed\/aHR0cHM6Ly9hbmNob3IuZm0vcy8zODhlYjllOC9wb2RjYXN0L3Jzcw\">Google Podcast<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/overcast.fm\/itunes1536284827\/hacking-chinese-podcast\">Overcast<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/5iCRv1jg3j3yJZGJlYVYaO\">Spotify<\/a> and many more!<\/em><\/p>\n<p>This means that the previous articles in this series are important, but not enough. You do need to know characters, but you also need to know how they fit together into words. If you haven\u2019t read them yet, here\u2019s a list of all the articles about the building blocks of Chinese:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-1-chinese-characters-and-words-in-a-nutshell\/\">Part 1: Chinese characters in a nutshell<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-2-basic-characters-components-and-radicals\/\">Part 2: Basic characters and character components<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learning-chinese-characters\/\">Part 3: Compound characters<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-4-learning-and-remembering-compound-characters\/\">Part 4: Learning and remembering compound characters<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-5-making-sense-of-chinese-words\/\">Part 5: Making sense of Chinese words<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-building-blocks-of-chinese-part-6-learning-and-remembering-compound-words\">Part 6: Learning and remembering compound words<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Of course, understanding written Chinese involves more than words as well, most importantly grammar and the ability to interpret words correctly in context, but in this article and the next, we\u2019re going to focus on word formation.<\/p>\n<h3>Chinese has a strong preference for two-character words<\/h3>\n<p>The reason characters only provide a foundation is that meaning in modern Chinese is conveyed through words, not individual, stand-alone characters. This includes both single-character words, two-character words and even longer ones, but the difference between a character and a single-character word might not be obvious, but we&#8217;ll get to that later.<\/p>\n<p>In general, everyday language is more likely to contain single-syllable words. If you think about it, the most common verbs work well on their own, for example:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u770b (k\u00e0n) \u201cto see\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u5403 (ch\u012b) \u201cto eat\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u559d (h\u0113) \u201cto drink\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u7ed9 (g\u011bi) \u201cto give\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u8d70 (z\u01d2u) \u201cto walk\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These are considered words as they can be used independently. However, if you browse through the word lists your textbook or a word dictionary, you\u2019ll see that most words are made up of\u00a0 two characters, not one.<\/p>\n<p>Since native speakers know many tens of thousands of words, and there are only 6,000 characters in use, it should be obvious that most words can\u2019t consist of only a single character.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, Chinese has a very strong preference for two-character words, or two-syllable words in the spoken language. The key to understanding these words is to realise that the they consist of meaningful parts, just like we have seen that characters consist of meaningful and functional components in earlier articles in this series.<\/p>\n<p>In some cases, you can deduce what a word means just by knowing the characters, but not always:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Easy: \u8db3\u7403 (z\u00faqi\u00fa) = foot + ball = football (or soccer, if you prefer)<\/li>\n<li>Medium: \u8df3\u821e (ti\u00e0ow\u01d4) = jump + dance = to dance<\/li>\n<li>Hard: \u4e1c\u897f (d\u014dngxi) = east + west = thing; stuff (if pronounced with two first tones, it could also mean east-west literally, but this is much rarer than the word we\u2019re interested in here)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whether or not the composition makes intuitive sense by looking at the individual characters, it&#8217;s extremely important to realise that compound words can (almost) always be broken down into individual characters that are meaningful and will either help you understand the word, make it easier to remember, or both.<\/p>\n<h3>What is a word in Chinese anyway?<\/h3>\n<p>If you don&#8217;t know what the characters in a word means, you&#8217;re essentially forced to memorise meaningless combinations of complex jumbles of strokes, and as anyone with the slightest insight into learning and memory knows, memorising meaningless things is very hard.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s look at the words from the previous section again:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u8db3\u7403 (z\u00faqi\u00fa) = foot + ball = football (or soccer, if you prefer)<\/li>\n<li>\u8df3\u821e (ti\u00e0ow\u01d4) = jump + dance = to dance<\/li>\n<li>\u4e1c\u897f (d\u014dngxi) = east + west = thing; stuff<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can see that they are quite different in structure. The first word, \u8db3\u7403 (z\u00faqi\u00fa), is just a compound of what looks like two nouns, which also happen to be the same in English. If you know or learn what the components mean, the meaning of the word is very easy to remember.<\/p>\n<p>In the second case, \u8df3\u821e (ti\u00e0ow\u01d4), the first character is a verb and the second is a noun, so it looks like a verb-object phrase, where in English, we only use a single verb to express this. To &#8220;jump-dance&#8221; is not very intuitive the first time you see it, but I think you&#8217;d agree that it could make sense from a certain angle.<\/p>\n<p>The third case, \u4e1c\u897f (d\u014dngxi), makes no sense at all on a superficial level, as &#8220;east&#8221; and &#8220;west&#8221; have no apparent relationship to the meaning &#8220;thing&#8221;. Still, since these are basic characters that have their own meanings, remembering the word \u4e1c\u897f (d\u014dngxi) is much easier if you know the individual characters. It&#8217;s not like in English, where breaking down &#8220;thing&#8221; into &#8220;thi&#8221; and &#8220;ng&#8221; makes any sense.<\/p>\n<h3>What is a word anyway? Is \u4f60\u597d a word? What about \u5403\u996d?<\/h3>\n<p>At this point, you might ask yourself what a word actually is in Chinese. In English, this is less of a problem, because in writing, we use spaces around words and we also use lots of inflections and other modifications that help us identify word boundaries in the spoken language.<\/p>\n<p>Chinese doesn\u2019t use spacing around words and it doesn\u2019t use inflections in the way English does either. Traditionally, Chinese dictionaries list only single characters, so \u5b57\u5178 (z\u00ecdi\u01cen), and word dictionaries, \u8bcd\u5178 (c\u00eddi\u01cen) only appeared in the twentieth century. That means that the concept of a &#8220;word&#8221; (wordhood) is rather hazy and hard to pin down.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s have a quick look at what a &#8220;word&#8221; is in Chinese! First, do you think that \u4f60\u597d (n\u01d0h\u01ceo) is a word? If you translate it to \u201chello\u201d in English, it certainly looks like a word! What about \u60a8\u597d (n\u00ednh\u01ceo), then, is that a word too? What about \u4f60\u4eec\u597d (n\u01d0menh\u01ceo) or \u5927\u5bb6\u597d (d\u00e0ji\u0101h\u01ceo)? Or \u8001\u5e08\u597d (l\u01ceosh\u012bh\u01ceo)? Or maybe \u65e9\u4e0a\u597d (z\u01ceoshangh\u01ceo)? Are these words or phrases?<\/p>\n<p>In fact, all of these are usually treated as phrases in Chinese, not words.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s look at a few more examples to see what is necessary for something to qualify as a word:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u5927\u8863 (d\u00e0y\u012b) \u201cbig + clothes\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u5927\u5bb6 (d\u00e0ji\u0101) \u201cbig + home\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u5927\u6811 (d\u00e0sh\u00f9) \u201cbig + tree\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u5927\u6865 (d\u00e0qi\u00e1o) \u201cbig + bridge\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Which of these are words? The first two should be treated as words, because they have a meaning beyond what you get when combining the characters: \u5927\u8863 doesn\u2019t just mean \u201cbig clothes\u201d, it means \u201covercoat\u201d specifically, and \u5927\u5bb6 normally doesn\u2019t mean \u201cbig home\u201d, but \u201ceverybody\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The other two are not words, because they are pure compositions, meaning \u201cbig tree\u201d and \u201cbig bridge\u201d respectively. In such cases, you can try to insert a \u7684 between the adjective and the noun part of the word: if it still means the same thing, it\u2019s a phrase, but if it doesn\u2019t, it\u2019s a word. So \u5927\u7684\u8863 doesn\u2019t work, but \u5927\u7684\u6811 works. Hence, \u5927\u8863 is a word, but \u5927\u6811 is not.<\/p>\n<p>As you can see, this is rather complicated, and I have only scratched the surface here. If you\u2019re really interested to learn more, I suggest you check out chapter 5 in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/review-the-phonology-of-standard-chinese\/\">Duanmu San&#8217;s <em>The Phonology of Standard Chinese <\/em>(2007)<\/a>, which has an in-depth look at wordhood in Chinese and presents various theories and hypotheses. Packard (2000) also has an accessible introduction in chapter 2.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"xsxb2VCFdV\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/review-the-phonology-of-standard-chinese\/\">Review: The Phonology of Standard Chinese<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Review: The Phonology of Standard Chinese&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/review-the-phonology-of-standard-chinese\/embed\/#?secret=RyAQtVK5JF#?secret=xsxb2VCFdV\" data-secret=\"xsxb2VCFdV\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Can\u2019t I just leave the problem of what a word is to linguists?<\/h3>\n<p>Yes, you can, because there is a shortcut! Anything that appears in a word dictionary is a word, and anything that doesn\u2019t is probably a phrase. If you look up all the above examples in \u73b0\u4ee3\u6c49\u8bed\u8bcd\u5178 (Xi\u00e0nd\u00e0i h\u00e0ny\u01d4 c\u00eddi\u01cen), the most authoritative word dictionary in China, you will see that it exactly follows what I have said\u00a0 when it comes to these examples (I just checked).<\/p>\n<p>But it&#8217;s not that easy. What about words like \u5403\u996d? In&#8217;t that a phrase? It certainly looks like a verb-object phrase: &#8220;eat rice&#8221;!<\/p>\n<p>Still, \u5403\u996d is a word, and it is listed in the dictionary. Not all words are indivisible units, because we also have a category of words called \u79bb\u5408\u8bcd (l\u00edh\u00e9c\u00ed), \u201cseparable words\u201d (or &#8220;verbs&#8221; as these tend to be).<\/p>\n<p>In dictionaries, these are often marked with \/\/ between the syllables. Below, you can see the entry for \u5403\u996d in \u73b0\u4ee3\u6c49\u8bed\u8bcd\u5178. If you know of a good online dictionary that provides this kind of information, please let me know in the comments!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/chifan.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15390 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/chifan-1024x455.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"455\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/chifan-1024x455.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/chifan-300x133.png 300w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/chifan-768x342.png 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/chifan-1536x683.png 1536w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/chifan.png 1628w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>These are considered words, but can still be manipulated as phrases. This means that you can\u2019t just treat all the words you learn as their English counterparts and be done with it, or at least you can\u2019t do that for long. Knowing the component characters is essential!<\/p>\n<p>Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u5403\u996d (ch\u012bf\u00e0n) \u201cto eat\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u8df3\u821e (ti\u00e0ow\u01d4) \u201cto dance\u201d<\/li>\n<li>\u7761\u89c9 (shu\u00ecji\u00e0o) \u201cto sleep\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most beginners think of these as being words just like any other, which is okay if you only just learnt them. But then you\u2019ll get confused when people say the phrases listen below, or when you get corrected when you treat these words as inseparable units:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u5403\u8fc7\u996d (\u5403\u996d\u8fc7 is wrong)<\/li>\n<li>\u7761\u4e0d\u4e86\u89c9 (\u7761\u89c9\u4e0d\u4e86 is wrong)<\/li>\n<li>\u8df3\u8d77\u821e\u6765 (\u8df3\u821e\u8d77\u6765 is wrong)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So, it\u2019s clear that you have to learn the meaning of the individual characters that make up these words in order to be able to use them properly, and you also need to understand their function. A bit like learning components help you understand characters, right?<\/p>\n<p>\u5403\u996d doesn\u2019t just mean \u201cto eat\u201d, it actually means \u201cto eat-rice\u201d, \u7761\u89c9 doesn\u2019t mean \u201cto sleep\u201d, but \u201cto sleep-sleep\u201d, and \u8df3\u821e doesn\u2019t mean \u201cto dance\u201d, it means \u201cto jump-dance\u201d. If these were actual words in English, you could manipulate them like you do in Chinese, and you\u2019d maybe say that you \u201cate-rice\u201d, not \u201ceat-riced\u201d. Even if both examples are strange, it should be clear that it\u2019s the verb that needs to be inflected, not the noun. It\u2019s the same in Chinese!<\/p>\n<p>So no, you can\u2019t treat words in Chinese like words in English, which are (almost) never split like this and don\u2019t behave as phrases in some contexts. The fact that Chinese is almost always constructed out of smaller building blocks matters for how the language is used!<\/p>\n<p>Of course, I don&#8217;t mean to say that\u00a0<em>all<\/em> words are like this. In contrast with the words mentioned above, verbs like \u5b66\u4e60 (xu\u00e9x\u00ed) &#8220;to study&#8221;, \u8fd0\u52a8 (\u1ef3und\u00f2ng) and \u4f11\u606f (xi\u016bxi) shouldn&#8217;t be split. These aren&#8217;t of a verb-object structure (and aren&#8217;t listed as separable verbs either), and are treated as units, so it&#8217;s \u5b66\u4e60\u8fc7, \u8fd0\u52a8\u8d77\u6765 and \u4f11\u606f\u4e86. As a beginner, you can&#8217;t know that just by looking at the characters, but we&#8217;ll look more at the internal structure of compounds in the next article.<\/p>\n<h3>Tricky cases and the Cthulhu bubble<\/h3>\n<p>As is often the case with languages in general, how words behave can be irregular and unpredictable. For example, \u5173\u5fc3 (gu\u0101nx\u012bn) is also a verb-object compound (close + heart) meaning \u201cconcern\u201d, but you can\u2019t say \u5173\u4e86\u5fc3, and have to say \u5173\u5fc3\u4e86 (gu\u0101nx\u012bn le) instead. But, as if to mock us second language learners, you <i>can<\/i> split it to say \u5173\u4ec0\u4e48\u5fc3 (gu\u0101n sh\u00e9nme x\u012bn), which strongly hints at the verb-object structure of this word. In \u73b0\u4ee3\u6c49\u8bed\u8bcd\u5178, \u5173\u5fc3 is not listed as a separable verb. As we have seen before, you can\u2019t know this by looking at the word.<\/p>\n<p>A word of warning, though: don\u2019t get stuck in exceptions in tricky cases, for in that direction madness lies. It will take a lot of time and will offer you little in return, even if you do occasionally find a good answer as to why something is said in a certain way and not another. Staying inside the bubble of safety where language is fairly regular is fine; don\u2019t poke the monsters that dwell outside. I wrote more about this here:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"yWpHAUye5q\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-cthulhu-bubble-and-studying-chinese\/\">The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;The Cthulhu bubble and studying Chinese&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/the-cthulhu-bubble-and-studying-chinese\/embed\/#?secret=I9anKwjqEH#?secret=yWpHAUye5q\" data-secret=\"yWpHAUye5q\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Word length in Chinese is flexible<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It\u2019s worth pointing out that word length is often flexible in Chinese, and that Chinese can even be said to have a \u201cdual vocabulary\u201d, meaning that many things can be expressed with two different words that mean the same thing, one with a single syllable and the other with two. Here are a few examples:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u5546\u5e97 (sh\u0101ngdi\u00e0n) \u201cshop\u201d, means the same thing as just \u5e97<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u5927\u849c (d\u00e0su\u00e0n) \u201cgarlic\u201d means the same thing as just \u849c<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u79cd\u690d (zh\u00f2ngzh\u00ed) \u201cto plant\u201d means the same thing as just \u79cd<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is a major headache for second language learners to figure out which one to use, as this is often dictated by things like rhythm, which can be hard to get an intuitive grasp of. For an overview, see chapter 7 in Duanmu (2007).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is not something you can learn by studying theory, though, even if doing so can be interesting. Instead, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/introduction-extensive-reading-chinese-learners\/\">the solution is extensive reading and listening<\/a>; by exposing yourself enough to the way people write and speak, you\u2019ll automatically learn how words are used. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/learn-chinese-implicitly-exposure-seasoning-explicit-instruction\/\">Understanding how things work can help<\/a>, which is why I wrote this article.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Knowing where a word comes from can make it easier to understand<\/h3>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-15398\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tonglun-211x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"211\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tonglun-211x300.jpg 211w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tonglun-721x1024.jpg 721w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tonglun-768x1090.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tonglun-1082x1536.jpg 1082w, https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/tonglun.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 211px) 100vw, 211px\" \/>Words can be very different depending on how they entered the mainstream language. Just like words in any language, Chinese words come from a number of different sources.Let\u2019s briefly look at where words come from (examples are from \u90b5\u656c\u654f (2007)):<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><b>\u4f20\u627f\u8bcd, \u201dinherited words\u201c &#8211;<\/b> These are simply words that have been in the Chinese language for a very long time. Most basic parts of the language belong to this category, including \u4eba (r\u00e9n) \u201cperson\u201d,\u00a0 \u5c71 (sh\u0101n) \u201cmountain\u201d, \u5929\u7a7a (ti\u0101nk\u014dng) \u201csky\u201d and \u571f\u5730 (t\u01d4d\u00ec) \u201cland\u201d.<\/li>\n<li><b>\u53e4\u8bed\u8bcd, \u201dancient words\u201d &#8211;<\/b> These are words related to a specific historical period and aren\u2019t really used in modern Chinese unless referring to something of that period. Thus, these words are not beginner-friendly, but here are a couple of examples: \u965b\u4e0b (b\u00ecxi\u00e0) \u201c your majesty\u201d, \u4e1c\u5bab (d\u014dngg\u014dng) \u201ceastern palace (crown prince residence)\u201d.<\/li>\n<li><b>\u65b9\u8a00\u8bcd, \u201ctopolect words\u201d &#8211;<\/b> These words come from other topolects (or dialects, if you prefer) of Chinese. This relationship can be very complex, but it\u2019s enough for now to be aware of the fact that many words enter Mandarin from other dialects. For example: \u6253\u5de5 (d\u01ceg\u014dng) \u201cto work for others; to work part-time\u201d,\u00a0 \u7092\u9c7f\u9c7c (ch\u01ceo y\u00f3uy\u00fa), \u201cget fired (literally: \u201cto fry squid\u201d), both come from Cantonese.<\/li>\n<li><b>\u793e\u533a\u8bcd, \u201ccommunity words\u201d &#8211;<\/b> These are words that have their origin in specific communities. For example, \u5317\u6f02 (b\u011bipi\u0101o) refers to people not from Beijing who have moved there for work, and is today not only used in Beijing, but has spread to the language in general. Here in Sweden, Chinese people call Stockholm \u65af\u4eac (s\u012bj\u012bng) , which is not an official word, as it\u2019s still limited to this specific community. The official name\u00a0 is \u65af\u5fb7\u54e5\u5c14\u6469 (s\u012bd\u00e9g\u0113\u011brm\u00f3). This word could become a \u201creal\u201d word if more people used it!<\/li>\n<li><b>\u4e13\u4e1a\u8bcd, \u201cprofessional words\u201d &#8211;<\/b> These words were originally limited to a professional context, but then spread to the general language. An example is \u5957\u7262 (t\u00e0ol\u00e1o), which originally meant to be stuck with a bad stock investment, but is now used in the mainstream language to mean \u201ctrapped\u201d or \u201cstuck,\u201d, such as in a marriage (although I would never use this word to describe my own marriage, of course).<\/li>\n<li><b>\u5916\u6765\u8bcd, \u201cforeign words\u201d &#8211;<\/b> Chinese naturally has borrowed words from other languages, too. This is sometimes done mimicking the sound, e.g. \u5496\u5561 (k\u0101f\u0113i), \u201ccoffee\u201d, a mix of sound and meaning, e.g. \u65b0\u897f\u5170 (x\u012bnx\u012bl\u00e1n) \u201cNew Zealand\u201d, sound plus a Chinese affix, e.g. \u5564\u9152 (p\u00edji\u01d4), both sound and meaning at the same time, e.g. \u57fa\u56e0 (j\u012by\u012bn) \u201cgene\u201d, or foreign words used exactly as they are, e.g. \u201cOK\u201d, \u201cDVD\u201d and \u201cGDP\u201d.<\/li>\n<li><b>\u65b0\u9020\u8bcd\u8bed, \u201cnewly created words\u201d &#8211;<\/b> New concepts, ideas and technologies have lead to the creation of completely new words, such as in economy: \u56fd\u4f01 (gu\u00f3q\u01d0), \u201cstate-owned enterprise\u201d, in technology: \u7535\u8111 (di\u00e0nn\u01ceo) \u201ccomputer\u201d, or daily life things, such as \u65b9\u4fbf\u9762 (f\u0101ngbi\u00e0nmi\u00e0n), \u201cinstant noodles\u201d.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The point here is not that you need to know all these categories, but that you should be aware of the fact that sometimes a word won\u2019t make sense unless you know where it\u2019s from. This is particularly true for foreign words, because if you look at a word like \u5564\u9152 (p\u00edji\u01d4) without taking English \u201cbeer\u201d or maybe German \u201cbier\u201d into consideration, it won\u2019t make much sense.<\/p>\n<p>This can be particularly tricky with names. For example, Iceland is \u51b0\u5c9b (b\u012bngd\u01ceo), using meaning only, but Greenland is \u683c\u9675\u5170 (g\u00e9l\u00edngl\u00e1n), using sound only. While English is of course an important source of both names and words in general, you sometimes need to know other languages to fully make sense of a Chinese name.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the radio station Al Jazeera\u00a0 is called \u534a\u5c9b\u7535\u89c6\u53f0 (b\u00e0nd\u01ceo di\u00e0nsh\u00ect\u00e1i), \u201cpeninsula radio station\u201d in Chinese, referring to the name in Arabic, which means \u201cthe island\u201d, referring to the Arabian Peninsula, hence \u534a\u5c9b \u201cpeninsula\u201d . There are also many words from Japanese that use the same characters as in Japanese even though they are pronounced completely differently; \u4e1c\u4eac (d\u014dngj\u012bng) is Tokyo, for example. We talked more about transliterations in this article:<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"vhZksUHtkf\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/lost-in-transcription-saylaw-ice-island-and-aristotle\/\">Lost in transcription: Saylaw, Ice Island and Aristotle<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;Lost in transcription: Saylaw, Ice Island and Aristotle&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/lost-in-transcription-saylaw-ice-island-and-aristotle\/embed\/#?secret=BywoI4b1G9#?secret=vhZksUHtkf\" data-secret=\"vhZksUHtkf\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>There are of course many, many loan words from Japanese that aren&#8217;t names. Since these are pronounced in Chinese and use Chinese characters, they often don &#8220;feel&#8221; like loan words, and many are indeed not aware that they are. Examples include \u6742\u5fd7 (z\u00e1zh\u00ec) &#8220;magazine&#8221;, \u7535\u8bdd (di\u00e0nhu\u00e0) &#8220;telephone&#8221; and \u9769\u547d (g\u00e9m\u00ecng) &#8220;revolution&#8221;. For an in-depth discussion, see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepaper.cn\/newsDetail_forward_8694917?fbclid=IwAR0lYtPj1xlGwmTGVZiF0S1eo4yQ0-wibHPJhWUnAg-LoK7mII7zka1MIg4\">this article<\/a> (in Chinese) or in English, Zhao (2006).<\/p>\n<h3>Conclusion: Understanding characters is necessary to understand and remember words<\/h3>\n<p>What I hope this discussion has made clear is that you can\u2019t just treat words in Chinese like words in English. You don\u2019t need to understand the intricacies of the debate over wordhood in Chinese, of course, but you do need to know that it certainly doesn\u2019t work the way it does in English.<\/p>\n<p>The most important takeaway is that in order to make sense of Chinese words, you need to know what the individual characters mean. In some cases, this is not strictly necessary, but can still be helpful for memorisation, but in other cases, it\u2019s crucial.<\/p>\n<p>Some things you think of as indivisible units, such as \u8df3\u821e (ti\u00e0ow\u01d4) \u201cto dance\u201d actually aren\u2019t. If you understand the individual characters and their relationship (in this case a verb-object compound: to jump-dance), you stand a much better chance of understanding and also remembering the word and how it\u2019s used!<\/p>\n<p>In the next article, we\u2019ll continue looking at compound words in Chinese, focusing on different types of compounds.<\/p>\n<p>Have you ever been confused why \u201ctiger\u201d is \u8001\u864e (l\u01ceoh\u01d4), even if all tigers aren&#8217;t old?<\/p>\n<p>Or wondered why \u5b50 (zi) appears at the end of so many words, without seeming to add any meaning to the word?<\/p>\n<p>Or have mixed up the order in a compound word and accidentally said \u5bc6\u8702 (m\u00ecf\u0113ng) \u201cbee\u201d instead of \u8702\u871c (f\u0113ngm\u00ec) \u201choney\u201d?<\/p>\n<p>Do you want to know how you can learn Chinese words quickly and effectively?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-learn-words-really-fast\/\">Then the next article is for you:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"AkcBtl4frl\"><p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-learn-words-really-fast\/\">The building blocks of Chinese, part 6: Learning and remembering compound words<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; clip: rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px);\" title=\"&#8220;The building blocks of Chinese, part 6: Learning and remembering compound words&#8221; &#8212; Hacking Chinese\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hackingchinese.com\/how-to-learn-words-really-fast\/embed\/#?secret=7b96H5GIxk#?secret=AkcBtl4frl\" data-secret=\"AkcBtl4frl\" width=\"500\" height=\"282\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>References and further reading<\/h3>\n<p>Duanmu, S. (2007).\u00a0<i>The phonology of standard Chinese<\/i>. Oxford University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Packard, J. L. (2000).\u00a0<i>The morphology of Chinese: A linguistic and cognitive approach<\/i>. Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Sun, C. (2006).\u00a0<i>Chinese: A linguistic introduction<\/i>. Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n<p>Zhao, J. (2006). Japanese loanwords in modern Chinese.\u00a0<i>Journal of Chinese Linguistics<\/i>,\u00a0<i>34<\/i>(2), 306-327.<\/p>\n<p>\u90b5\u656c\u654f (Ed.). (2007). <i>\u73b0\u4ee3\u6c49\u8bed\u901a\u8bba<\/i>. \u4e0a\u6d77\u6559\u80b2\u51fa\u7248\u793e\uff0e<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Editor\u2019s note:\u00a0<\/strong>This article, originally published in 2010, was rewritten from scratch and massively updated in December, 2021.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How many characters do you need to know to be able to read Chinese? The truth is that characters only provide a foundation, so regardless of how many you know, you won&#8217;t be able to read much unless you also know many words.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":15395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,6,10,15,17,20,21,22,23],"tags":[84,112,1120,1143,1145,1144,1100,911,663],"class_list":["post-15383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advanced","category-beginner","category-distinctively-chinese","category-intermediate","category-listening","category-reading","category-science-and-research","category-speaking","category-vocabulary","category-writing","tag-building-blocks","tag-chinese-characters","tag-compounds","tag-loan-words","tag-morphology","tag-phrase","tag-podcast-episode","tag-syllables","tag-words"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The building blocks of Chinese: Making sense of compound words<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"How many characters do you need to know to be able to read Chinese? 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