it would be cool to have the transcription of the pronunciation for the sake of tones comprehension.. and explaining the characters in parenthesis (alternative writing?) at the top of the slides would be awesome too. ty for sharing
When starting to learn Chinese characters, you should absolutely start with the radicals. Begin with the 50 most commonly used one. These are all characters on their own and very good ones to know. But more importantly, it makes learning other characters so much faster. This video is pure gold - 100% recommend it!
You have no idea how helpful this is to me. Just last night I was trying to find resources on radicals and figuring out Chinese characters and couldn't find anything. This is a life saver, and an eye opener. I'm putting these notes in my book right now! Also, I think my listening practice is starting to work, for it was easier for me to recognize the tones of the words you said, and what the pinyin might have been. Thanks so much for this Chris! ^~^
+Jeoffrey Robinson That's great to hear! Part 2 of this series is out already, and I'll be putting part 3 out tomorrow. Then you'll have the complete guide!
+Fluent in Mandarin This is really good. Olle Linge talks a lot about this but doesn't give all the examples you do so now I can put my knowledge to more use. I never knew 月 changed meaning when it is a radical!
+Jack Wyldeck Thanks Jack! Just to make the point about 月 clear. When it appears as a radical/component, it can sometimes mean moon, like in 明 (sun+moon=bright), but it can also mean meat or flesh, in which case it is an evolved version of 肉 (the character for meat/flesh). The end result looks the same, but it comes from a different origin. Hope I explained that clearly.
One of the most clear and detailed video ever seen about chinese. I think this is one of the big keys to learn chinese I will set a section on Pleco about this. xiè xiè. Thanks a lot!
Hi Chris! I came across one of your videos by chance, probably an hour ago and since then I just couldn't stop watching and obviously taking loads of notes. So, just a short message to "xiexie ni" for these fantastic educational videos. I really love how structured they are and the way my brain can link up to your lessons. I have also already subscribed and promised to myself to come back and watch more lessons, hopefully bit by bit everyday. It is also great that you speak pretty fast. This really saves a lot of time which also means people can spend the same amount of their time in life with your videos and get double or even triple of knowledge! :)
Using 3 fingers to draw 彡 to write 手丟拿看 春须 丰(富) 參(加) 训 毛衣 修改, 家 豹爪抓，汤 Look at 二add | ..to form 牛(cow) add 一 form三 to expand into other words. 开 ，关， 羊 美 住using handphone software, as long write 70% similar word will appear
Thank you for these very well made videos! I have understood much more. After watching the next missing piece in my understanding was how different signs make up a new meaning together.
Thank you for this video Chris and for your clear explanations. I had always thought the four marks under a character was a variation on the water radical, rather than fire, so it's good that you've cleared that up. Looking forward to future videos getting into the nitty gritty of the language!
@@FluentinMandarinDotCom This is a brilliant teaching /learning resource. I'm a very new beginner and the material on radicals is a very good way into writing Mandarin.
Another great video by Fluent in Mandarin. Thank you! I am just wondering, where can we find some information on the types of characters associated with each radical. I love the idea that most or all characters with the radical 口 relate to the mouth or to openings of some sort. Now, is that sort of information available for all 214 radicals? I'm looking for a thorough compendium of themes that go with all the radicals.
Learn Chinese character, remember in group eg Using 人‘ to form many character add 一 to 人 became 大 Add 二 to 人 became天 . Add two dots to 大 became头....买卖 灾火🔥火灭灾火土 太犬 头 write using two u, u and add l, 出 凹 巾帼 离 山 巨 叵 匠 臣 尺层.using handphone software, as long write 70% similar word will appear
This is just what I wanted and need...the word for hear is ear in a door...I am doing the 214 radicals but some are much easier...I can skip ahead here and do logical groups....
It doesn't really have a direct connection. The etymology of some of these characters is there for historical reasons. Either the character meant something else originally and its meaning gradually changed, or it was borrowed for a different word because it had the same sound. Difficult to explain.
I've heard that there are thousands of characters in Chinese --- if you come across one that you've never seen before , how do you work out what it means , when the components can have so many meanings ?
When I think of 耳, the first word that comes to mind is 聊天 (if you are chatting with someone, *hopefully* you are listening to what the other person says!)
Extremely helpful for learning most common and important components. Only drawback is that there is no pinyin. Although characters shown and spoken word given, it would have been perfect if pinyin included for us students who are at reading, listening level used here. That's why didn't leave a like.
If you want to learn more about the origin of the meaning or the character itself, I recommend you a book named 'Shuo Wen Jie Zi', literally 'Word and Expression'. Although there are a number of mistakes in this book, it can surely give you a very technical overview on Chinese characters. And pls don't forget Chinese characters have a history of almost 4000 years, it is undoubtedly that there were some new or extended meanings added to characters. When you master this language and merge yourself into the Chinese Internet, you will discover that there are thousands of newly occurred network vocab and slang and memes. Only can you be used to this new world when you master hundreds of those 'weird and alien words'.
because 鬆 which means loose in traditional chinese has been simplified to 松 in simplified chinese. in traditional chinese writing system, loose is written as 鬆。here 髟 refers to hair, giving a hint of its meaning, and 松 tells you how to pronounce it. simplifying chinese writing system has caused much confusion, such as this one. other examples： 麺-->面，and 髪-->发 etc
He actually made a mistake there. 日 and 白 are two characters that have no relationship with each other in their forms, but clearly the character meaning of white has relation with that of sun in Chinese. As we date back to around 1400 BC, the hieroglyphic for these two characters are completely different. 日 the sun means the centre or the eye of the sky, so the image is like a dot at the centre of a circle; and 白 white refers to the light emitted by sun, but there is not a 'sun' in the image, instead, the image represents an object that emits light up and down, and the bottom light is flat while the upper part is sharp and the sharp bit transformed into that swipe on 白 when time passed by. There was a long history of font evolution of characters and the shapes and forms of them did changed a lot. The print font that you used is called Song, and coincidentally white and sun have a part that is exactly the same. However, there are many other examples of characters that when you add a dot or a swipe onto it, you'll get a new one with related meanings. For instance, by adding a dot to emphasis the blade part of 刀 knife you'll get 刄 blade; and by adding a line on the root part of 木 tree you'll get 本 root or book. I can do nearly all fonts of Chinese characters including 'Jiaguwen', 'Jinwen', 'Shiguwen', 'Dazhuan', 'Xiaozhuan', 'Chongniaozhuan', 'Li', 'Cao', 'Xing', 'Kai', 'Song' and 'Edomoji'.
