Looking Up a Sinograph in the Kangxi Dictionary

Looking up a Chinese word in an English-Chinese dictionary is as straightforward as you would expect, and looking up a Chinese character if you know the Pinyin is relatively easy, as well. But looking up the Chinese or English definition for a Chinese character can be a challenge for the new student of the Chinese language.

Whereas it is possible for even the young schoolchild to memorize the sequence of the 26 English letters, the sheer quantity of Chinese characters (47,000+ in the Kangxi dictionary^[1]) makes it impossible to do the same in Chinese. In this post I'll describe the system the Chinese use for looking up characters in their dictionary. For the beginner, this act is a sort of philosophical experience. It takes much patience and it's slow going and even frustrating. Before one can begin, it's essential to become familiar with two concepts:

1. Strokes. Each radical and character is composed of a number of strokes.
2. The Chinese radicals, not pro-democracy revolutionaries but rather, the 214 components that form the basis for the Chinese character set.

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Strokes

Each character in the Chinese alphabet comprises up to 30 strokes, a stroke being defined as one the portions of a character that can be drawn with a writing device without removing the nib from the page. Chinese schoolchildren spend long hours practicing each of these named strokes as they learn the characters.

The character yī (一, which means one) serves as a simple example, consisting of one horizontal stroke.

The 8 basic forms of strokes: CSUN (Cal State University)

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Radicals

Radicals are simple characters or portions of characters that were popularized during the Qing dynasty, when the emperor Kangxi commissioned the dictionary. Knowledge of the radicals aids character look-up dramatically.

This list from YellowBridge displays English names for the radicals.

Once you have attained proficiency with the 214 radicals, you will be in a position to examine a character you wish to look up and identify the radical. Having done so, and by now being able to discern a radical's stroke count, you would look the radical up, perhaps in an online dictionary such as this page from mdbg: Radical/Strokes Lookup^[2].

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Having located the radical in an online lookup page such as mdbg's, you would click it to reveal another page displaying all the character candidates based on that radical.

For example, having located the 2-stroke radical yán(讠), you would click it and thereby find yourself at this page, which renders all the characters based on this radical:

Next, extrapolate an index into this chart by subtracting the stroke count of the radical from the stroke count of the entire character in order to find the row containing the character you're looking for. Click that character and you'll be rewarded for your efforts with a page containing the definition of the character.

You would use a hard-copy dictionary the same way, but online tools are much more convenient.

Pretty easy, right? Now that you're familiar with the Simplified Chinese character set, we'll move on to the more complex Traditional set in a future post. I'm just kidding. It's frustrating as hell, really.

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1. A relatively literate person need "only" be proficient at 3,000-4,000 characters.
2. Most dictionaries also allow the user who might not be able to identify a character's radical to look up the character based on total stroke count, but there are typically and extraordinarily large number of characters with the same stroke count, so this is typically done only as a last resort.

Getting Taller, not Fatter #5

In the previous post, we were dissecting the ChinesePod elementary lesson: Getting Taller (Not Fatter).

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Here is our next sentence:

对对对。跟叔叔一样高，跟叔叔一样胖。
Duì duì duì. Gēn shūshu yīyàng gāo, gēn shūshu yīyàng pàng.

duì: correct
gēn: as (compared to)
shūshu: uncle
yīyàng: same
gāo: tall
pàng: fat

Literally: Right, right, right. As Uncle same tall, as Uncle same fat!
That's right, that's right. Just as tall as uncle and just as fat as uncle!

This is a self-deprecating joke by Uncle to little Doudou: Right, you'll be as tall as me, and as fat!

The Chinese often repeat a syllable for emphasis. In this case, Duì duì duì would be similar to someone quickly saying "right, right, right" in English.

Next, we encounter a construction we covered in the previous post:

gēn shūshu yīyàng gāo
as tall as uncle

gēn: as (compared to)
shūshu: uncle
yīyàng: same
gāo: tall

Again, this is an high-frequency construction that means as ??? as ???. In English, we place the adjective first: as fast as Brian, as smart as the teacher, etc. In Mandarin, the person, place, or thing being compared to is placed first, then the adjective.

gēn shūshu yīyàng pàng
as fat as uncle

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Reading Quiz

Without reviewing the lesson above, what do the following characters mean?

胖 answer

高 answer

样 answer

一 answer

叔 answer

跟 answer

对 answer

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Writing Quiz

Without reviewing the lesson above, write the following characters:

pàng answer

gāo answer

yàng answer

yī answer

shū answer

gēn answer

duì answer

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So far we have covered:

豆豆，这是叔叔，快说叔叔好
Dòudou, zhè shì shūshu. Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo.
Doudou, this is Uncle. Hurry up and say hello to Uncle.

叔叔好!
Shūshu hǎo!
Hello, Uncle!

豆豆，真乖！一年没见，长高了很多!
Dòudou, zhēn guāi! ī nián měi jiàn. zhǎng gāo le hěn duō.
Doudou, so well-behaved! I haven't seen you in a year. You've grown taller!

豆豆以后要跟叔叔一样高
Dòudou yǐhòu yào gēn shūshu yīyàng gāo.
Doudou will be as tall as uncle someday.

对对对。跟叔叔一样高，跟叔叔一样胖。
Duì duì duì. Gēn shūshu yīyàng gāo, gēn shūshu yīyàng pàng.
That's right, that's right. Just as tall as uncle and just as fat as uncle!

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再 见!（zài jiàn!)
James

Getting Taller, not Fatter #4

We've been dissecting the ChinesePod elementary lesson: Getting Taller (Not Fatter).

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Here is our next sentence:

豆豆以后要跟叔叔一样高
Dòudou yǐhòu yào gēn shūshu yīyàng gāo.
Literally: Doudou in the future will as compared to uncle same tall.
Doudou will be as tall as uncle someday.

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豆豆
Dòudou
dòu means bean. Dòudou is a nickname that translates approximately to little bean. The entire character 豆 is a radical. So you would look it up in the Chinese dictionary using the radical 豆 + 0 strokes.

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以后
yǐhòu
yǐhòu usually means after; in this example it's more correctly translated as in the future.

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跟叔叔一样
gēn shūshu yīyàng
as tall as uncle
This is an important construction that means as ??? as ???. In English, we place the adjective first: as fast as Brian, as smart as the teacher, etc. In Mandarin, the person, place, or thing being compared to is placed first, then the adjective.

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So far we have covered:

豆豆，这是叔叔，快说叔叔好
Dòudou, zhè shì shūshu. Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo.
Doudou, this is Uncle. Hurry up and say hello to Uncle.

叔叔好!
Shūshu hǎo!
Hello, Uncle!

豆豆，真乖！一年没见，长高了很多!
Dòudou, zhēn guāi! ī nián měi jiàn. zhǎng gāo le hěn duō.
Doudou, so well-behaved! I haven't seen you in a year. You've grown taller!

豆豆以后要跟叔叔一样高
Dòudou yǐhòu yào gēn shūshu yīyàng gāo.
Doudou will be as tall as uncle someday.

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再 见!（zài jiàn!)
James

Pinyin

It's essential that the new student of the Mandarin language learn Pinyin, the most commonly-used pronunciation guide for the learner who does not yet know the Chinese characters. Pinyin means, literally, "spelling sound," which means "phonetics."

Pinyin is English-like, but can't be read exactly the same way. For example, the letter q in Pinyin is pronounced similarly to -- but not exactly like -- the ch in cheek, and the letter x is pronounced something like the sh in she.

Each syllable begins with an initial pinyin consonant. This Wikibooks page describes the pronunciation of these initial sounds: Pronunciation of Initials.

The initial consonant is followed by what is called a final portion: Pronunciation of Finals.

There are five pronunciation tones, each represented by one of the four tone marks written above a syllable: ˉ, ˊ, ˇ, and ˋ. A syllable with no tone mark uses the default tone.

Every syllable is pronounced using one of these tones. An incorrect tone can change the meaning of the syllable. A classic example demonstrates how important it is to pronounce each syllable correctly:

mā (妈). First tone, a high, steady tone. This syllable means mother.

má (麻). Second tone, a middle, rising tone. This syllable means hemp.

mǎ (马). Third tone, a low, dipping tone. This syllable means horse.

mà (骂). Fourth tone, a high, falling tone. This syllable means scold.

ma (吗). Unstressed, low level tone. This syllable is added to the end of a question to request a yes or nno reply.

As you can see, you don't want to get this tones wrong. There's a big difference between How is your mother? and How's your horse!

As some tones sound similar to others to the untrained ear, it's important to listen to each word repeatedly and attempt to imitate the tone as often as possible during your practice. The tone-based pronunciation system means that listening is an more important component of the study of Chinese than it is in other languages. It's critical that the student of Mandarin learn the pronunciation tones. Pronunciation of Tones.

Pinyin (Wikipedia)
Pinyin Pronunciation  (Wikibooks)
How to Study Chinese (Wikibooks)

Elementary Chinese: Getting Taller (Not Fatter) #3

We've been dissecting the ChinesePod elementary lesson: Getting Taller (Not Fatter). So far we have covered:

豆豆，这是叔叔，快说叔叔好
Dòudou, zhè shì shūshu. Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo.
Doudou, this is Uncle. Hurry up and say hello to Uncle.

叔叔好!
Shūshu hǎo!
Hello, Uncle!

豆豆，真乖！一年没见，长高了很多!
Dòudou, zhēn guāi! ī nián měi jiàn. zhǎng gāo le hěn duō.
Literally: Little Bean, truly obedient. One year no meet. Grow tall (completed action marker) very much.
Doudou, so well-behaved! I haven't seen you in a year. You've grown taller!

Chinese-to-English translation involves a word-for-word step that exists but isn't so pronounced when translating most languages of European origin into English. In other words, when we convert a sentence written in a romance language such as Spanish to its literal equivalent, the subsequent conversion to its figurative or practical English equivalent doesn't usually involve a great leap. This is not true of Chinese.

Uncle says Dòudou, zhēn guāi! Doudou, so well-behaved! Obedience as the Confucian hallmark of the authentic individual is emphasized from the earliest stages of childhood.

Next, Uncle says ī nián měi jiàn, One year no meet. This is a standard way of saying that I haven't seen you for a year. zhǎng gāo le hěn duō, Grow tall (completed action marker) very much. le is an oft-used marker to indicate that an action has already happened. It's often the only way to tell that the speaker is referring to something in the past. So this translates to You've grown taller.

Linguistic grammar is a good example of one of the differences in the ways Eastern and Western cultures think and communicate as a result of geographic separation during the early millennia of their development. The Chinese language lacks many of the words that Western languages use to express subtleties, so context is an important component of translation.

I frequently mention that I embrace the no pain, no gain approach to learning and success. When one is striving for excellence in an area as difficult as the study of Mandarin Chinese, it is necessary to exercise self-discipline, study relentlessly, write characters repeatedly until you've internalized the ability to do so, develop self-tests rather than relying on passive activities such as reading or listening, and most important of all: practice, practice, practice.

Pronunciation, word details, character dictionary, animated writing, stroke order, radical, number of strokes, etc (mdbg.net):

duō

gāo

guāi

hěn

ī

jiàn

le

měi

nián

zhǎng

zhēn

再 见!（zài jiàn!)

James

Elementary Chinese: Getting Taller (Not Fatter) #2

Today we'll continue analyzing the ChinesePod elementary lesson: Getting Taller (Not Fatter).

豆豆，这是叔叔，快说叔叔好
Dòudou, zhè shì shūshu. Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo.

Doudou, this is Uncle. Hurry up and say hello to Uncle.

Literal translation: Doudou (nickname), this be Uncle (diminutive). Hurry say Uncle good.

The second sentence: Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo, is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, the speaker doesn't really mean that the child should hurry and say hello, but adding the word hurry (kuài) implies that the child should demonstrate eagerness, as a sign of respect for Uncle. Culturally, it's important for Chinese children to be well-behaved and to show respect for their elders. Secondly, saying hello to Uncle: shūshu hǎo (uncle good), might sound odd at first, but it is really just related to the way one would say hello to a person of equal position: nǐ hǎo.

Word Details, from mdbg.net
dòu
hǎo
kuài
shì
shū
shuō
zhè

再 见!（zài jiàn!)

James

Visit ChinesePod.com at ChinesePod.

This lesson can be found at http://chinesepod.com/lessons/getting-taller-not-fatter.

mdbg.net Chinese dictionary: http://us1.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php.

Elementary Chinese: Getting Taller, not Fatter #1

I have found the Shanghai podcast website ChinesePod to be an invaluable resource over the years. In this post, I'll begin a dissection of an elementary lesson called Getting Taller (Not Fatter). For this lesson, I'll assume that the reader has a basic understanding of Pinyin and pronunciation.

豆豆，这是叔叔，快说叔叔好

Pinyin: Dòudou, zhè shì shūshu. Kuài shuō shūshu hǎo.

Translation: Doudou, this is your uncle. Hurry up and say hello.

Literal translation: Doudou (nickname), this be Uncle (diminutive). Hurry say Uncle good.

The literal translation demonstrates much of the difficulty in learning Chinese. I'll cover some of the cultural considerations at the root of this translation in subsequent posts but for now, this is a statement from a parent to a child, Doudou. It's common for Chinese to address their small children by nicknames; Dou4 (豆) means "bean," and a syllable is typically repeated to add emphasis or to make it cute. In this case, Doudou would mean "little bean" or "cute little bean."

The term Uncle could refer to a literal uncle, or it could be a polite title for a man of an uncle's generation.

Well, that's it for today. I'll resume this lesson with the next post.

Jim

There’s an excellent Pinyin entry tool at http://de.mdbg.net/chindict/webime2_pinyin.php. Just enter a syllable in hao3 format. The editor converts it in real time to hǎo.

Visit ChinesePod.com at ChinesePod.

If you're a ChinesePod member, this lesson can be found at http://chinesepod.com/lessons/getting-taller-not-fatter.

Mdbg.net is another excellent resource for students of the Chinese language.