这, 国, 身, 飞, and 易
johnb
December 03, 2007, 03:06 AM posted in General DiscussionIt's Monday here in Shanghai, which means its time for an Easy Monday lesson! All of these characters are in the 500 most common Chinese characters, and are a must for any student of Chinese.
We'll start the day with 这 [zhè] -- "this." This is a tremendously useful character, as its used constantly to indicate which of something you're talking about. Most often its followed by a measure word, like 这个 [zhège] -- "this one" -- or 这些 [zhèxiē] -- "these." This character is commonly pronounced [zhèi] in spoken Chinese, and though there seem to be rules for when it is pronounced [zhèi] and when it is pronounced [zhè], but I don't really know them -- I'd recommend that you just get accustomed to when to use which. Radical: 辵 (162). Components: 文辶. Stroke: 7.
The second character today is 国 [guó] -- "country" or "nation." This is another pretty straightforward character, and is pretty much always found in words relating to countries, like 国民 [guómín] -- "citizen" -- or 国家 [guójiā] -- "nation." It is also found at the end of some country's names, such as 中国 [zhōngguó] -- "China" -- and 美国 [měiguó] -- "America." Radical: 囗 (31). Components: 囗玉. Stroke: 8.
Third, let's take a look at the character 身 [shēn] -- "body." 身 in words related to the physical body, like 身体 [shēntǐ] -- "body, health" -- and 身材 [shēncái] -- "figure -- as well as words related to identity and status, such as 身份 [shēnfen] -- "identity, status, capacity" -- and 本身 [běnshēn] -- "itself, oneself, per se." In China, the national ID card is known as a 身份证 [shēnfenzhèng]. Radical: 身 (158). Components: 身. Stroke: 7.
Fourth, we have 飞 [fēi] -- "to fly." 飞 can also mean "very fast" in words like 飞快 [fēikuài] -- "lightning fast." Unsuprisingly, it's also in the words for "airplane" -- 飞机 [fēijī] -- and "spaceship" -- 飞船 [fēichuán]. Apparently the character is supposed to look like a flying crane from behind. I'm not so sure about that. Radical: 飛 (183). Components: ⺄. Stroke: 3.
Finally, we'll take a look at 易 [yì], which has the meanings "easy" and "change." You'll most commonly encounter this character in the words 容易 [róngyì] -- "easy" -- and 贸易 [màoyì] -- "trade." It's also in the name of the book that is commonly know in the West as "I Ching" -- 易经 [yìjīng], or the "Book of Changes." Radical: 日 (72). Components: 日勿. Stroke: 8.
Another interesting compound that 易 is found in is 好容易 [hǎoróngyì], which means both "with great difficulty" and "with great ease." Go figure...
bryan
December 03, 2007, 03:33 PMJohn, FYI the previous lesson has no "Newer:" link to this lesson like the other ones do. Also, Do we want to number and/or date the lessons (other than what shows up in the comments). Might also be good for viewing in the "Group Archive".
bryan
December 03, 2007, 05:15 PMJohn, I noticed you listed 飞 as having a radical of 飛 (183). So, it appears you just stick to the traditional 214 Kangxi radicals? For studying simplified characters, is there any use in using the other newer radical systems like the Oxford dictionary and McNaugton use?
johnb
December 04, 2007, 01:26 AMBazza, cool, good job! Which one didn't you know?
Byran, the "newer" link seems to be there now. Perhaps there is something wrong with the time calculation (so that it doesn't show links to future posts) that is making it not show up on time. I'll look into it.
As for the radicals, I use the Kangxi radicals because that way I can use a consistent system across the two character sets (I learned traditional, as well). If you're only learning simplified, it might be better to learn the 180-odd radical system made specifically for simplified. (Plus, the Kangxi system is the one that Wenlin uses, making the lookups faster :) ).
man2toe
December 04, 2007, 05:14 AM这, 国, 身, 飞, and 易
這，國，身，飛，ａｎｄ易
bazza
December 04, 2007, 06:56 AMI didn't really know 易, I'm familiar with the word 容易 but not really sure which characters it used.
rich
December 05, 2007, 12:28 AMyeah, even like during my test today, I always get the "yi" of 容易(róngyì easy) and 便宜(piányi cheap) mixed up... thought I would share what I found on my research of these two commonly neglected suffix characters of two common adjectives. (and aren't they the same meaning when saying someone is easy and cheap? Ha ha... okay, in Chinese can't use them that way)
易:
What we need to remember is that 容易的易 is an exact pictograph of a chameleon -- the lizard that EASILY changes color, which in fact is also a radical of meaning and phonetic in the world for lizard, 蜥蜴 xīyì.
宜:
便宜的宜 first of all has a roof, 宀(mián) and right there we can remember it has to do with shops, which is where we hope to find 便宜的东西！The 且(qiě) below the roof means "for the time being", so we can think about a sale, or something being cheap, is only for the time being, temporary 暂时(zànshí). 宜 it self means "suitable" as well, so something that is convenient(便biàn the other, more commmon pronunciation of 便) and suitable is 便宜cheap(piányi)!!
Sorry for getting off a bit with a character not on the list, but so many "yi" characters, we gotta get those straight, and I personally get these two mixed up. Hopefully not in the future after this research.
johnb
December 05, 2007, 02:21 AMRich, that's funny, I used to make the same mistake with 便宜 and 易 -- it does seem like it would follow that those would be the same "yi," doesn't it? Thanks for the additional material!
bazza
December 03, 2007, 02:34 PMI knew 4 out of 5 of todays.