Unit 3: Chinese Characters

Question 1

What are the 3 most common types of Chinese characters?

Answer 1

1. Ideograph 一 二 三 上 下
2. Pictograph 山 木 森林
3. Pictophonetic 张

Question 2

What are ideograph characters?

Answer 2

指事 (zhǐ shì) Ideographs

• Ideographs show the meaning of abstract concepts that are harder to express concretely like a pictograph.

Question 3

What are pictograph characters?

Answer 3

象形 (xiàng xíng) Pictographs

• The appearance itself expresses the meaning. Most pictographs are simple nouns.

山 木

Question 4

What are pictophonetic characters?

Answer 4

形声 (xíng shēng) Pictophonetic Characters

• One component represents the meaning.
• One component represents the pronunciation.
• Approximately 80% of Phonetic-Semantic Compounds have this structure:

Phonetic on the left, Semantic on the right