Looking at components (parts of characters)

and putting them together.

Memorise this character

瘾

Try writing it down. Don’t go back and look again.

Now look at the following slide. It is the same character but this time the parts, which are called components,

are labeled. Look at the labeled components, then look at it as a whole

character again.

瘾illness

heart

horn

hand

city， state

yin3 - addiction

Try writing it again without looking back to check!

Was it easier this time? Why?Probably because you saw it as components put together, rather than a bunch of black

lines.That character means ‘addiction’ and you can see that one of the components means

illness. This shows you that the components can help you to figure out the meaning of characters – although this doesn’t always

work!

Components

• all characters have one or more components/parts

• components are the smallest part of characters that have meaning

• components can be characters by themselves

• the same components may occur in many different characters

• components provide information about sound and/or meaning of character

• there are over 400 components• they make up an alphabet or set

of symbols from which all characters are constructed

• What components can you think of? Hint – you have been studying a lot of them this term! Write some of them down.

Copy these characters and mark the components. The slide following each

character will tell you what the components are.

漢

漢This character has 4

components

言

言This character has 3

components

饺

饺This character has 3

components

元

元This character has two

components

本This character cannot be divided in to components – it is a base character. Dividing it up would just give you strokes, not usable components.

Types of Components

•BASE•BOUND•EMBELLISHED

BASE• base components are generally the

simplest characters• base components cannot be broken

down• base components represent an idea

and have a meaning• all other components related to base

forms

Examples of BASE components

小 人 手刀 火 水

person

smallhand

knifefire water

BOUND

• bound components exist as a side of a character

• bound components cannot exist on their own like base components

• bound components can have the exact same meaning as a base components but take on a different form – which means they look quite different to the base form but mean the same.

Examples of BOUND components

光，休，打利，热，河

small

小person

人hand

手

water

水knife

刀fire

火

There are:

•250 BASE components

•200 BOUND components

Putting them together

You have learned a lot of components this term. Some of them are characters on

their own, but some of them exist only as part of another character – they can’t

stand on their own.These ones CAN stand on their own as well

as be part of another character:

头 手 女 目 儿 也 木 羊

These components CANNOT stand on their own – they must always be part

of another character. Pick out the component in the character below it.

辶 阝亠 冂 囗 宀 厂 夕过 都 高 同 国 家 成 名

Some of the most common characters

On this slide and the next one are some of the most common COMPOUND (made up of more than one part) characters.

All of the components for these characters are in your grid. What are the components in these characters? How might the meanings of the components help you to remember the meaning of the whole character? Maybe try making up a

little story to help you remember. Write down some answers and then show me what you’ve come up with.

国 = country好 = good

看 = look or see

我 = me or I你 = you他 = he

她 = her外 = outside里 = inside

说 = speak or say美 = beautiful