RANDOM CHINESE LESSONS WITH FAN TIME

What are Chinese characters made of?

a thread where I talk about a little quirk within the Chinese language-- the fact that characters are comprised of bits and bobs stacked together that all contribute to meaning

Chinese characters are made of different components.
the radical, or the left part of the character (if it exists) is called the 旁 (pang), which literally means 'side'.
the top part of the character (if it exists) is called the 头 (tou), which literally means 'head'.

口字旁 (kou zi pang)= mouth + word + side: this describes a character that would have the word for mouth 口 (kou) as the radical on the left hand side.
e.g. 喝 (he) = drink
e.g. 唱 (chang) = sing
the 口 radical is used to indicate that the word has something to do with the mouth

竖心旁 (shu xin pang) = vertical + heart + side: this describes characters with 忄on the left hand side. it traditionally looked like 心 (heart) turned on its side and is used for words relating to emotions!
e.g. 情 (qing) = feelings
e.g. 恨 (hen) = hate
e.g. 怕 (pa) = fear

反犬旁 (fan quan pang)= reverse + dog + side: this describes a character that has 犭as the radical on the left. traditionally this derived from a pictorical character of a dog.
e.g. 狼 (lang)=wolf
e.g. 猪 (zhu)=pig
e.g. 狗 (gou)=dog
e.g. 狐 (hu)=fox
this radical is for animals

三点水 (san dian shui)= 3 drop water: this describes a character that has 氵as the radical on the left. the name is pretty self explanatory, this radical is used for words relating to water!
e.g. 泪 (lei) = tears
e.g. 污 (wu) = murky/muddy
e.g. 湖 (hu) = lake
e.g. 海 (hai) = sea

言字旁 (yan zi pang) = speech + word + side: describes a character that wouldve had 言 on the lefthand side in traditional chinese now simplified to 讠
e.g. 论 (lun) = discuss
e.g. 计 (ji) = plan
the radical refer back to communication/speech associated with these words

提手旁 (ti shou pang) = lift + hand + side: this describes characters with 扌as the radical on the left. This is the character 手 (shou) for hand but squished and simplified, and this is for words relating to action
e.g. 拉 (la) = pull
e.g. 挤 (ji) = squeeze
e.g. 推 (tui) = push

人字旁 (ren zi pang) = person + word + side: this describes a character that has the character for person (人) on the left hand side (looks a bit squished)

e.g. 他 (ta) = him. The 'person' 人 represents male while the word 女 for 'woman' is on the left of 她 (ta) = her

e.g. 仙 (xian) = fairy/spirit
if you think about xianxia novels, you should know what i'm referring to, right? look at the character, it's made of 人字旁 (人 on the left) and 山 (mountain) on the right-- a person that lives in the mountains.

e.g. 们 (men) = plural-fies a pronoun (他们 = plural of he/him, 她们 = plural of she/her, 我们 = us)
this one is interesting, bc the 人 on the left hand side indicates that we're (usually) talking about people, while the 门 (men) on the right hand side indicates pronunciation