Vocabulary

How Vocabulary Works in Chinese

Every Chinese character has meaning, often multiple meanings. When two characters are placed together, they combine to have another – often related – meaning. Most words in Chinese are two characters, though there are one, three and four character words.

Many characters cannot be used alone. 朋友 means friend. Each of the two characters means friend, but neither is ever used alone. So it is important to distinguish between characters and words.

Because Chinese prefer two character words, sometimes characters are added on to make a one character word two characters. That is the case with 子 zi, which is appended onto many nouns but has no meaning (子 zǐ can also mean 'son' or 'child,' but there it is 3rd tone and also occurs with other characters to form words, such as 子女zǐnǚ ‘children’.) Examples include 桌子 zhuōzi 'table' and 狮子 shīzi 'lion.'

It should also be noted that many two character words are actually contractions of four character terms. For example, 电邮 diànyóu is a contraction of 电子邮件 diànziyóujiàn and means 'email;' 北大 běidà is a contraction of 北京大学 běijīngdàxué, and means Beijing University; 超市 chāoshì is a contraction of 超级市场 chāojíshìcháng, and means supermarket; 科技 kējì is a contraction of 科学技术 kēxuéjìshù, and means science and technology.

Last, note that it may be impossible to guess the meaning of a two-character word despite knowing the meaning of both characters. Case in point: 马上. 马 mǎ means horse;上shàng means upon. What does the combination mean? Immediately (presumably because the fastest way to get anywhere was on horseback).

人rén = person 人才rén cái = human talent [person + talent] 人才学rén cái xué = study of human talent [human talent + study] 人才学者rén cái xué zhě = human talent scholar [study of human talent + someone who does]

人rén = person 人工rén gōng = manual labor [person + work] 人工岛rén gōng dǎo = man-made island [manual labor + island]

人rén = person 人类rén lèi = humankind [person + species] 人类学rén lèi xué = anthropology [humankind + study] 人类学家rén lèi xué jiā = anthropologist [anthropology + person who does]

人rén person 人力rén lì = manpower [person + strength/power] 人力车rén lì chē = rickshaw [manpower + vehicle] 人力车夫rén lì chē fū = rickshaw puller [rickshaw + guy] 人力资本rén lì zī běn = human capital [manpower + capital]

爱人àiren = spouse [love + person] 大人dà ren = adult [big + person] 坏人huàirén = bad person [bad + person] 美国人měi guó rén = American [America + person]

学xué study
 * 学生 [xué sheng] student || 学校 [xué xiào] school ||
 * 学院 [xué yuàn] academy || 学徒 [xué tú] apprentice ||
 * 学姐 [xué jiě] older female schoolmate || 学弟 [xué dì] younger male schoolmate ||
 * 学友 [xué yǒu] classmate || 学期 [xué qī] semester ||
 * 学年 [xué nián] academic year || 学区 [xué qū] school district ||
 * 学位 [xué wèi] degree || 学习 [xué xí] to study ||
 * 学分 [xué fēn] credit || 学费 [xué fèi] tuition ||
 * 学会 [xué huì] to master || 小学 [xiǎo xué] lower school ||
 * 中学 [zhōng xué] middle school || 大学 [dà xué] college ||
 * 科学 [kē xué] science || 化学 [huà xué] chemistry ||
 * 数学 [shù xué] math || 开学 [kāi xué] school opens ||
 * 上学 [shàng xué] attend school || 放学 [fàng xué] finish school ||
 * 留学 [liú xué] study abroad || 自学 [zì xué] self study ||
 * 同学 [tóng xué] classmate ||

Another interesting aspect of Chinese word formation is found in opposites. When placed together, opposites then refer to the range encompassed by the two.

好hǎo good + 坏 huài bad = 好坏 hǎohuài quality 大 dà big + 小 xiǎo small = 大小 dàxiǎo size 长 cháng long + 短 duǎnshort = 长短 chángduǎnlength

Suffixes Chinese shares, to some degree, the concept of suffixes with English, though in Chinese a suffix is a character. Note that, as in English, you cannot add these to just any word.

性 xìng adds the idea of the nature of something 可能 possible becomes 可能性 possibility 重要 important becomes 重要性 importance

化 huà makes a word into a noun, as in –ization 现代 modern becomes 现代化 modernization 自动 automatic becomes 自动化 automization

者 zhě refers to a person who does 记 to note down becomes记者 a reporter 参加 to participate becomes参加者 a participant

感 gǎn turns the word into the feeling 后悔 to regret 后悔感 the feeling of regret 成就 to succeed becomes 成就感 the feeling of success

Multiple Pronunciation Characters 多音字 duōyīnzì Another feature of Chinese characters and Chinese vocabulary is the existence of 多音字 duōyīnzì multiple pronunciation characters. Many characters have more than one pronunciation, and as the pronunciation changes, so does the meaning. These characters are not uncommon, making up from five to 10 percent of commonly used characters. The meaning is almost always clear from the context, so they do not create any particular difficulty. Note that in some instances the difference is the tone; in some the pronunciation is entirely different.

Examples: 好 hǎo good vs. 好 hào to like 乐 yuè music vs. 乐 lè happy 中 zhōng middle vs. 中 zhòng hit (a target) 还 hái still vs. 还 huán return 都 dōu all, both vs. 都 dū capital (city)

New Words New vocabulary is normally created by putting characters together that describe the meaning of the term. For example many relatively new words begin with 电 diàn electricity, such as 电话 diànhuà electric + speech = telephone 电车 diànchē electric + car = tram 电脑 diànnǎo electric + brain = computer

Another example is 手机 shǒujī hand + machine = cell phone

Loan Words

Chinese does not easily accept loan words, simply because there is no accurate way to reproduce the sound of a foreign word, because there is no alphabet. They do exist, however. Some examples are 比萨 bǐsà pizza and 派对 pàiduì party. See the following list. Note how some words simply mimic the sound of the English word, while others combine the sound of the foreign word with a Chinese element as well.

http://xuehanyu.wikispaces.com/Loan+Words

A few Chinese words have made their way into English as well. Chow, meaning food, probably comes from the Chinese word meaning to stir fry, 炒 chǎo. Kowtow, to bow down to someone, comes either from 磕头 kētóu or 叩头 kòutóu, which mean the same. And of course tea comes from some dialect's pronunciation of 茶 chá, tea. Perhaps the most interesting is not a Chinese word, but Chinese way of saying something. The term 'Long time no see,' which is not grammatical English, is actually a direct translation of the Chinese 好久不见 hǎojiǔbùjiàn. It came from Chinese workers who spoke ungrammatical, or Pidgin, English based on their Chinese.

Fun Fact Some relatively common words, in fact, contain characters that are used nowhere else (though this list is quite small; what is interesting is that the words are not uncommon). 葡萄 pútao 'grape' and 尴尬 gāngà 'embarrassed' both contain characters that, in modern Chinese, occur nowhere else. media type="custom" key="7142833"media type="custom" key="25538590"