Recognise characters and useful components

Two similar characters, two useful clues

A menu has fresh water清水qīng shuǐ qīngshuǐ, plain water, and to ask请qǐng qǐng, please, in to ask请qǐngto sit坐zuò, please sit. (of water etc) clear清qīng and to ask请qǐng share green青qīng but have different left components. Shape, sound and context work together; one part alone does not give the whole word.

Recognise a few whole characters

Character	Reading	Useful meaning
sun日rì	rì	sun; day
moon月yuè	yuè	moon; month
water水shuǐ	shuǐ	water
fire火huǒ	huǒ	fire
person人rén	rén	person
mountain山shān	shān	mountain

Some characters developed from ancient pictorial forms. Their modern shapes are not literal photographs. A personal memory picture can help recall, but it is not automatically the character's historical origin. Most characters cannot be decoded as pictures.

Meaning components narrow the possibilities

Component	Often associated with	Examples
"water" radical in Chinese…氵shui	water and liquids	river河hé hé, river; ocean海hǎi hǎi, sea; (of water etc) clear清qīng qīng, clear
mouth口kǒu	mouth, speech or related actions	variant of 吃吃chī chī, eat; variant of 叫叫jiào jiào, call; to shout喝hē hē, drink
(bound form) tree木mù	wood and trees	tree树shù shù, tree; (bound form) woods林lín lín, woods

to shout喝hē has mouth口kǒu, not "water" radical in Chinese…氵shui. Its connection to drinking does not change the written component. Look at the actual shape before choosing a family. "water" radical in Chinese…氵shui is a component form of water水shuǐ and is not ordinarily a separate word.

Sound components offer a hypothesis

In (of water etc) clear清qīng qīng and to ask请qǐng qǐng, green青qīng qīng is a useful clue to the syllable qing, but the tones differ. In ma妈mā mā, archaic variant of 汝女nǚ relates to female and horse马mǎ mǎ offers a sound clue; their tones also differ. A sound component may reflect older pronunciation, so it does not guarantee a modern reading. Check a dictionary or a reliable model.

Separate recognising, typing and writing

Recognising (of water etc) clear清qīng in a sentence, choosing (of water etc) clear清qīng from a pinyin candidate list and writing (of water etc) clear清qīng from memory are different tasks. For handwriting, use a stroke model and compare proportion, component position and stroke order. Copy once while looking; later close the model and try again. A successful typed choice is not proof of handwriting recall.

A fresh situation

R1. Interpret and repair. A note puts to shout喝hē in the "water" radical in Chinese…氵shui family because drinking involves water. Correct the component analysis.

R2. Use it yourself. Compare (of water etc) clear清qīng qīng and to ask请qǐng qǐng: identify what stays the same and what changes, then say what still needs checking.

Write your responses before opening the key. Compare meaning as well as form; a different valid answer need not copy the model.