Lesson Transcript

Welcome to Fun &Easy Chinese by ChineseClass101.com!
嗨大家好,我是李殷如. (Hài dàjiā hǎo, Wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú).
Hi everyone, Yinru Li here.
Learning Chinese characters is not an easy task. But there’s a shortcut. To learn 汉字 (Hànzì) twice as fast, study their radicals and components.
There are quite a few 汉字 (Hànzì) that are made up of copies of the same component. These 汉字 in Chinese are called 叠字 (dié zì), which literally means "stacked character."
In this lesson, you’re going to learn some of the most commonly used 叠字 (dié zì) in everyday Chinese.
[人,从,众]
人 (rén) means "person." 人.
For example, 好人 (hǎorén) means "good person"
好人 (enunciated). 好人.
When we put two 人 side by side, 两个人 (liǎng ge rén), "two persons", becomes
从 (cóng), which means "to follow."
One person following another person is 从.
从 can also mean "from." For example, the phrase 从...到..(Cóng ...Dào …) means "from...to…"
You can use 从什么地方到什么地方 cóng shénme dìfāng dào shénme dìfāng "from a certain place to a certain place,"
or 从什么时候到什么时候 (cóng shénme dìfāng dào shénme dìfāng shíhou) "from a certain time to a certain time."
[SLOW] 从...到...
What happens when we stack 三个人 (sān ge rén) "three persons" together?
三个人 turns into the character 众 (zhòng), meaning "crowd," "lots of people." 众 (enunciated). 众.
观众 (guānzhòng), for example, literally means "watching crowd" but translates as "audience" or "viewer." 观众.
[口,吕,品]
If you like this way of learning 汉字 (Hànzì) , great! I have more to show you.
Have you seen this 汉字 (Hànzì), 口 (kǒu)?
It means "mouth" or "opening." 口.
For example, 入口 (rùkǒu) means "entrance." 入口 (enunciated). 入口.
Be careful not to confuse 入 (rù) with 人 (rén), as they look very similar.
The left stroke in 人 is longer, while the right stroke in 入 (rù) is longer.
入口 (rùkǒu) means "entrance". 人口(rénkǒu) means "population."
Now let’s stack two 口 (kǒu)up.
Before we do that, I’d like to mention that when we put components together to build new characters, the shape of the component will often be changed a little so that the whole structure of the 汉字 (Hànzì) is more balanced.
两个口 (liǎng ge kǒu), "two 口" together make 吕 (lǚ), with the lower 口 being bigger and flatter.
This 汉字 (Hànzì) is mostly used as a surname 姓 (xìng), pronounced (lǚ). 吕 (enunciated). 吕.
这个汉字有三个口. (Zhège Hànzì yǒu sān ge kǒu.) "This character has three 口:" Two smaller ones at the bottom, and a bigger one on top.
This is pronounced as pǐn. 品 (enunciated). 品.
If you think of 口 kǒu as a box, three boxes stacked together 品 (pǐn) means "product" or "commodity."
For example, the word 物品 (wùpǐn) means "item" or "goods" 物品(enunciated). 物品.
In a train or a bus, you may see this sentence on a sign "请保管好随身携带的物品." (Qǐng bǎoguǎn hǎo suíshēn xiédài de wùpǐn.)
It means "Please take care of your belongings."
[SLOW] 请保管好随身携带的物品.
请保管好随身携带的物品.
品 is also used as a verb, meaning "to savor."
Using three mouths to taste is to take your time to appreciate something, as in 品尝(pǐncháng) which means "to savor."
品尝 (enunciated). 品尝.
[日,昌,晶]
We know this is 口 (kǒu), but when we add a line in the middle, what character does it turn into?
It’s 日 (rì), meaning "sun" or "day." 日 (enunciated). 日.
For example, 日出 (rìchū) means "sun out" but translates as "sunrise." 日出 (enunciated). 日出.
In the same way two 口 (kǒu) makes 吕, two 日 (rì) makes 昌 (chāng), with the lower 日 (rì) being flatter and wider.
昌 means "prosperous." It’s often used in names for stores, towns, or people, such as the city 南昌 (Nánchāng). 南昌 (enunciated). 南昌.
Also just as three 口 (kǒu) makes 品 (pǐn), three 日 stacked up the same way makes 晶 (jīng).
晶 can be an adjective meaning "bright and shiny," since we have "three sun" 三个日, shining on us.
It’s also used as a noun meaning "crystal," as in 水晶 (shuǐjīngI), "crystal."
水晶 (enunciated). 水晶.
[木,林,森]
Let’s look at 木 (mù). It means "tree" or "wood." Doesn't it kinda look like a tree?
木马 (mùmǎ), "wood horse" is a toy horse that rocks back and forth for kids to ride on. 木马 (enunciated). 木马.
When two 木 (mù) are combined side by side, the right stroke of 木 gets a little shorter. It looks like this: 林 (lín), and it's pronounced lín.
Two trees 林 make "woods." 林.
三个木 makes 森. It's not just a small woodland, it’s a forest, as in 森林 (sēnlín) "forest." 森林.
Can you count how many 木 (mù) are in this word 森林 (sēnlín) ?
一二三四五 (yī èr sān sì wǔ)
五个木. (Wǔ ge mù.)
(Clean whiteboard)
Clip 2
[朋,双,炎,多,磊]
As a matter of fact, there are many 汉字 in Chinese that are used daily and have one repeated component.
For example, one 月 (yuè) is "moon.” 月.
Two 月 (yuè) side by side makes 朋 (péng). "Friend." Two moons together make "friends."
We find it in 朋友 (péngyou). "Friend."
朋友 (enunciated). 朋友.
One 又 (yòu) is "again." 又.
Two 又 makes 双 (shuāng), meaning "pair," as in 一双手 (yì shuāng shǒu) "a pair of hands." 一双手 (enunciated). 一双手.
One 火 (huǒ) is "fire." 火 (enunciated).
Two 火 is 炎 (yán), meaning "extremely hot" or "inflammation," as in 发炎 (fāyán), which is a verb phrase meaning "to become inflamed." 发炎 (enunciated). 发炎.
In the earliest form of Chinese script, this symbol 夕(xī) represents "meat." Nowadays it means "dusk."
When we put two 夕 together, on top of each other, "two pieces of meat" 多 means "a lot."
In primitive society, two pieces of meat were considered "many."
The compound word 多少 (duōshǎo)", which literally means "many few" is often used to ask "how many." 多少 (enunciated). 多少 .
One more.
One 石 (shí) is "rock." 石.
Three 石 (shí) is 磊 (lěi), meaning "lots of rocks."
磊 is often used in male names with the hope that this boy will be tough and strong like rocks.
(quiz with cards)
I hope this lesson gives you a new perspective on Chinese characters.
Now let’s recap what we learned with a quiz.
What is this 汉字?(card: 人)
人 rén means "person" 人.
What about three 人 together? (card: 众)
众 "Crowd." 众.
Between (card 晶) and (card: 品), which one means "to savor?”
This one with 三个口. "Three mouths." to savor 品 (pǐn). 品.
In this lesson, we mentioned a two-character compound word that is made up of 5 of the same repeated component. Do you remember that word?
森林 (sēnlín), meaning "Forest." 森林.
When you see this character (card: 炎) on a package of medicine, can you guess what this medicine would be used to treat?
"Inflammation." 炎 (yán). 炎.
Well done!
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Thank you for learning 汉字 with me at ChineseClass101.com. See you next time! 再见 zàijiàn!

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