Did you know that the overwhelming majority
of Chinese characters belong to a category called
形声字 xíng shēng zì Phono-semantic characters?
They make up 65-90% of the modern Chinese language, from various estimates. That's A LOT!
We'd love to help your family explore these words together
for a good foundation in Chinese.
Our set of
➡️ 魔法汉字 Interactive Card Game ⬅️
is one of the best tools out there
to help us learn 形声字 with our kids.
To further support your family,
we've designed EXCLUSIVE RESOURCES to go along
when you purchase
😎 Reference sheet of 10 basic radicals 偏旁部首
with hanyu pinyin, their meanings &
30 related words to explore,
aligned with Singapore Ministry of Education #欢乐伙伴 syllabus
😎 List of ways to maximise the use of this set for beginners
Speaking with various educators
have confirmed that learning radicals
is VERY USEFUL all the way
through primary AND secondary school
both in 辨字测验 MCQ section of papers
where lookalike words are tested,
and also to ensure accuracy in choice of characters
for all other types of writing!
✨
形声字 means that
both the sound & meaning of the characters
can be inferred
just by looking at
the phonetic component & semantic component respectively.
Let's look at some examples:
马 mǎ horse
口 + 马 = 吗 ma [at the end of a question]
女 + 马 = 妈 mā mother
口 + 口 + 马 = 骂 mà scold
石 + 马 = 码 mǎ number / code
虫 + 马 = 蚂 mǎ part of 蚂蚁 ant
And a cool discovery
my kids made just yesterday
五 wǔ five
sounds like
五 + 口 = 吾 wú I / me
and
扌+ 吾 = 捂 wǔ cover
忄+ 吾 = 悟 wù comprehend
口 + 吾 = 唔 wú sound of mumbling
the only exception we could think of was
讠+ 吾 = 语 yǔ language
The Chinese language
suddenly makes more sense
when we DISSECT the compound words &
ANALYZE its parts.
We also have fun CREATING!
We look at certain
独体字 dú tǐ zì primary characters
or 偏旁 piānpáng radicals,
and then think of possible
部首 bù shǒu indexing radicals we can add,
to see if it makes sense!
It's so amazing to rediscover the
BEAUTY of the Chinese language,
and I hope this helps my kids
to appreciate what they're learning!
🛒Get your set
from mystorytreasury.com!
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