LangStrucVocab

Vocabulary in Chinese media type="file" key="chinese vocabulary.mp3"

The following Prezi introduces you to how vocabulary works in Chinese by looking at one character and lots of words that are built around it. To navigate the presentation, click on the arrow underneath. Once you've gone through the entire presentation, you can move around it on your own by clicking on a object. media type="custom" key="12522552"

Note that all of the examples are two characters. Most Chinese words consist of two characters. In many cases, each character has some meaning, and it lends that meaning to the word. However, many characters cannot be used alone. 朋友 means friend. Each character means friend, but neither is ever used alone. 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.

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.) Examples include 桌子 zhōuzi '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.

多音字 duōyīnzì Multiple Pronunciation Characters
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:
 * 咖啡 || kā fēi || coffee ||
 * 卡 || kǎ || card ||
 * 酷 || kù || cool ||
 * 沙拉 || shā lā || salad ||
 * 派对 || pài duì || party ||
 * 汉堡包 || hàn bǎo bāo || hamburger ||
 * 沙发 || shā fā || sofa ||
 * 可乐 || kě lè || cola ||
 * 幽默 || yōu mò || humor ||
 * 瑜伽 || yú qié || yoga ||
 * 卡路里 || kǎ lù lǐ || calorie ||
 * 逻辑 || luó ji || logic ||
 * 巴士 || bā shì || bus ||
 * 吧 || bā || bar ||
 * 咖喱 || gā lí || curry ||
 * 卡通 || kǎ tōng || cartoon ||
 * 吉他 || jí tā || guitar ||
 * 布丁 || bù dīng || pudding ||
 * 维他命 || wéi tā mìng || vitamin ||
 * 吐司 || tǔ sī || toast ||
 * 麦克风 || mài kè fēng || microphone ||
 * 高尔夫球 || gāo ěr fū qiú || golf ||
 * 保龄球 || bǎo líng qiú || bowling ||
 * 比萨 || bǐ sà || pizza ||
 * 柠檬 || níng méng || lemon ||
 * 派 || pài || pie ||
 * 迷你裙 || mí nǐ qún || mini skirt ||
 * 迪斯科 || dí sī kē || disco ||
 * 盎司 || àng sī || ounce ||

A few Chinese words have made their way into English as well. 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. 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.

Recommended Reading @http://cjvlang.com/Writing/writchin/ciandzi.html

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