Foundations of Reading and Writing Chinese Characters
Start reading Chinese. Chinese has no alphabet: it uses characters, each standing for a meaning. Meet the picture-characters and the numbers, and learn to read your first Chinese.
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Reading Chinese 📜
Chinese does not use an alphabet. It uses thousands of **characters**, and each character stands for a **meaning** and a syllable. Many characters began as tiny pictures. 人 looks like a person walking and means **person**; 口 is a little square like an open mouth and means **mouth**. In this module each character is shown with its English meaning.
Words to know 📖
Four ideas run through this module:
Characters or letters ⚖️
Chinese writing works very differently from English.
Match each character 🔗
- 日
- 月
- 山
- 木
- sun
- moon
- mountain
- tree
Which is person? 🧍
Which of these characters means person?
- 人
- 山
- 木
- 日
The first numbers 🔢
The first numbers are the simplest characters of all. 一 is **one**, 二 is **two** and 三 is **three**, drawn as one, two and three lines. After them come 四 (four), 五 (five), and 十 (ten).
Match each number 🀄
- 一
- 二
- 三
- 十
- one
- two
- three
- ten
Spot the numbers ✅
Select the TWO characters that are numbers.
- 一
- 三
- 山
- 木
Count up 🔟
An interactive activity.
The script in words 🧩
Chinese does not use an _____; it uses _____, each standing for a meaning. A character that began as a small picture is a _____. The character 人 means _____, and 三 means the number _____.
Spot the true statements 🖍️
An interactive activity.
Read the character 🧭
An interactive activity.
Explain the script ✍️
An interactive activity.