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.
Practise it before the paper, not after
Free, interactive practice on the words and structures the examiner keeps asking for.
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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.
Character words for Chinese
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
Put these number characters in order, smallest first.
- 一 (one)
- 二 (two)
- 三 (three)
- 四 (four)
- 五 (five)
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 _____.
How characters work
Tap the TWO statements that are TRUE.
- Each Chinese character stands for a meaning, not just a sound.
- The character 山 means mountain.
- Chinese is written with a 26-letter alphabet.
- The character 人 means water.
- Every Chinese character is a number.
Read the character
Read each Chinese character. Choose each time.
- A sign on a hill shows 山. What does it mean?
- A label shows 日. What does it mean?
- You see the character 三. What number is it?
Explain the script
In English, explain how the Chinese writing system is different from the English alphabet, and describe how some Chinese characters began as pictures. This is written in English and is not auto-marked.
- Explain what a single Chinese character stands for
- Explain how this is different from a letter of the alphabet
- Give one example of a character that began as a picture
- State what that character means