So, for learning’s sake, it is much easier to learn with bigrams than by taking each individual character at face value.įor example, the 词 ‘word’ for ‘computer’ is made up of 2 汉字 characters 电 ( diàn) ‘electric’ and 脑 ( nǎo) ‘brain’. A Chinese character does not equal a ‘word’Īlthough a single character does have meaning, most of the time, a ‘word’ is made up of more than 1 character, usually 2, to make what is called a ‘bigram’. In the case of ‘creating’ new characters, companies often take existing characters and add new radicals to make them more relevant to a product they want to name or promote.įortunately, these new characters are rarely added to dictionaries.īut, there are several facts we need to address before REALLY deciding how many Chinese characters you need to learn: 1. 甯 (níng) same as 宁 meaning peace and stabilityįrom time to time, there are new characters ‘invented’ ( remember DUANG ?). 嬛 (xuān) a girl’s dancing is soft and beautiful The reality is, that a lot of Chinese characters become obsolete over time because they’re no longer relevant to modern day culture. Luckily, we don’t need to learn anywhere near this many characters (sigh of relief)! The 中华字海 (zhōng huá zì hǎi), China’s most comprehensive dictionary had 85,568 entries in 1994. According to the Beijing Guoan Consultant Company, there are 91251 Chinese characters (even crazier). Problem is, there are lots of numbers flying about on the old interweb, such as: Probably one of the biggest questions you have is, ‘how many Chinese characters do I have to learn?’
So, you’re wondering whether to study Chinese or not?
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