Like many languages created in early civilizations, Chinese started out as pictures and symbols to represent certain objects and ideas. For example, the Chinese character for “田” both looks like and is the definition for “rice field.” Similarly, the Chinese character, ”木“ both looks like and is the definition of “tree.” 
Nowadays, the Chinese language has evolved to become much more complex than having a character’s definition be what the character looks like. More commonly, characters have many different parts or radicals, which can be attributed to the character’s meaning (semantic) or phonetic sound. For example, the character “爸,” which means dad, is made of 2 radicals:
- 父 fù (father), is the semantic radical
- 巴 bā (to wish), is the phonetics radical
Another example of this is the character “好,” which means good. Two radicals also comprise this character:
- 女 nǚ (woman), is the semantic radical
- 子 zi (child), is also the semantic radical
So, there is no phonetic radical to help with pronunciation, but an easy way to remember how to write this character is that a woman always sticks to her child because of the semantic function of the radicals.
Some of the following information in this article came from the following source:
https://www.hsk.academy/en/learn/the-chinese-radicals
If the Chinese characters stayed they way it was before it would be so much easier. Some words may even look the same but with different meanings. Chinese is very complicated.
This article shows how complex and complicated the Chinese language is to learn. I want to become better at Chinese even if it takes a lot of hard work.
This is what I like a bput chinese. Learning characters is this much easier because of the characters looking like pictures. I like how they can be put together like you showed with 爸。
I have trouble memorizing Chinese characters and to this day I believe Chinese is the hardest language of all.
I really like this article because I find Chinese characters very hard to learn. I think the images will really help me memorize some characters, so thank you.
I really like the language picture, it reminds me of the word in ancient Chinese. The Chinese word on the picture is words that people use in ancient time, very interesting. Nice job.
I did not know the radicals of the Chinese language was representing the shapes of what it is describing, very cool.
I did not know that the language and radicals were based on the surroundings of the Chinese people and how they looked like, very cool.
This topic is very interesting. The picture visualized the concept well. nice article
It’s interesting how Chinese has changed over time and how complex it’s become!
I think that this is a very interesting thing about the Chinese language. To have words look like what they mean can be very easy to figure out what it means but it can also be confusing at times.
This is very interesting. It’s fun to learn about how Chinese evolved into the language it is today!
It’s interesting how the characters look so similar to their definitions in the picture above! I hadn’t thought that 月 and 日 could look like windows.
This is so interesting. If the words are still like this it would be so much easier to write.
Great article Jennifer! I’ve always found it so interesting how pictures ans symbols shape the meaning if Chinese characters. Even though modern characters are comprised of radicals, I still use certain parts of a character to help decipher its meaning. Something that I’ve always found confusing is how some characters have a semantic and phonetic radical and other characters only have semantic radicals and the phonetics behind the character are completely different. Thanks for sharing!
Wow! I really enjoy reading this article, and I totally agree with it. It will be a lot easier to write the characters, and people who just started to learn the language won’t have to struggle to memorize the characters. Even though the characters today are harder, it is still easier compared to traditional Chinese. Overall, I think this article was fun and interesting to read. Amazing job, Jennifer!!
Nice article. I found it extremely interesting about how the pictures can represent something in reality. I also agree that it has become very complicated because, for me, it is very difficult to memorize the characters. It would also be a lot of fun because I would feel like I would be drawing. This was a great article.
The Chinese language can be very confusing and difficult to remember. It’s very interesting to know that these characters actually resemble the word that they represent. Writing essays in Chinese can be very frustrating when I don’t remember how exactly to write a character. Finding out that I added a stroke or forgot a part of the word can be very frustrating as well. Good job writing this article!
It is amazing that a whole writing system can be derived from pictures. This is very much like the Egyptian hieroglyphics. It is much more convenient now that the traditional characters have morphed into the simplified ones we know today. It also easier to understand once a complicated word is broken down into a sound part and a part that defines it. Thanks for letting us know that Chinese isn’t AS hard as it looks Jennifer~
Chinese characters are very interesting. These characters often resemble pictures. There might be some historical contexts, how the origin of Chinese came about.
Jennifer, your eloquence throughout this article is very prevalent, and I was intrigued every moment whilst reading your piece. I love the historical context that you put into this article, because it is ever so important to understand where something so deep came from, and what it stands for, not just what it is on paper. The Chinese language is extremely thought-provoking, just like the infographic you put in the center of the article. It shows how modern this ancient language has become, and what kind of progress we have made as a world to teach that language to the next generation. Overall, I was extremely impressed with your piece, and am eager to read more of your articles in the future.
Fascinating article Jennifer! I’ve visited many museums in China and they’ve shown me where China characters derived from. However, I didn’t know that much about the radicals of each character. I think the Chinese language is very interesting because it’s as if they’ve literally transformed art into a language. I also didn’t know how the radicals of the Chinese character “good,” could have such a depth meaning behind it.
This article is very informative. Before reading it, I had no idea that Chinese characters were based off of pictures. I like how you stated that it has gotten more complex nowadays. I wish that the characters were still simpler, so they would be easier to write. I like how you provided examples of the different types of radicals. Great job on this article!
This article is great because it tells us that even though Chinese characters look hard to write, it actually has a picture linked to it. As a Chinese person myself, I’m still fascinated by how alike the picture and the actual character looks. I love how every character is special and has a meaning behind it, it’s so cool. Good job on this! I really enjoyed reading this!
中文的最开始其实就是从象形字开始演变的，逐渐逐渐产生了我们现在熟知的偏旁部首等等，古人的智慧可以说是无法超越的，他们将文字画出和他们想描述的物体相似的形状或者是意思，然后用这个字代表这个东西，从而节省了很多很多的时间，然后渐渐的写字被人类熟练的运用起来，从而开始了后面的历史。
Chinese radicals are so interesting. It’s so cool how some of the radicals appear as what they mean.
Chinese characters are logograms and some of them are derived from the actual image of things and the ancient Chinese characters are really fun to look at. I think the people who made current Chinese characters were kinda geniuses because they don’t look alike at all. Overall, I thought Chinese was a really interesting language.
Learning about the origin of Chinese characters and the picture it stemmed from has always been one of my favorite aspects of learning Chinese. Nowadays, I am always trying to find the radicals in larger characters, and see how they relate to the character they combine to form. I always thought that it was fascinating how the Chinese alphabet originated in pictures, and eventually developed into the characters they are today. Although this makes it harder to read and recognize the characters, as the characters are not based phonetically, it is an interesting and quite unique language in that sense. I thought this was a very good article. Great job, Jennifer!
Thanks so much for writing this article, Jen! In my opinion writing Chinese characters is the most difficult part about Chinese. It is so interesting to see the origins of the Chinese characters! It is interesting to see how the Chinese characters formed from pictographs, and from there developed into complex structures. It’s interesting to see how characters tell a story. I find it quite interesting to see how there are semantic and phonetic radicals.
Great article. I think that the origins of languages are very fascinating. I wish that we spent more time learning about radicals within the characters that we learn. The point that you made about how knowing radicals can help derive meaning is very poignant. With the thousands of characters in the Chinese language, it can be hard to remember the meanings of all of them but having a working knowledge of radicals can, I think, help.
It’s so fascinating that most Chinese characters were detived from pictures. It’s so amazing that all the distinct characters can potentially be traced back to a picture/symbol it represented before there were words. I think that it was the use of pictures/symbols that the Chinese character developed so strongly and was able to reach to other eastern asian countries like Korea and Japan. It’s very interesting to think about the influence of pictures on the creation of completely new words/characters.
It’s cery intetesting to think about how most of the characters were derived from some kind of pictures or symbols. The use of symbols to create completely new words/characters is definitely fascinating. Who could’ve thought that a whole nation would speak a language that was developed from pictures? Absolutely amazing to think about the wonders of the Chinese characters. I think that because it was easily derived from pictures/symbols, the characters were able to be taught to neighboring eastern asian countries like Korea and Japan. Whoever invented this way of making characters was definitely a genius!
Interesting that Chinese characters started out as pictures or symbols that represented certain objects and ideas. Now, characters have many different parts or radicals, which can be associated with the character’s meaning. Also interesting to know that there is no phonetic radical to help with pronunciation, but instead can know that a woman always sticks to her child; the semantic function of the radicals.
象形文字在中国有悠久的文化，是中国最古老的文字。不同形状组成的文字十分好玩。象形文字是华夏民族智慧的结晶 ，是老祖宗们从原始的描摹事物的记录方式的一种传承。复杂而又好玩的中国文字使人像更加了解中国文化和学习这有趣的文字。我很少接触象形文字，这篇文章让我想去探索更多。
I really liked reading this article, because it taught bee some background information about where the words I am studying come from. I agree in that the symbols are a great way to remember the meaning of the characters. I didn’t know that the different radicals attributed to the phonetic sound in addition to the character’s meaning. It was also interesting to see how the characters are made up of radicals that have separate meanings. I will definitely use this information to help me learn new chinese characters in the future.
中国汉字的演变是经过了很长时间的。最初一开始的时候，人们很多都是通过观察物品的形状然后来记录下来的。所以说中国汉字就像照片一样。
象形文字是中国最初的文字，人们把他们所看到的抽象的画出来来表达字面上的意思。我们现在所有的文字也是从最初的象形文字演变过来的，慢慢地形成了偏旁部首。不同偏旁部首组成的字又有不同的意思。象形文字是如同瑰宝般的存在，给后代们带来无限的好处，也让我们用文字来代表意思，节省很多的时间。
Chinese characters are very hard to learn for me since I grew up speaking only English. But after reading this article i think the picture my help out a little with the characters. It’s very interesting!
我觉得中国文化很强大，也越来越难懂。在中国很早以前就有文字了，而这些文字都是慢慢转变过来的。我很敬佩中国的文字，我觉得非常的有趣。
Wow, I remember learning about characters being similar to pictures, but I never really saw this. After reading this article I can actually see how characters were pictures back then. The way Chinese characters have changed throughout the years is really impressive and amazing. Although many people can find characters very confusing and difficult to read now if you compare them to pictures it makes it a lot easier to understand them.
中国最古老的文字是甲骨文，古人通过一些景致和实际结合起来形成了人们可以书写的文字。再通过时间的推移人们越来越进步和改变文字最终出来了我们的简体字。中国文字还是很有意思的！
Great article! I find it very interesting how the first Chinese words were created from pictures. It is amazing how much the characters have changed since they were first made. I think that all Chinese characters have a lot of meanings to it.
I never knew that Chinese characters came from pictures and symbols! I sometimes find that memorizing Chinese characters is not as difficult if I also remember the picture that corresponds to those characters. I especially liked the examples that you gave, as they helped me further understand what you meant by pictures in characters. However, I learned from this article that learning the radicals is also important. I also did not previously know that there are semantic radicals. Thanks for the interesting article!
This is a very informative article! The title of this article caught my eye. I found the fact that Chinese started out as pictures and symbols very interesting. The parts of a character can determine both the meaning and the origin. This makes me think that a lot of thought must have been given to each Chinese character. The Chinese language never fails to fascinate me!
汉字最开始就是象形字，是人们通过对自然的观察而创造出来用于交流的符号，经历了几千年的风风雨雨，才变成现在的样子，汉字蕴含着中华几千年的历史。
中国的文字演变十分有意思。汉子的演变都是通过一个个图片而来。汉子的演变让人们不用再通过图片或者符号记录。每个汉字上都有一个可以代表他意思的部首。
比如爸爸的爸字他的部首里有一个父代表着父亲。可以帮助人们更方便的记住这个字和这个字的意思。
汉字的演变是非常有意思的，根据东西的外形来形成它简化后的样子。我非常喜欢古老的汉字，比起“字”我更觉得它们像是一副一副的画。每一副画都在用最简单的方式表现出了它的意思，不同的偏旁部首也有不同的由来。很多汉字哪怕是不认识，也可以根据它的样子来判断意思。我非常喜欢这样有意思的汉字，感谢您的文章让我重新认识到这点！
I really like how informative this article is. The pictures you provide really help prove your point. This will surely help me remember the simple characters. I’ve always found that memorizing characters is very hard. I find typing on a phone or computer is so much easier.
这些东西确实很有趣，但这些字在很早以前不是这样写的，是经过很多年转变过来的
Really nice article. It is really cool to see how the origin of the Chinese language developed. I find the progression and the development of any language fascinating, but the Chinese language is a special case because of how different it is from other languages. I never knew how important understanding radicals were until I read this article. There are so many characters in the Chinese language, so understanding the radicals will provide one with an outlet to source similar symbols together and recognize foreign characters more easily.
Nice article! I think it’s interesting to see learn about the development of the Chinese language. Any way to make Chinese easier to understand can help and this is a great example.
This is a great article! I remember learning about this my freshman year in Chinese class. It is crazy to see how people took the pictures and turned them into characters and are now able to communicate with them. The way that each character has its own story is really cool. There is so much meaning behind each stroke and each word that I could spend days just learning about it. This article does a great job portraying what it is like.
It is so interesting how the chinese written language in a sense is just a language of pictures. I grew up learning how to write english and now that I am learning how to write chinese i find it amazing how two beautiful and perfectly functioning languages can be so different. It surprises me every time. This article was wonderfully written.
I read the article about Chinese traditional characters. I knew Chinese traditional characters have resemblance to art. I have some surmise that Chinese characters came from pictures and symbols. This realization might help me improve Chinese reading skills. I have difficult reading Chinese characters. Now I can imagine the pictures that corresponds to those characters. I felt the examples that you gave is very informative. Thanks for the interesting article!
中国字很有趣，最早的应该就是商朝的甲骨文，然后是金文，小篆等等。文字的样子也是不一样的。可能一开始就是看什么样子就怎么写，一点点演变，才到现在的文字。其实文字越到后来就越相似，说实话，中国字很难学，我小时候学写字的时候，我就经常用练字帖练字，因为我写的字很丑。虽然现在写的也不算太好，但是也还能看。
It is very interesting and cool to see where Chinese characters originated from. Its very unique how Chinese characters were based off of pictures. It is cool to see how symbols can create a completely new language. It’s very interesting to see how Chinese characters evolved. It’s very fascinating how the radicals that make up the characters have separate meanings.
中国很早之前就有文字了， 当时就是象形文字 能表达出来的东西也不是很全面， 随着时间的推移， 文字慢慢演变， 从最初的象形文字到金文，再到最近代的繁体字到现在的简体字 能表达的东西更丰富了而且更便于书写。