Chinese For Dummies Read Online Free PDF Page A

end poorly [Literally: with the head of a tiger but the tail of a snake ])
    xuán yá lè mǎ 悬崖勒马 ( 懸崖勒馬 ) (shywan yah luh mah) ( to halt [Literally: to rein in the horse before it goes over the edge ])
    Â Fun & Games
    Listen to the accompanying audio to see whether you can imitate the following words, which are distinguished only by their tones. (Be on the lookout: Any given sound with the same accompanying tone may have several other meanings, distinguishable only by context or by seeing the appropriate written character.) Good luck! (Track 3)
    mā 妈 ( 媽 ) ( mother )
    má 麻 ( hemp )
    mǎ 马 ( 馬 ) ( horse )
    mà 骂 ( ç½µ ) ( to scold )
    fēi 飞 ( 飛 ) ( to fly )
    féi 肥 ( fat )
    fěi 匪 ( bandit )
    fèi 肺 ( lungs )
    qÄ«ng 清 ( clear )
    qíng 情 ( affection )
    qǐng 请 ( 請 ) ( please )
    qìng 庆 ( 慶 ) ( celebrate )
    zhÅ« 猪 ( 豬 ) ( pig/pearl )
    zhú 竹 ( bamboo )
    zhǔ 主 ( master )
    zhù 住 ( to reside )

Chapter 2
    The Written Word: Checking out Chinese Characters
    In This Chapter
    Familiarizing yourself with the Six Scripts
    Using Chinese radicals as clues to the meaning of a character
    Getting a handle on character type, writing, and order
    Knowing how to use a Chinese dictionary

    M ake no bones about it. (Oracle bones, that is.) China has literally hundreds of spoken dialects but only one written language. That’s right: When a headline hits the news, people in Shanghai, Chongqing, and Henan are all yakking about it to their neighbors in their own regional dialects, but they’re pointing to the exact same characters in the newspaper headlines. The written word is what’s kept the Chinese people unified for over 4,000 years.
    This chapter gives you the low down on how Chinese wénzì 文字 (wuhn-dzuh) ( writing ) actually began, how characters are constructed, and which direction they’re going in when you read them. I describe how you may be able to identify the basic meaning of a character by looking at a key portion of it (called the radical) and how characters used by people living in Taiwan are different from characters used by people in mainland China. And because Chinese has no zìmǔ 字母 (dzuh-moo) ( alphabet ), I show you all sorts of ways you can look words up in a Chinese dictionary.
    Chinese has the multiple distinction of being the mother tongue of the oldest continuous civilization on earth as well as the language spoken by the greatest number of people. It arguably has one the most intricate written languages in existence, with about 50,000 characters in a comprehensive Chinese dictionary. To read a newspaper with relative ease, though, you only need to know about 3,000 to 4,000 characters.
    Perusing Pictographs, Ideographs, and the Six Scripts
    You already know that Chinese words are written in beautiful, sometimes symbolic configurations called characters. But did you know that you can classify the characters in a variety of ways?
    During the Hàn 汉 ( æ¼¢ ) dynasty, a lexicographer named Xǔ Shèn 许慎 ( 許慎 ) (shyew shuhn) identified six ways in which Chinese characters reflect meanings and sounds. These designations are known as the liù shÅ« 六书 ( 六書 ) (lyoe shoo) ( the Six Scripts ). Of the six, four were the most common:
    Xiàngxíng 象形 (shyahng-sheeng) ( pictographs ):These characters resemble the shape of the objects they represent, such as shān å±± (shahn) ( mountain ) or guÄ« 龜 (gway) (the traditional character for turtle ; the simplified character for turtle — 龟 — doesn’t really look as much like a turtle). Pictographs show the meaning of the character rather than the sound.
    Biǎoyì or zhǐshì 表意 or 指事（ byaow-ee or jir-shir) (