In the first part of this series, I introduced some of the basic components of Chinese characters that often indicate meaning.
In this part, I’m going to continue with some more of the essential radicals that every learner should know.
Let’s get stuck in.
Animals
犭this component is a variation of the character for dog. You’ll always see it on the left hand side of a character, and it is used in a number of characters for animals, such as 猪 (pig) 狗 (dog) 猫 (cat) 狼 (wolf) and also in 猛 (fierce) 狱 (prison) and 狂 (crazy)
马 means horse. The traditional Chinese version of the radical (馬) came from a picture of a horse. It appears in characters like 驶 (drive) 腾 (jump/gallop) 驻 (to be stationed) and 骑 (to ride)
虫 means insect and comes from a picture of a worm. You can find it in 虾 (shrimp/prawn) 蜡 (wax) 蜂 (bee) and on the bottom of the character in 蜜 (honey)
鸟 is bird, and comes from a picture of a bird. In traditional Chinese it is 鳥. This radical appears in the characters for 鸡 (chicken) 鸭 (duck) 鸦 (crow) 鹅 (goose) and so on.
鱼(魚) is fish, and comes from a picture of a fish on its side (the top would be the head and the bottom the tail fins). This radical makes it very easy to spot fish dishes on menus! Examples include 渔 (to fish) 鲜 (fresh – fish+sheep) 鲤 (carp) 鲸 (whale) and 鱿 (squid)
牜is a version of the full character 牛 which means ox. You’ll see it in 物 (thing/object) 牺 (sacrifice) etc
Plants and food
艹 this radical always appears on the top of characters. It means grass, and you’ll see it in a lot of the characters for plants, such as 草 (grass) 花 (flower) 茶 (tea) 药 (medicine) 菜 (vegetable) 荷 (lotus) etc.
禾 this component is also a character in its own right. It means grain, and it appears in 种 (seed/type/to plant) 利 (benefit/profit – grain+knife) 秋 (autumn) 税 (tax) and on the top of the character in 香 (fragrant).
⺮ this is also a pictographic component. It means bamboo, and comes from two twigs of bamboo. It is used in a number of characters for things that are made from bamboo (or used to be made of bamboo in ancient China), such as 管 (pipe/manage) 节 (joint/section) 笔 (writing brush/pen) 签 (thin bamboo stick, toothpick, to sign) 箱 (box) etc.
米 means rice and comes from a picture of grains of rice. It comes up in 料 (material) 粮 (grain) 粉 (powder) and 糊 (paste) etc.
饣(飠) is the radical that means food, and it appears in 饭 (rice) 饱 (to be full) 饮 (drink) 饿 (hungry) 饥 (starving) 馋 (greedy), and many more.
Ok, that’s it for this part. Hope you learnt something new, and I’ll back tomorrow with the final part of these series to help you crack Chinese characters.