How Chinese Words Work

I'm going to share some secret knowledge with you about how Chinese words work that very few people know even Advanced Chinese speakers even native speakers and if you watch to the end I guarantee it will make mastering Chinese vocabulary way easier and way faster for you and you know what even if you're not learning Chinese this will just be something super interesting to share at your next dinner party so let's get into it so first off what is the difference between a Chinese character and a Chinese word what makes a Chinese word a word well Chinese characters are morphemes they are the smallest grammatical unit of a language that applies to all languages as far as I know so essentially Chinese characters or morphemes are the smallest part of Chinese that has actual relevant meaning to the language let's use an English example to illustrate this whole morphine idea cuz I realize it can get confusing if you've never heard of it so let's take the word unexpected that's actually made of three different morphemes un expect and Ed un and ID certainly carry meaning they add meaning to the final word unexpected but they cannot be used alone expect on the other hand can stand alone it is its own word and characters function in exactly the same way so all characters are morphemes or meaning chunks as I like to call them but not all characters are words so for example do meaning walk Jen meaning person Shan meaning mountain or TR meaning eat these are all Standalone words whereas these ones here like means the past Ming means name and means tip of something but they can't be used alone they're only used in compound words such as yesterday y famous Oran meaning tip of the tongue there are also a substantial number of Chinese words that are made up of multiple characters or syllables but only a single morphine now while characters or single syllable morphemes can be words and sometimes they're not words multiple syllable morphemes are always words and they come from two different sources they're either from ancient Chinese or they are borrowed foreign words so let's start with the foreign words because that's the easiest one to understand so the word sofa in Chinese is pronounced shaa and these two characters that make it up are purely chosen for the sound they have absolutely nothing to do with the final meaning of sofa whatsoever sha means sand and far means to send out this next example c means means Cola so c means can and L means happy now that has nothing to do with the final meaning it's purely just for the sound C same with he which is taken from the word hacker now all three of these examples are words but they're only one morphine even though they're multiple characters whereas the vast majority of Chinese words made up of more than one character are more than one morphe so for example is two different morphemes that combined to mean yesterday and if you look at the individual characters they clearly have a very close relationship to the final meaning and that's what makes them different whereas these three examples are actually just a single morim that has its own Standalone meaning there's so many more examples of these borrowed foreign words CH is chocolate disy is Disney is Olympics and then there's a very small collection of these multiple character single morphine that are taken from ancient Chinese such as H this one means butterfly but the individual characters are not used anywhere else for any reason they only go together another example of this is the very old word p which means to hesitate but again these two characters aren't really used anywhere else for any other reason except for in this word together so all those words made up of one morim whether it's a single character or a multiple character morim they are called Pure words or dant and they make up a relatively small but significant amount of Chinese vocabulary but the vast majority as I mentioned are multiple morim words combined together or compound words and a long time ago Chinese didn't have any of these compound words they were just naturally created along with the evolution of the language as more specific meanings needed to be conveyed now ancient chines used to be monosyllabic most words were just a single syllable but this created a lot of homophones and and naturally the language evolved to have compound words and there are seven types of these compound words and once you understand all these different types it makes learning Chinese words so much more fun and so much easier as well so let's start off with the first type of Chinese compound words and these are called or verb What as we translate it to be so with these words the first character is always a verb a doing or action word and then the second character is what the the verb is verbing what's being done to so for example to eat and then a meal so this as a compound word together means to eat a meal breakfast lunch or dinner now I'll give you a few more examples and see if you can guess what the actual word means just by looking at the individual characters so y CH have have what money that means Rich how about this next one can to look book look book H what might that mean let me think it means to read next one to sleep the noun of sleep to sleep asleep mean sleep as you can see Chinese very logical once you know the characters and you understand a little bit about word structure now this last one's a lot tougher but I think you can guess it if you think about it J means to rest and to means head so gentle means pillow so it's not always verbs doing words it's not always adjectives describing words often it can also be nouns too this next type of Chinese compound word are called or as we like to translate them verb how so with this one the first character again is a verb but the second character instead is a result of the verb let me show you what I mean with an example so this word here see if you can guess what it means if you don't already know so SCH is to speak that's the verb and the second character is Ming which means bright that's probably the main definition of this character but in this context it means its secondary definition of clear so if I speak until the result is Clarity what am I doing explaining so means explain here are some more examples go so t means to raise and G is the result so I'm raising it until it's tall or high so what I'm doing there is increasing or improving to rise until I fly the result of me Rising is flying means to take off as in when you're on a plane and the pilot says now understanding this particular verb how structure will make directional compliments really easy so things like come here go there go up come down so for example gu gu means to cross as in to cross a room and Li means to come so cross the room until you have come to me so come here how about the word f sha f means to release and sha means down so that means to put something down now this next type of Chinese word is called which we translate to be biased now the reason why we translated that way is because the second character in this word is always much more important it signifies the category of the word and then the first character simply adjusts that main category it's almost like the subcategory let me show you what I mean so let's look at the word f so the second character signifies that this is a machine now fa signifies that it is a flying machine specifically so we've got main category G machine subcategory flies so f g a flying machine would be and he guesses airplane there's a tons more of these and they can be nouns or objects adjectives or they could also be verbs so let's look at some more nouns gongen means literally work person and that means worker someone like in a factory or something on the other hand means giant person so giant Newen female person would be a woman and byen white person would be white person some examples of doing words verbs for this would be so means to do but what kind of to do it's a gong to do a work to do which means work or so d means to arrive but how did you arrive let's adjust that with late so that means to arrive late Manz is made up of the characters slow man and leave doll so leave is the main thing that's happening the main category if you like and slow is adjusting it so leave slowly and that is how we say take care in Chinese if someone's leaving your house you say mandal this type of biased word can also be adjective so for example you have cold L but if you say Bing that means super cold ice cold you can also say fire hot which means not just hot but blazing hot this next type of Chinese compound word are called b or parallel as we translate it this comes in several different subtypes if you like but the key to understanding this type of compound word is that both morphemes or characters involved have the exact same power or weight within the compound word unlike biased so these two characters can be exactly the same meaning or they can be similar in meaning they could be related or they could even be the opposite and there's a very small group where one of the meanings or both of the meanings of the characters have actually been lost over time this is very rare though usually you can still see the logic between the two characters so let's have a look at this first group where both characters or more themes within the compound word have exactly the same meaning so for example is made up of two characters both meaning to know in Chinese and it makes the final meaning of to know means self and and both mean self bang and D both mean help and it makes the word bang help p means friend both characters mean friend really simple next we have a subtype of these parallel compound words where where both characters are similar not necessarily exactly the same but very similar so for example is more like a specific time such as when something happened whereas is more like a duration of time but together means time the word means learning or to learn and it's made up of which is more like study so learning sort of the theory behind things whereas she is more about practice but you can't really learn something unless you study it the theory behind it and also put it into practice that's very much true with language acquisition isn't it so together these two characters mean learn what about sh D Shong means Big Brother d means little brother and together they make Shi which means brother but more in the sense of hey bro what's up kind of brother I how I which means to love combined with how which means to like something love like means means hobby my love like is studying Chinese then we have the parallel compound words with two characters or more themes that are completely opposite for example is left and right combined and it means roughly big and small means size and Malin one of my favorite Chinese words of all time is Spear and shield so for this one you have to look into the backstory behind this it's it's an old Chinese story where a spear salesman is saying there's nothing that can't be pierced by my Spear and then the same guy says oh my Shields there's nothing that can Pierce them so that is called a mild one a spear and shield which means contradiction and then we also have D much and little meaning how much this next subcategory is where the two characters are of equal weight but they are just related loose ly to each other and it forms an interesting final meaning there's relatively few words like this but they're super interesting see if you can guess what these mean this is made up of the characters heart and blood and together these two characters mean hard work now in English we would say something more like Blood Sweat and Tears but in Chinese it's more like sh heart blood now this next one's a bit harder to guess but maybe possible for some of you culture so mouth and teeth any ideas enunciation and this final example is gur or bone and meat so he is my bone meat that means he is my flesh and blood he is my family then finally we have an even smaller subset of the parallel compound words where one of the characters or maybe even both of the characters has either completely changed its meaning or lost its meaning over time so for example means window but it's made up of door door and window or how about this one Wang G Wang means to forget and g means to remember but together they actually just mean to forget now this next type of compound word is called or duplicate it and it's simply two identical characters one after another and there are three main situations where you would see this so one is to express affection so we commonly see this kind of word type with family members m b G another way these duplicate type of words are used is to express casualness this is super common so it's used with verbs such as can can so can means to look but if you double it up it's more like oh have a look or you could say sh sh means to try but if you say sh sh it's more like have a try or ch ch taste taste taste have a taste now duplicating is also really common with describing stuff so instead of gu as in cute you could say gu instead of just SW s you could say SW and finally you'll also see these duplicate kind of words when you're trying to express all of something so for example Jen people people means everyone or Day Day means every day this next type of compound word is called f or a fixed and there are three different types of a fixed compound words prefixes infixes and suffixes and I got to say in my opin when you master this particular type of word you're going to get the most bang for your buck out of your time spent because they just apply to so many words and once you understand these AP fixed words it's just going to make so many hundreds if not thousands of words so clear instantly so let's get started with prefixes there are only seven of these in the entire language and here they are now tool we're not going to talk about because it's so rare you'll see it for naming of days within Chinese New Year so it's really specific only like a handful of words use it so let's get started with LA instead La Means old but in the context of a fixed words or prefixes it indicates familiarity or seniority so you'll see it in for example words like wife La po po means lady and La just adds that flavor of like not just any lady a very familiar lady whom I love we also have a word that a lot of us Chinese Learners would already have heard La why why means outside La just adds that expression of friendly familiarity now it's not always used in a friendly way but generally it's uh it's okay it's pretty neutral a lot of Chinese people also like to put La before their last name and just have people address them as La whatever their last name is so for example Leo is a very common Chinese last name and I have a personal friend called La that's how he likes to be called Next we have Shia which is used in exactly the same way way as LA but just for younger people I guess so instead of Lao we could have XA or X or XA whatever your last name is then of course you have xia g xia ma xia go for chicks kittens and puppies respectively then we've got Hal and Nan and I'm teach these together because they're the Opposites of each other and they're used in the same way so how means good or easy and Nan means bad or hard so you can attach this to a bunch of different characters and it creat Crees tons of compound words so for example h means pretty good look or easy to look at if you like N means ugly h means delicious easy eat or good eat and N means hard to eat or bad to eat that means gross not delicious next we have which when used as a prefix for compound words it kind of adds the feeling of a a b l e to a lot of words so for example I means love and c means lovable or cute xia means to laugh or smile and C xia is kind of the derisive word ridiculous or laughable then finally we have D which when put in front of numbers makes them ordinal so d means first d means 20th Etc all right let's move on to the infixes so there's only two of these and it's the characters D and B and these two characters as infixes only work with one of the seven types of compound word and that is verb result so you can take either du or bu and put it in between the two characters of the verb how compound word and it will tell you whether or not that result can be achieved so let me give you an example the word ping means to understand through listening so that's Ting as the verb and Dong is the result but if you put a du in between those two characters it changes it from understand to can understand or understandable whereas Ting means I cannot understand now this can't be done with every single verb how word it's to select few but the ones that you can use it for are super super common so for example Tran is a compound word that means to finish eating have you finished eating but if you put a du in between the two characters that's and that expresses I can finish eating this meal but if you say triple one then you're saying sorry I can't finish this meal what we using I'm full what then finally we have suffixes characters or morphes that go on the end of compound words to give them a different meaning so let's start with which is really common in the north of China and what it does is makes the word more casual so for example instead of saying n we might say nar it makes it slightly more casual or instead of saying when we could say war and again adds that casual feel to it this next one is always a fifth tone when it's a suffix and it just makes nouns so for example means shoe is just another way of saying shoes means to cheat means a cheeter to is another noun Creator and it is always a fifth tone when it's used in this way at the end of words so for example sh is tongue and it's made up of tongue and to we don't just say sure by itself that would be snake sure G hoo is another one that's related to the body ghl means bone but we don't just say ghl we say G then we have gin which means the end of something often used when you're giving directions L the gin and it's made up of Jin which means use up and of course to then we have M which is just a plural for human beings so war is me or I and War m is we we have or or then we have which indicates an expert in a field so is Art but is an artist we also have writer and scientist Now sing is a really cool one that just adds like it or NES or ISM or ship or it basically makes things into nouns as well so means possible or possibly and means possibility means real or valid and is validity then we have H which kind of adds a eyes or IFI on the end of different words so for example means to advance or move forward or enter means to evolve means simple but means simplify and L is green but l means any guesses to a forest or add some green to a city by building parks that kind of thing this is a really common notion in China these days we can also add sh on the end as a suffix which adds kind of a history orology to words so for example means society and is sociology the study of society means animal and means zoology the study of animals now I did save my personal favorite and what I consider to be the most interesting compound words for last this final type of compound word in Chinese is what I like to call a subject predicate kind of word so basically this is a mini sentence within a compound word so for example the word d Jun is made up of D which means ground and Jun which means to vibrate and you could probably predict this means earthquake another example me me means Citizen and d means to rule or to host so if the citizens rule that is the word for democracy inting years are light so remember predicate is not always a verb it could be an adjective too something what did the verb do or what happen to the verb what is the verb like that's what a sentence is right so if your ears are quite light then you are young Yen Yen means y eyes and Sh means familiar so something's familiar to your eyes then it is familiar looking Co CH mouth and smell is halosis you get the idea so there you go guys that is everything you need to know about Chinese words packed into one video so what this is going to do for you is add another layer of understanding to every single word that comes up that you want to learn and really the whole goal of that is simply to help you connect on a more personal and deep level with every word and be able to learn them faster and easier but if you want our full guide to making pneumonics to master words really quickly I'm talking like a 100 words a day quite easily then check out this video right here and I'll see you in the next one bye-bye

Channel: Mandarin Blueprint

Views: 121,037

Keywords: How to learn Chinese, How to Learn Mandarin, How to Learn Chinese Language, Chinese Video Lesson, Chinese online course, chinese course, learn chinese fast

Id: 7WkW1FF7KMQ

Length: 24min 7sec (1447 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 30 2024