pluiepoco

漢字的結構
Composition of Chinese Characters

Unlike Roman, Chinese is constituted with essential draws, not by alphabet. The draws in a simple sense have five styles, that is,
1. Level「we draw it on the paper evenly and levelly, like 一,　or －, or ──, which is contained in the Chinese words/characters such as 王, 三, 大, 玉, 國, nearly every words. 」
2. Straight「we draw it on the paper as “L” in alphabet, like 亅, or 丨, which is contained in the Chinese such as 小,　米, 樹,　傑, 劉, 木, 中, nearly in every words.」
3. Start Dash「we draw it on the paper as “/” in the keyboard, like　／, or 丿, which is contained in the Chinese such as 全, 人, 和, 金, 大, nearly every words.」
4. End Dash「we draw it on the paper as “\” in the keyboard, like ＼, or 乀, which is contained in the Chinese such as 人, 全, 金, 合, nearly every words.」
5. Turn「we draw it on the paper as capital “E”, “M”, or “N”, “Z”, just to make a turn of pen-writing, to differentiating with the former 4 draws, which are made in only one style or position, but the Turn is made by a change of direction of drawing movements. Let me show you: 口, 尸, 己, 山, 間,　nearly in every words.」

Please note that in Chinese there is also another important draw, Point, which can be classified in Start Dash or End Dash, is specially omitted for simplicity. To draw a point on the paper, it’s easy for you to mimic the point in any sense, like ‘　,　.　`　in the keyboard, for your reference, I give some Chinese words containing such a special draw:
米, 金, 國, 然, 守, 議, nearly in half of Chinese words.

pluiepoco

Examples
一 [Level]
口 [Straight+Turn+Level, as we draw the word from left to right, upper to lower]
人 [Start Dash+End Dash]
火 [Point+Start Dash+Point+End Dash]
木 [Level+Straight+Start Dash+End Dash]
水 [Straight+Turn/Start Dash+Point+End Dash]
土 [Level+Straight+Level]
日 [Straight+Turn+Level+Level]
月 [Start Dash+Turn+Level+Level]

For complex words, which are composed of many draws, we can first divide into several parts, then analyse each part to combine into a word, for example:
多 Upper Part: [Start Dash+Turn+Point];
Lower Part: [Start Dash+Turn+Point]
金 Upper Part: [Start Dash+End Dash];
Lower Part: [Level+Level+Straight+Point+Point+Level]
兩　Outer Part: [Level+Straight+Turn+Straight]
Inner Part: Left: [End Dash+Start Dash]; Right: [End Dash+Start Dash]

Nana_Brazil

wow... it`s so different and new to me.

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Yau

Wow! It's great that Pluiepoco can explain these techincal writing system in other language!

To add some more information: There's some computer input method, notably T9 Chinese, that takes advantage of Chinese writing method.

Compare to English's 26 alphabets on the keyboard, there are only 5 strokes in the T9 Chinese input method. It's Level (一), Straight (l), Start Dash (/), End Dash (\), Turn (Z)--- Just like what Pluiepoco mentioned exactly!

For example,
If you press / \, you can get 人. (people)
If you press 一, l, /, \ , you can get 木 (wood)
If you press 一, / , \, you will have 大 (big)

As you could imagine, this simple input method that requires only 6 keys can be found in most chinese mobile phone today.

Pro: it's very easy to learn.
Con: too many chinese characters share the same writing strokes, so it takes many time to choose an appropriate words with this input method. My best typing record with T9 is around around 20-30 chinese characters per mintue, comparing to 110 characters with other input methods.

pluiepoco

the 6-keys board of mobile phone is quite popular in Chinese market, as Yau quoted, this draw-to-draw inputing method is primary formation of Chinese words, but in consideration of today's complex communication, finger-in every information through mobile phone is impractical, but that depends, many Chinese young people chat on phone by fingering in words using this primary input system, that's quite time-saving! I can input quite fast, 500 words in half an hour, that is enough for short messages, but if we want to chat on more words, why not use Internet?

Otherwise, the 6-key is basis for all kinds of input systems, because other complex system must have complicated keyboard to reduce word options, but its keyboard and application rules are confusing to foreigners and vulgar Chinese.

So your T9 system is quite useful now!

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刘晓雨 pluiepoco
Home of Asia, 中国语言论坛(Chinese Forum of Languages), 西瓜村

demoore

A nice link to learn to write chinese characters: with stroke by stroke pictures...

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