How to gnaw? Of course with your mouth and teeth. 口(mouth) + 齿(teeth) → 啮(gnaw) niè
What do you wanna keep in your mouth? Of course something delicious or sweet (甘).
What do you feel if you taste something sweet with your tongue? Of course you feel sweet. 舌(tongue) + 甘(sweet/sth. sweet) → 甜(sweet) tián
Thanks to our eyes, we can see the colorful world. 目 denotes eye. Characters with 目 have to do with acts of the eye, parts of the eye, eyesight, etc.
Tips:
Upon seeing characters with 目, just think of meanings related to the eye. Most of the characters with 目 are semantic left-phonetic right.
The radical 心 can combine with other parts in two different ways to form new characters. Continue reading “Radical heart 心”
You will not even care how terrible these characters 豹貘貂 look only if you know they are labeled with 豸. The same applies to 犭.
1. 豸zhì, a savage beast, denotes animals when it combines with other characters.
2. 犭, originally 犬quǎn(dog), also denotes animals when it combines with other characters.
Tips:
Most of the words formed by 犭and 豸 are semantic left-phonetic right, such as 狮shī (师shī), 狼láng(良liáng); 貘mò(莫mò). So when you see characters with 豸 and 犭, you know their meanings are related to animals, and then just check the right parts for their pronunciations.
力 lì denotes strength, and it combines with other characters to express meanings related to strength, force, energy, movement, etc.
刀 dāo denotes knife, and it combines with other characters to express meanings related to people’s acts with knife.
Tips:
Characters formed with 力 and 刀 can be both phonetic left-semantic right and phonetic top-semantic bottom. What’s more, characters combined with 力 and 刀 can in turn form phrases with 力 and 刀 to express meanings related to 力 or 刀, such as 努力, 动力; 剪刀, 劈刀
