Character 112-140

To make up for yesterday’s absence, 28 new characters for today. They are among the more common ones.

去

qu4

WALK, GO. The earth 土(tu3) and two strokes that look like the tip of a foot, so you tread the floor, hence WALK.

罢

ba4

STOP, CEASE. When you’re entangled in a net 罒 (wang3), you’ll have to stop 罢 to walk 去 (qu4). Ba4 reminds of the Italian/Spanish basta!, enough.

另

ling4, dao1

SEPARATE, OTHER.

已

ying3

ALREADY; STOP, THEN. A squiggly line, just like the third tone. Let’s imagine it used to be straight but was bent ALREADY.

份

fen4

PORTION, SHARE. A share 分 (fen1) of food for a person 亻 (ren2) is a PORTION.

则

ze2

RULE, NORM, STANDARD. The one who takes care of the apportioning刂 (dao1, knife) of the money 贝 (bei4) has to adhere to certain rules则.

情

qing2

EMOTION, SENTIMENT. The 忄(side-heart, xin1) helps with the meaning, 青 (qing1, blue-green) is the phonetic. Perhaps the heart is turning green with envy?

班

ban1

JOB, SQUAD, GROUP,CLASS. The struggle 刂 between two competing GROUPS leads to a transition from one king 王 to the next 王 (wang2). Perhaps the predecessor is even executed by a firing SQUAD who simply did their JOB.

利

li4

PROFIT; ADVANTAGE; GAIN. You cut of a lot of grains 禾 (he2) with a knife 刂 which is sharper (4th tone) than the others and thereby make profit.

远

yuan3

FAR; REMOTE, FLEE. If you are the first 元 (yuan2) to start walking 辶 (chuo2), you will come very far, hopefully further than your persecutors.

读

du2

READ; STUDY; ATTEND SCHOOL. 讠(yan2, words-radical) indicates an intellectual, verbal pursuit. Furthermore, it contains 土 (tu3, soil) and 头 (tou2, head). So STUDYING is an activity involving words, your head (brain) is the soil for the learning process.

死

si3

DIE, EXTREMELY. The pronunciation of this word is the reason why Chinese are a bit superstitious about the number four 四 (si4). “The various knifes dangling from the ceiling in a butcher’s mean death for the animals.”

光

guang1

SHINE, RADIANCE. A person with sparks around it.

怪

guai4

STRANGE, UNUSUAL. There are things on the earth 土 that are so strange that they linger in your heart 忄 and you think of it again 又 (you4) and again.

活

huo2

ALIVE, SIMPLE, MOVABLE. As long as enough liquid氵 reaches one’s tongue 舌 (she2) , one will be hydrated enough and alive.

话

hua4

SPEECH, WORDS, DIALECT. Words “rolling” from one’s tongue. Think of mother tongue or “speaking in tongues”.

试

shi4

TRY; TEST.

科

ke1

FIELD OF STUDY/SCIENCE, DIVISION, TO LEVY.

教

jiao1, jiao4

TEACH(ING), CLASS; RELIGION. The teacher 老师 (lao3 shi1) pushes the knowledge onto the students 子, whose heads are the soil 土 for this teaching. The 夂 (go-radical) could represent a lectern.

未

wei4

NOT YET. A tree 木 with even more branches, but there are NO twigs YET at the top.

计

ji4

COUNT; CALCULATE, PLOT; PLAN. The conventional calculation is based on the decadic (ten 十) system. Also, in a crisis, the leaders will have to discuss STRATEGIEs with their staff (homonym!) of , let’s say, ten people.

反

fan3

ANTI; COUNTER-; INSTEAD. Someone kneeling in front of a factory 厂 (chang3) during a strike.

论

lun4

DISCUSS. People gesticulating sitting together under a roof, the words-radical hints at what they’re occupied with.

少

shao3

FEW; LITTLE, LESS. We have cut away the lower part of 小 (xiao3), now we have even LESS.

区

qu1

AREA, ZONE, DISTRICT. A designated area like on a map.

向

xiang4

FAVOUR; TREND; TOWARD.

全

quan2

COMPLETELY, WHOLE. The king 王 under the roof used to represent that the whole power, he unites all govermental authorities. Homophone with 权 (quan2), authority

方

fang4

DIRECTION. Represents an (Olympic) runner that runs determinedly into the right direction.