Character Placement And Word Meaning In Chinese

Intermediate learners of Chinese Mandarin encounter a fascinating concept during their studies: how a simple change in the position of a character could result in a completely different word.

Let’s look at an example. In 女人, the character 女 already means woman. However, we have to use the longer 女人 for “woman” if we want to express the phrase “she is a woman.” Nevertheless, even with this change, knowing the meaning of 女 will help you to quickly build up other terms such as 女王, 女主人, 女方 and 女友. In addition, knowledge of that character will allow you to immediately recognize that all of these words are related to the female gender.

Today, we are going to look at some more examples and go in depth.

Set #1: Different placement, same meaning

The first set of words that we will look at are those whose meaning is not affected by the position of the characters. Thus, these words are like freebies! It doesn’t matter which character is said first, the meaning remains the same.

Example Sentences:

• 这是我累积（累积）了一年的邮票。
• zhè shì wŏ lĕi jī （ lĕi jī ） le yī nián de yóu piào 。
• I have accumulated these stamps for one year.

• 钱是无法代替（替代）健康的！
• qián shì wú fă dài tì （ tì dài ） jiàn kāng de ！
• Money can't replace health.

• 他们的感情（情感）非常好。
• tā men de găn qíng （ qíng găn ） fēi cháng hăo 。
• They have a very good relationship.

Set #2: The meaning changes

In these examples, you can see that even though the meaning changes, they are still somewhat related!

Example Sentences:

• 我小时候的外号很多，其中一个是 “邓小平” 因为我的脖子很短。
• wŏ xiăo shí hou de wài hào hĕn duō ， qí zhōng yī gè shì “ dèng xiăo píng ” yīn wèi wŏ de bó zi hĕn duăn 。
• I had a lot of nicknames when I was a child. One of these nicknames was Deng Xiaoping because of my short neck.

• 你看了今天的号外了吗？
• nĭ kàn le jīn tiān de hào wài le ma ？
• Have you seen today's extra?

Cultural Note: If you watch films set in the 80’s, you will see little boys running around on the street distributing extra news publications. They will yell 号外, 号外! as they go.

Example Sentences:

• 像电视剧那样罗曼蒂克的爱情故事在现实生活中发生的机率基本上是零。
• xiàng diàn shì jù nà yàng luó màn dì kè de ài qíng gù shi zài xiàn shí shēng huó zhōng fā shēng de jī lǜ jī bĕn shang shì líng 。
• The probability of a romantic love story like the ones we see in dramas actually happening in real life, is essentially zero.

• 如果你想要实现你的梦想， 那你就必须付出努力。
• rú guŏ nĭ xiăng yào shí xiàn nĭ de mèng xiăng ， nà nĭ jiù bì xū fù chū nŭ lì 。
• If you want to achieve your dreams, then you have to do the work.

Example Sentences:

• 小时候我非常喜欢读童话故事。
• xiăo shí hou wŏ fēi cháng xĭ huan dú tóng huà gù shi 。
• When I was a child, I loved reading fairy tales.

• 长大后我最怕发生什么事故。
• zhăng dà hòu wŏ zuì pà fā shēng shén me shì gù 。
• As I get older, I am becoming more scared of accidents.

• 在回家的路上发生了一些事故， 回家后我把它写成了一个故事。
• zài huí jiā de lù shang fā shēng le yī xiē shì gù ， huí jiā hòu wŏ bă tā xiĕ chéng le yī gè gù shi 。
• An accident happened on the way home. After I got home, I turned it into a story.

Set #3: Tells you the function of the term

I love saving the best for the last. This set is my favorite because when you switch the position of the words, they actually tell you the function of the word!

You can even create palindromes with some of them, like the two examples below:

• 门锁锁门
• mén suŏ suŏ mén
• Locks lock doors.

• 罪犯犯罪
• zuì fàn fàn zuì
• Criminals commit crimes.

Now, let’s look at some more expressions, along with example sentences of their use.

Example Sentences:

• 门锁是用来锁门的。
• mén suŏ shì yòng lái suŏ mén de 。
• Locks are used to lock the doors.

• 我家的门锁坏了， 所以现在没办法锁门了。
• wŏ jiā de mén suŏ huài le ， suŏ yĭ xiàn zài méi bàn fă suŏ mén le 。
• My door lock is broken, now I can't lock my door.

Example Sentences:

• 牙刷是用来刷牙的。
• yá shuā shì yòng lái shuā yá de 。
• A toothbrush is used to brush teeth.

• 昨天我买了新的牙刷， 今天刷牙刷得很有满足感。
• zuó tiān wŏ măi le xīn de yá shuā ， jīn tiān shuā yá shuā de hĕn yŏu măn zú găn 。
• I bought a new toothbrush yesterday. I felt very content brushing with my new toothbrush today.

Example Sentences:

• 罪犯犯罪。
• zuì fàn fàn zuì 。
• Criminals commit crimes.

• 最近罪犯越来越多， 犯罪率也挺高了很多。
• zuì jìn zuì fàn yuè lái yuè duō ， fàn zuì lǜ yĕ tĭng gāo le hĕn duō 。
• There are more and more criminals nowadays, and the crime rate has increased too.

Little things like this make language learning so much more fun! I hope that seeing them in the example sentences above will help you to remember them, as well as help you to use them correctly.

Image Sources

Hero Image by tgabby1 (CC BY 2.0)