Order on the page
Today is the next three strokes, the ones that slope, and the rules for the order of strokes on the page. Four characters built from them, all common, show each rule in action.
Sloping strokes
Characters made of 撇 and 捺.
人, 大, 天 and 太 are one family: each adds a stroke to the last. Learning them together is easier than learning them apart, and it is the first example of how characters build on each other.
The rules of order
The rules that decide which stroke comes first.
Five rules cover most characters. Where they seem to clash, the character pages show the standard order, and after a few weeks you stop thinking about the rules at all.
Words with them
The characters in use.
Every character this course teaches is shown in words, because nobody reads characters on their own. 今天 and 中国人 are words you already say; now you can read them.
人 appears inside many characters, often squashed into a side form, 亻, which day 8 covers. Recognising 人 in a crowd of strokes is the first step to reading characters as parts rather than pictures.
8 questions. Get 5 right to finish the day.
从上到下 means…
- sky, day
- person
- Top to bottom: 三
- too, very
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Top to bottom: 三 从上到下 means Top to bottom: 三.
太大了 means…
- Outside before inside: 月
- too, very
- person
- too big
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too big 太大了 means too big.
中国人 means…
- Top to bottom: 三
- Left to right: 你
- a Chinese person
- adult
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a Chinese person 中国人 means a Chinese person.
大 means…
- big
- Left-falling before right-falling: 人
- Top to bottom: 三
- person
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big A person with arms stretched wide.
Type the pinyin for 天.
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tiān 大 with a line above: what is above the person.
Which one means "person"?
- 从上到下 cóng shàng dào xià
- 人 rén
- 太 tài
- 从外到内 cóng wài dào nèi
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人 Left-falling first, then right-falling: a person walking.
Which one means "adult"?
- 先横后竖 xiān héng hòu shù
- 大人 dàren
- 大 dà
- 人 rén
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大人 Big person.
Type the Chinese or pinyin for "too, very".
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tài 大 with a dot: 太贵了 from the daily course.
Question 1 of 8