Kalligrafi 05

1. Lesson 05
Combined characters (2)
Phono-semantic compound characters
xíng shēng zì
形 声 字

2. xíng shēng
• Phono-semantic compound characters (形 声 - “form
and sound”) are one category of combined characters.
• Also called “Pictophonetic characters”

3. • A Pictophonetic character is made up of two parts:
“semantic part” (indicating meaning of the character)
and “phonetic part” (indicating the pronunciation of
the character )， for example: 妈
Semantic phonetic Pictophonetic character

4. • 90% of Chinese characters are pictophonetic characters.
Although their amount is quite big, they are not difficult to
understand and pronounce if we are familiar with the basic
independent characters(pictograms & simple ideograms).
semantic phonetic Pictophonetic character
Char. Meaning Char. Pron. Char. Pron. Meaning
氵 water + 木 mù = 沐 mù to wash one’s hair
氵 water + 林 lín = 淋 lín to pour
艹 grass + 采 cǎi = 菜 cài vegetable
艹 grass + 牙 yá = 芽 yá bud
木 wood + 乔 qiáo = 桥 qiáo bridge
日 sun + 青 qīnɡ = 晴 qínɡ sunny

5. • The development of Chinese language is complicated. Some
characters has changed their pronunciations developments. So
we can find out that the phonetic part of a character doesn't
represent the exact pronunciation of the character.
semantic part phonetic part Pictophonetic character
Char. Meaning Char. Pron. Char. Pron. Meaning
speech + jǐng = jiǎng to talk, to speak
fire + yīn = yān smoke

6. zhù
住 to dwell, to live

7. jī
机 machine

8. hé
河 river

9. dòng
冻 to froze

10. hūn
婚 marriage

11. zhǐ
指 to point, to indicate; finger

12. bà
爸 papa

13. cǎo
草 grass

14. chàng
唱 to sing (sang)

15. bìng
病 sick, ill

16. cái
财 wealth

17. chāo
超 surpass, super

18. chén
晨 morning

19. dù
肚 belly

20. fàn
饭 food, rice

21. fàng
放 to put, to place

22. gāng
钢 steel

23. gē
歌 song

24. hái
孩 child

25. jiǎng
讲 to talk, to speak

26. jìn
近 near

27. kè
客 guest

28. wèn
问 to ask

29. kuài
筷 chopstick

30. liáng
粮 grain,food

31. mào
帽 hat,cap

32. pá
爬 crawl,climb

33. pǎo
跑 to run

34. piāo
飘 to float, to fly

35. qí
骑 to ride

36. qíng
情 feeling, love

37. shén
神 God, spirit

38. kù
裤 pants,trousers

39. wù
雾 fog,mist

40. xiǎng
想 to think

41. yān
烟 smoke

42. yuán
园 garden

43. zhàn
战 war, fight

44. zhàn
站 to stand；station

45. Takk for i dag!