If you've been on Chinese lessons in Singapore, you might be familiar with Chinese characters. Chinese characters seem the most demanding component for close internationals to find out the Chinese language. Numerous a complaint originates from that Chinese characters are so unlike each other that you have to discover them one by one. When experiencing a brand-new character, the previous understanding of various other ones helps a little bit; you can neither pronounce it straight nor presume what it implies.
Pictograms
Pictograms are the earliest characters to produce, and they usually reflect the shape of physical objects. Examples include the sun, the moon, a woman, fire. From this picture-drawing approach, the various other character developing principles were ultimately established. Over a long history, pictograms have developed from uneven illustration into a specific type, streamlined by shedding confident strokes to simplify writing.
Ideograph
Ideograph generally explains an abstract idea. It's a mix of indicators or adds an indication to a pictograph. For instance, a short horizontal bar on top of a round arc stands for a concept of up or top.
Pictophonetic substances
You'll also be more likely to encounter this one when taking Chinese lessons in Singapore. Additionally called semantic-phonetic substances, just as the name implies, it incorporates a semantic aspect with a phonetic part, taking the meaning from one and the other's pronunciations. This last group of characters is the largest in modern-day Chinese, making up around 90% of all Chinese characters. A lot of an item and idea is difficult to express via photos or ideograms. Also, its organization with personality pronunciation helps Chinese vocabulary expand much faster than logical aggregates.
Rational aggregates.
It is a combination of pictograms to stand for a significance, instead of telling a little tale. A pictograph for an individual on the entrusted to a pictogram for wood on the ideal makes an accumulation for "remainder". This story-telling development is reasonably less complicated to learn. Yet, most aggregates have been reformed right into phonetic compounds, or just replaced by them.
Are you looking for a Chinese or Thai language course in Singapore? Visit Stanford Language Centre for Thai and Chinese lessons.