1 一 yi1 one 1
2 丨 gun3 line 1
3 丶 zhu3 dot 1
4 丿 乀(fu2), 乁(yi2) pie1 slash 1
5 乙 乚(yin3), 乛 yi4 second 1
6 亅 jue2 hook 1
7 二 er4 two 2
8 亠 tou2 lid 2
9 人 亻 ren2 man 2
10 儿 ren2 legs 2
11 入 ru4 enter 2
12 八 丷 ba1 eight 2
13 冂 jiong3 down box 2
14 冖 mi4 over 2
15 冫 bing1 ice 2
16 几 ji1 table 2
17 凵 qu3 open box 2
18 刀 刂 dao1 knife 2
19 力 li4 power 2
20 勹 bao1 wrap 2
21 匕 bi3 spoon 2
22 匚 fang1 right open box 2
23 匸 xi3 hiding enclosure 2
24 十 shi2 ten 2
25 卜 bu3 divination 2
26 卩 jie2 seal 2
27 厂 han4 cliff 2
28 厶 si1 private 2
29 又 you4 again 2
30 口 kou3 mouth 3
31 囗 wei2 enclosure 3
32 土 tu3 earth 3
33 士 shi4 scholar 3
34 夂 sui1 (bottom) go 3
35 夊 zhi (top) go slowly 3
36 夕 xi4 evening 3
37 大 da4 big 3
38 女 nü3 woman 3
39 子 zi3 child 3
40 宀 mian2 roof 3
41 寸 cun4 inch 3
42 小 xiao3 small 3
43 尢 尣 wang1 lame 3
44 尸 shi1 corpse 3
45 屮 che4 sprout 3
46 山 shan1 mountain 3
47 川 巛, 巜 (gui4) chuan1 river 3
48 工 gong1 work 3
49 己 ji3 oneself 3
50 巾 jin1 turban 3
51 干 gan1 dry 3
52 幺 yao1 short thread 3
53 广 yan3 dotted cliff 3
54 廴 yin3 long stride 3
55 廾 gong3 two hands 3
56 弋 yi4 shoot 3
57 弓 gong1 bow 3
58 彐 彑 ji4 snout 3
59 彡 shan1 bristle 3
60 彳 chi4 step 3
61 心 忄 xin1 heart 4
62 戈 ge1 halberd 4
63 戶 hu4 door 4
64 手 扌 shou3 hand 4
65 支 zhi1 branch 4
66 攴 攵 pu1 rap 4
67 文 wen2 script 4
68 斗 dou3 dipper 4
69 斤 jin1 axe 4
70 方 fang1 square 4
71 无 wu2 not 4
72 日 ri4 sun 4
73 曰 yue1 say 4
74 月 yue4 moon 4
75 木 mu4 tree 4
76 欠 qian4 lack 4
77 止 zhi3 stop 4
78 歹 dai3 death 4
79 殳 shu1 weapon 4
80 毋 mu2 do not 4
81 比 bi3 compare 4
82 毛 mao2 fur 4
83 氏 shi4 clan 4
84 气 qi4 steam 4
85 水 氵 shui4 water 4
86 火 灬 huo3 fire 4
87 爪 爫 zhao3 claw 4
88 父 fu4 father 4
89 爻 yao2 double x 4
90 爿 qiang2 half tree trunk 4
91 片 pian4 slice 4
92 牙 ya2 fang 4
93 牛 牜 niu2 cow 4
94 犬 犭 quan3 dog 4
95 玄 xuan2 profound 5
96 玉 王 yu4 jade 5
97 瓜 gua1 melon 5
98 瓦 wa3 tile 5
99 甘 gan1 sweet 5
100 生 sheng1 life 5
101 用 yong4 use 5
102 田 tian2 field 5
103 疋 pi3 bolt of cloth 5
104 疒 chuang2 sickness 5
105 癶 bo4 dotted tent 5
106 白 bai2 white 5
107 皮 pi2 skin 5
108 皿 min3 dish 5
109 目 mu4 eye 5
110 矛 mao2 spear 5
111 矢 shi3 arrow 5
112 石 shi2 stone 5
113 示 礻 shi4 spirit 5
114 禸 rou3 track 5
115 禾 he2 grain 5
116 穴 xue4 cave 5
117 立 li4 stand 5
118 竹 zhu2 bamboo 6
119 米 mi3 rice 6
120 糸 纟 mi4 silk 6
121 缶 fou3 jar 6
122 网 罒 wang3 net 6
123 羊 yang2 sheep 6
124 羽 yu3 feather 6
125 老 lao3 old 6
126 而 er2 and 6
127 耒 lei3 plow 6
128 耳 er3 ear 6
129 聿 yu4 brush 6
130 肉 rou4 meat 6
131 臣 chen2 minister 6
132 自 zi4 self 6
133 至 zhi4 arrive 6
134 臼 jiu4 mortar 6
135 舌 she2 tongue 6
136 舛 chuan3 oppose 6
137 舟 zhou1 boat 6
138 艮 gen4 stopping 6
139 色 se4 color 6
140 艸 艹 cao3 grass 6
141 虍 hu1 tiger 6
142 虫 chong2 insect 6
143 血 xue3 blood 6
144 行 xing2 walk enclosure 6
145 衣 衤 yi1 clothes 6
146 襾 覀 ya4 west 6
147 見 见 jian4 see 7
148 角 jue2 horn 7
149 言 讠 yan2 speech 7
150 谷 gu3 valley 7
151 豆 dou4 bean 7
152 豖 shi3 pig 7
153 豸 zhi4 badger 7
154 貝 贝 bei4 shell 7
155 赤 chi4 red 7
156 走 zou3 run 7
157 足 zu2 foot 7
158 身 shen1 body 7
159 車 车 che1 cart 7
160 辛 xin1 bitter 7
161 辰 chen2 morning 7
162 辵 辶 chuo4 walk 7
163 邑 阝(right) yi4 city 7
164 酉 you3 wine 7
165 釆 bian4 distinguish 7
166 里 li3 village 7
167 金 jin1 gold 8
168 長 长 chang2 long 8
169 門 门 men2 gate 8
170 阜 阝(left) fu4 mound 8
171 隶 dai4 slave 8
172 隹 zhui1 short tailed bird 8
173 雨 yu3 rain 8
174 青 qing1 blue 8
175 非 fei1 wrong 8
176 面 mian4 face 9
177 革 ge2 leather 9
178 韋 韦 wei2 tanned leather 9
179 韭 jiu3 leek 9
180 音 yin1 sound 9
181 頁 页 ye4 leaf 9
182 風 风 feng1 wind 9
183 飛 飞 fei1 fly 9
184 食 飠 饣 shi2 eat 9
185 首 shou3 head 9
186 香 xiang1 fragrant 9
187 馬 马 ma3 horse 10
188 骨 gu3 bone 10
189 高 gao1 tall 10
190 髟 biao1 hair 10
191 鬥 dou4 fight 10
192 鬯 chang4 sacrificial wine 10
193 鬲 li4 cauldron 10
194 鬼 gui3 ghost 10
195 魚 鱼 yu2 fish 11
196 鳥 鸟 niao3 bird 11
197 鹵 lu3 salt 11
198 鹿 lu4 deer 11
199 麥 麦 mai4 wheat 11
200 麻 ma2 hemp 11
201 黃 huang2 yellow 12
202 黍 shu3 millet 12
203 黑 hei1 black 12
204 黹 zhi3 embroidery 12
205 黽 黾 min3 frog 13
206 鼎 ding3 tripod 13
207 鼓 gu3 drum 13
208 鼠 鼡 shu3 rat 13
209 鼻 bi2 nose 14
210 齊 齐 qi3 even 14
211 齒 齿 chi3 tooth 15
212 龍 龙 long2 dragon 16
213 龜 龟 gui1 turtle 16
214 龠 yue4 flute 17

Radicals are called "Bu Shou" 部首 in chinese. They are basic characters that formed a certain character in chinese writing. All chinese characters are made up of radicals. (They are somewhat similar to the alphabets in english)

Great post, I was searching for these because I didn't know how to type them out!

Do they use bu shou in China too?

Of course they used Bu Shou in China...it's always good to know the radicals when remembering how to write a chinese characters. It helps to remember a character.

What do the numbers after the translation mean?

number of strokes

I began my sutdy in written Chinese by memorising the radicals. It is the usual practice in elementary school.

usually the simplified character has meaning radical before the sound radical, the tradition character seems do not follow this pattern. Can someone verify this for me? I've been studying chinese for 4 years and still don't know a word.

At the risk of sounding disloyal to the Motherland, I believe that languages with an actual alphabet, and words that are stringed together with individual letters has their advantages. I do not claim to be an expert linguist, this is just an observation.

The radicals do help in putting together words, however, people who attempt to learn this language (or other similar) still must relie on rote memorization to learn words. Thus it presents a larger barrier between the educated and the uneducated popolace.

A language with fixed number of alphabets, with each letter having its own sound, allows people who do not know this word's meaning to at least try to pronounce it. Anyway, thats just my thoughts.

There are some advantages, such as it is easier to create a new word. I can't slap two or three or four radicals together and make a comprehensible character. I can take letters and put them together in a random yet pronouncable system and use it and use it and use it until it gets picked up.



Anyone know how Korean is classified? It seems to me with my limited knowledge that it is a combination of the two. Although the radicals have no discreet meaning.


Good post though, it is always helpful. Here is another place to find it.

Korean (language) is classified as 'Language isolate' or 'Macro-Altaic'

Korean (writing) is classified as 'phonemic' rather than 'ideographic'.
It combines 2-3 Jamo (alphabet) to make a syllable block.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangul

"60 彳 chi4 step 3 "

my teacher said that this doesn't really have a meaning anymore.....i wonder why

i found this:
144 行 xing2 walk enclosure 6

i remember someone told me that the first part is front step and the other is back step (i might have gotten this mixed up). but anyways, because of that, i was told this also has a meaning of "intersection".
adding on that yet again, doesn't xing2 also mean "to be okay?"

------------------------------------
also, i'm curious about the pig radical. it's basically in the word jia1 (family, home) except there's a roof radical on top of it right? the thing is though, i don't know the pinyin for this pig radical

EDIT: nevermind, i found it. shi3 right?

the 彳 doesn't really have a meaning anymore because nobody uses this character. originally, it is the step of the left foot, while the other part of 行 is a symmetrical counterpart of 彳, that is the step of the right foot. this is why the meaning of the character is 'walk' because it is signifying the walking motion.

Cantonese, and probably many southern dialects retain this original meaning in the everyday language, 行is the only word/character for 'walk.'
While Mandarin has deviated from the original meaning they still retain the core meaning in the example you mentioned, "to be okay." The "to be okay" meaning you point to is actually a shortening of 可行 (do-able/can we GO forward with it) which has the implicit connotation of 'walking.' As for the 'intersection' meaning, i think the character in its pictograph form was actually a pictograph of an intersection.

豕 is a pictograph of a pig but the character was replaced with other more complicated characters very early on like 彘 (Han Wudi's childhood name) or 豚. (japanese still use 豚 for pigs/pork)

In describing a words with radical, sometimes I cannot find a radical for some groups of strokes.
At this moment, I cannot offer an example for that, but I believe I can find these words again.

Do you think that you can find all radicals that make up any Chinese character?

Not every shape can form a main radical (部首）, but every character has something considered the main radical.

An example of a character with unknown radical
翮
By the order the character is drawn:

The first radical is
1 一 yi1 one 1

The second radical is
30 口 kou3 mouth 3

The third radical is
? That has 6 strokes
It is an unknown radical or un-named radical.

The fourth radical is
124 羽 yu3 feather 6

An example of a character with radicals overlap one another:
事

By the order the character is drawn:

The first radical is
1 一 yi1 one 1

The second radical is
30 口 kou3 mouth 3

The third radical can be considered (but not exactly) as
58 彐 彑 ji4 snout 3

The fourth radical is
6 亅 jue2 hook 1

We can find more of them.

Actually 鬲 is a main radical itself, no 193.
By the way, the "radicals" here does not refer to every possible shape, but the 部首. (but I can't think of the example of an impossible shape now)
EDIT: a "ㄨ" does not seem a radical

Hopefully someone can help me clear this up...

Although I recognize all but 14 of these radicals in some character or another, I think that most of them are not standalone. Such as 丶 zhu3, 冖 mi4, 匸 xi3, and in fact most of the radicals with less than 4 strokes, and some other more complicated ones. I asked some intelligent chinese friends, and even they didn't know these radicals had pronunciation!? I count at least 30 that don't appear in my (electronic) dictionary... so does that mean they used to exist and had this pronunciation?

Also, these differ to what you wrote, I think: 广 guang 厂 chang. Do they have special pronunciation when appearing as radicals?

廣 was simplified to 广, and 廠 to 厂, messing up with the already existing characters.
Yes, they make sense in Traditional Chinese ("繁体"), but as different characters. The simplification confuses e.g. 種 with 种(Chong2, surname), 後 (back) with 后(queen), etc.

wait a minute...if you combine more than one radical together to make a character...how would it then be pronounced and what would it mean?

Hello!

I have a question regarding the radical of a character.

Does the radical of 妆 as in 化妆 have any meaning??