15 January 2012

偏旁部首

We often hear "偏旁部首". Is there a difference between “偏旁” and “部首”, or are they the same?

Some words are formed with left and right parts, top and bottom parts, inside and outside parts. These parts are called 偏旁. For example, “好” is comprised of “女” and “子” these 2 left and right parts (偏旁), and the 部首 is “女”.

When loooking up a word using the Chinese dictionary, the first thing one needs to do is to look for the 部首 (if you are not checking via hanyu pinyin). In my 时代高级汉语词典, I can find around 200 部首. 部首 can be the 偏旁 too, but 偏旁 may not necessary be the 部首.

During ancient times, words with similar parts are classified together, and usually they share the same association. For example, “狗”, “猫”, “猪” and “狼” share the same left part - “犭” (反犬旁), and these are words associated with animals. “犭” became the 部首.  部首 are often the first few strokes of a word, but there are exception. Like “学” and “孝”, their 部首 is “子”.

And some of the 部首 can be found at different parts of a word. For example, "心部" can be found on the left in "情" and "怕". It can be found at the bottom in "志" and "息". It can also be found at the bottom in another form in "添" and "慕".

In general, words with the same 部首 share similar association. But some words have lost their original meanings, so they may not seem to have any association with the 部首.

Knowing the 部首 and their associations is one way that can help children remember Chinese words and their meanings. Especially when they are faced with words that look similar, for example - 浪,狼,恨,痕. The 部首 are 三点水, 反犬旁, 竖心旁 and 病字头, and they are associated with water, animals, feeling and illness respectively. This gives them a clue to what the words mean.

I have gathered some common 部首 here for your information:

部首部首名称例字关联
单人旁你,他, 仁和人类的行為有关
双人旁行,征,往和行走有关
提手旁捉,打,扶和手有关
竖心旁情,怜,怯和心,情感有关
立刀旁刑,划,刻和刀或切割有关
绞丝旁纠,纱,线和丝线,纺织,布匹有关
反犬旁狗,猛,狂和动物、动物的性质有关
衣字旁被,裙,衫和衣物有关
示字旁礼,祈,祖多与祭祀、礼仪有关
足字旁跑,跳,跛和脚有关
宝盖头家,宅,室像屋顶的形状, 表示和室家/屋有关
竹字头篮,竿,笔和竹有关
草字头花,芒,芽和植物有关
病字头疾,疼,痕本义是床的意思;和病痛有关
走之底过,进,运和行走有关
兩点水冰,冷,冲多和冰冻、寒冷有关
三点水洗,汉,河和水有关
四点火煮,烈,热和火有关
言字旁说,讲,请和言语有关
提土旁场,地,城和土地有关
食字旁饭,饮,饥和饮食有关
木字旁树,椅,板和木有关
金字旁铁,钢,针和铁有关
子字旁孔,孙,孩和儿女有关
虫字底蚕,萤和昆虫类有关
虫字旁蚊,蜂
女字底婆,妻和女性有关
女字旁妈,妹
贝字底贪,货和钱货有关
贝字旁赚,财

3 comments:

  1. Nice! I never looked at Chinese characters like this! thks for sharing!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love this summary and i use this same to teach my girls too. But I use eastern-western approach to teach the 部首.
    Is there a comprehensive guide/book u may recommend I can use as a complete reference? Thanks for recommending!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Catherine

    I have yet found a good guide book on this. I'm on constant look out for more resources. Will let you know when I come across one.

    ReplyDelete

Welcome to Happy Cottage!


I started 开心屋 - Happy Cottage because I have 凯 and 欣 in the house. Together they are the 开心 (sounds like) team.

Mommy loves Chinese language and is a big fan of Chinese story books. Thus the kids often receive interesting children Chinese story books from mommy. Many of the children Chinese story books are so beautifully drawn and well written that I like to read them myself.

Learning and loving the language is not an easy task in Singapore as our environment is not condusive enough for such learning. Thus I believe I have to create such an environment at home. Through daily communication in Mandarin and regular reading of the Chinese materials, I hope to cultivate their likings for the language. You can find many of the books in the Book Store.

Besides introducing children Chinese story books to you, I would also like to share some learning resources and tips on the usage of the language here. I've met some parents, in their best attempt to communicate with their kids in Mandarin, misread some words or used an incorrect sentence structure. You can find the information in the tabs above.

So, why is this blog written in English? I know of many parents who have kinda lost touch with the language. If I were to share in Chinese, then it may not be as effective.

Do come back often for more updates.

Cheers!