<blockquote>
  <p>Chinese words don't have any relationship in many situation</p>
</blockquote>

<p>No.</p>

<p>Please let me introduce some history:</p>

<p>Ancient Chinese use single character for word in most situations.
Thus character and word is equivalent for most part of Ancient Chinese.
Thus if you have seen two or more characters,
chances are you have seen a phrase, not a word (there are exceptions).</p>

<p>Later, mainly due to the reduction of the phonetic system,
voices of a lot of characters become the same.
To avoid ambiguity in spoken language,
phrases become more and more used in place of single character,
and turned into words at the last.
(This is the main reason, there is other reason.)</p>

<p>So from the history of evolution of the Chinese language,
we can conclude that most of words are frozen phrases from Ancient Chinese.
Parts of phrases are certainly have relationships.
Thus most Chinese words do have relationship of characters.</p>

<p>Some words are obvious:</p>

<pre><code>左 = left
右 = right
左右 = left (and) right

书 = book
包 = bag
书包 = book bag

走 = walk
路 = road
走路 = walk (on) road

地 = earth
震 = quake
地震 = earthquake

赶 = drive
走 = walk
赶走 = drive (sb. to make them walk away) = drive away

书 = book
本 = volume
书本 = book in volumes
     = book
(It just means book. Why not say `book` 书 directly?
To avoid ambiguity in spoken languages,
there are so many characters share the same voice.)

看看 = look look = look

狮 = lion
子 = you can consider this as a mark for noun
狮子 = lion
</code></pre>

<p>Even some imported words are quite structural:</p>

<pre><code>反 = anti
全 = global
球 = ball
化 = -ize, -ization
反全球化 = anti globalization
</code></pre>

<p>Exceptions:</p>

<ol>
<li><p>mimic sounds in other languages:</p>

<ul>
<li>T恤 sounds like T-shirt</li>
<li>沙发 sounds like sofa</li>
</ul>

<p>This is not difficult to understand if you are familiar with the other language.</p></li>
<li><p>mimic sounds in very ancient Chinese, maybe before characters was invented.</p>

<p>For example, 窈窕 have about more than 10 combinations of different characters (forms), a clear implication that it mimics a sound, and should be read as a whole. In the last the form 窈窕 wins and becomes the "standard".</p>

<p>These words need to be memorize.</p></li>
</ol>

<p>The problem is most Chinese teachers are not linguists,
and have a very shallow understanding of Ancient Chinese languages.
So they may not be able to explain the structure of a word to you.
And they do not bother to search for references and papers to answer your question.</p>

<p>For example:</p>

<pre><code>国 is roughly country 
家 is roughly state
国家 is roughly country or states
</code></pre>

<p>However, the meaning "state" has been lost in modern Chinese
(meaning "home" solely in modern Chinese),
so you may find the word 国家 confusing.
In fact, I have heard Chinese teachers teaching kids as
"国家 means 有国才有家, roughly "without a country, there is no home".
Misinterpretation is much worse than no interpretation.</p>

<p>Another example is 葡萄,
it is considered to be borrowed from a foreign language,
probably bādaga in Old Persian,
maybe bodhi in Sanskirt,
or bótrys in Greek.</p>

<p>So this is more about a problem in education,
not in the language.
After all, Chinese is a widely used natural language.
Thus it cannot be too illogical.</p>

<p>Not many people want to learn a language as a linguist.
And few teachers can teach a language as a linguist.</p>

<p>There are a lot of native English speakers teaching English in China.
Although not many of them understand Latin or Greek,
at least some of them try to teach English words based on morphology.
And I hope more and more Chinese teachers will consider this approach of teaching Chinese words.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-29T04:49:52.450Z
2017-08-06T03:27:45.930Z
2017-08-06T03:27:45.930Z
weakish
<p>Modern Chinese tends to use double-character words instead of one-character words, which is frequently used in ancient.</p>

<p>So Chinese words will have the following forms:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>玩玩 - play</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Repeat the characters to double it.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>词语 - words</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Attach two similar characters to double it.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>新闻 - news</p>
</blockquote>

<p>adjective (新:freshly) + verb (闻:hear) to represent a word.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>上学 - go to school</p>
</blockquote>

<p>verb (上: go) + verb (学: learn)</p>

<p>etc..</p>

<p>So you see, you just combine two characters to make a new word.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-08-01T11:28:50.417Z
2017-08-01T11:28:50.417Z
sfy
<p>Chinese "词语" don't have any relationship in many situation ,so how do you remember it like remember English words </p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2017-07-28T05:11:04.207Z
Not sure what exactly you're asking. You remember Chinese words like you remember English words, or words of any language.
monalisa
<word>
How do you learn and remember Chinese words or "词语"
# How do you learn and remember Chinese words or "词语"

(Asked by: username_0 on 2017-07-28)

Chinese "词语" don't have any relationship in many situation ,so how do you remember it like remember English words

**Tags:** word

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Not sure username_0 exactly you're asking. You remember Chinese words like you remember English words, or words of any language.  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2017-07-29. Score: 2

> Chinese words don't have any relationship in many situation

No.

Please let me introduce some history:

Ancient Chinese use single character for word in most situations.
Thus character and word is equivalent for most part of Ancient Chinese.
Thus if you have seen two or more characters,
chances are you have seen a phrase, not a word (there are exceptions).

Later, mainly due to the reduction of the phonetic system,
voices of a lot of characters become the same.
To avoid ambiguity in spoken language,
phrases become more and more used in place of single character,
and turned into words at the last.
(This is the main reason, there is other reason.)

So from the history of evolution of the Chinese language,
we can conclude that most of words are frozen phrases from Ancient Chinese.
Parts of phrases are certainly have relationships.
Thus most Chinese words do have relationship of characters.

Some words are obvious:

```
左 = left
右 = right
左右 = left (and) right

书 = book
包 = bag
书包 = book bag

走 = walk
路 = road
走路 = walk (on) road

地 = earth
震 = quake
地震 = earthquake

赶 = drive
走 = walk
赶走 = drive (sb. to make them walk away) = drive away

书 = book
本 = volume
书本 = book in volumes
     = book
(It just means book. Why not say `book` 书 directly?
To avoid ambiguity in spoken languages,
there are so many characters share the same voice.)

看看 = look look = look

狮 = lion
子 = you can consider this as a mark for noun
狮子 = lion

```

Even some imported words are quite structural:

```
反 = anti
全 = global
球 = ball
化 = -ize, -ization
反全球化 = anti globalization

```

Exceptions:

1. mimic sounds in other languages:

   * T恤 sounds like T-shirt
   * 沙发 sounds like sofa

   This is not difficult to understand if you are familiar with the other language.
2. mimic sounds in very ancient Chinese, maybe before characters was invented.

   For example, 窈窕 have about more than 10 combinations of different characters (forms), a clear implication that it mimics a sound, and should be read as a whole. In the last the form 窈窕 wins and becomes the "standard".

   These words need to be memorize.

The problem is most Chinese teachers are not linguists,
and have a very shallow understanding of Ancient Chinese languages.
So they may not be able to explain the structure of a word to you.
And they do not bother to search for references and papers to answer your question.

For example:

```
国 is roughly country 
家 is roughly state
国家 is roughly country or states

```

However, the meaning "state" has been lost in modern Chinese
(meaning "home" solely in modern Chinese),
so you may find the word 国家 confusing.
In fact, I have heard Chinese teachers teaching kids as
"国家 means 有国才有家, roughly "without a country, there is no home".
Misinterpretation is much worse than no interpretation.

Another example is 葡萄,
it is considered to be borrowed from a foreign language,
probably bādaga in Old Persian,
maybe bodhi in Sanskirt,
or bótrys in Greek.

So this is more about a problem in education,
not in the language.
After all, Chinese is a widely used natural language.
Thus it cannot be too illogical.

Not many people want to learn a language as a linguist.
And few teachers can teach a language as a linguist.

There are a lot of native English speakers teaching English in China.
Although not many of them understand Latin or Greek,
at least some of them try to teach English words based on morphology.
And I hope more and more Chinese teachers will consider this approach of teaching Chinese words.


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2017-08-01. Score: 1

Modern Chinese tends to use double-character words instead of one-character words, which is frequently used in ancient.

So Chinese words will have the following forms:

> 玩玩 - play

Repeat the characters to double it.

> 词语 - words

Attach two similar characters to double it.

> 新闻 - news

adjective (新:freshly) + verb (闻:hear) to represent a word.

> 上学 - go to school

verb (上: go) + verb (学: learn)

etc..

So you see, you just combine two characters to make a new word.


---

