List 1

Meaningful Character Components

Most of Chinese characters are made up of two or more component parts. “Signific graphs” (义 符 yìfú)

are components that suggest the meaning of characters. Hence, learning the meaning of these component
parts will deepen your understanding of characters you know, and help you guess the meaning of
unfamiliar characters. The following is a list of such meaningful character components.

冫= freezing, ice (e.g. 冰 bīng, 冷 lěng, 寒 hán)

讠, 言 = word (e.g. 语 yǔ, 词 cí)

八 = dividing (e.g. 分 fēn, 半 bàn)

亻, 人 = man, person (e.g. 他 tā, 信 xìn)

刂, 刀 = knife (e.g. 利 lì, 剩 shèng)

力 = muscle, strength (e.g. 男 nán, 办 bàn)

阝 (on the left) = mound, steps (e.g. 院 yuàn, 附 fù)

阝 (on the right) = city, region (e.g. 部 bù, 邮 yóu)

氵, 水 = water (e.g. 河 hé, 海 hǎi)

忄, 心 = the heart, emotions (e.g. 情 qíng, 怕 pà)

宀 = roof, house (e.g. 家 jiā, 室 shì)

广 = roof, hut (e.g. 庭 tíng, 店 diàn)

门 = door, gate (e.g. 闻 wén, 间 jiān)

土 = earth (e.g. 场 chǎng, 城 chéng)

女 = woman (e.g. 妇 fù, 妈 mā)

饣, 食 = food (e.g. 饭 fàn, 饱 bǎo)

口 = the mouth, speech, eating (e.g. 问 wèn, 吃 chī)

囗 = boundary (e.g. 围 wéi, 园 yuán)

子, 孑 = child (e.g. 孩 hái, 学 xué)

艹 = plant, vegetation (e.g. 草 cǎo, 菜 cài)

纟 = silk, texture (e.g. 组 zǔ, 纸 zhǐ)

辶 = walking (e.g. 道 dào, 过 guò)

彳 = path, walking (e.g. 行 xíng, 往 wǎng)

巾 = cloth (e.g. 布 bù, 带 dài)

马 = horse (e.g. 骑 qí)