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[FrenchVanillaNYC]

If it looks like jian4 見 then it must be bei4 貝, which means "shell/ something worth money". The common radical is 目 mu4 (eye).
貝 bei4 does not have a person radical (it has an eight 八 radical for tails), but 見 does have a person 儿 radical although not "ren2" 人.

見 jian4 means "to see".

This post has been edited by FrenchVanillaNYC: Sep 21 2005, 09:16 PM

[Eclectic Asian]

If it looks like jian4 見 then it must be bei4 貝, which means "shell/ something worth money". The common radical is 目 mu4 (eye).
貝 bei4 does not have a person radical (it has an eight 八 radical for tails), but 見 does have a person 儿 radical although not "ren2" 人.

見 jian4 means "to see".

are those traditional? because for some reason the ones i learned looked different. the one i'm talking about is the second jian4 on Dr. Xie's website. the bei4 i need looks almost like it but with a ren2 instead

for some reason it's hard to differentiate between bu4, da4, lin2, mu4, and huo3 because they all look the same. also li4 and dao1. omg!!

EDIT: oh wait, i just found out the meaning of bei4. it's "shell" right? but i still can't find the definition for jian4

This post has been edited by Eclectic Asian: Sep 21 2005, 09:29 PM

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

Yes those are traditional, the simplified looks like 见 and 贝. There you go.

I guess I'll put the simplified from now on for you.

You can't tell bu from all of those? 不 bu4 meaning no?

Here, I'll do a brief explanation just for you to remember.
不 bu4 (no) = A bird flying straight toward the sky (see the wings?)

大 da4 (big) = A person stretching their arms out to show you how big it is. (see?) And bu4 has a big cap on it (the sky), da does not.

木 mu4 (wood/tree) = A trunk with roots branches. The difference between 大 and 木 is that 大 is a person with two legs, 木 has three things at the bottom because they are roots.

林 lin2 (forest) = Two trees 木木. (My bf's surname )

火 huo3 (fire) = two dots represent a spark with a character that looks like ren2 人, only it represents a flame. The difference between 火 and 大 or 木 is that 火 has dots, not lines, and they don't connect.


Did that help any?
Can you tell 水 apart from them?

Edit: Bei4 is shell. Jian4 is to see.

This post has been edited by FrenchVanillaNYC: Sep 21 2005, 09:35 PM

[Eclectic Asian]

I guess I'll put the simplified from now on for you.

haha damn i feel so dumb now because i'm learning simplified.....i guess my teacher is not from taiwan

yea all those characters almost look the same to me lol. i guess i need to look a little more carefully and drill more haha.

it's frustrating how my teacher is introducing new characters but not giving the pinyin with them. so i need one more thing for tonight (maybe? lol)

there's this sentence which says ...."xie4xie, _ jian4"

i have the character for "_" but i don't have the pinyin. but it sounds like "sigh" to me or something like that. so confused. (X_x);;

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

^The characters I gave you are the same in simplified or traditional (I forgot to say that before, sorry )

The sentence "Xie4xie, __ jian4" is "Xie4xie, zai4 jian4" (谢谢, 再见) which means "Thank you, goodbye".

[Eclectic Asian]

damn, you rock French! now pin this thread so i don't have to dig it up again



This post has been edited by Eclectic Asian: Sep 21 2005, 09:48 PM

[Jasel]

How would you say "I was given (something)" ?

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

(blank) shi4 gei2 wo3 de.

[Jasel]

ahh ok that makes sense. thanks.

[Lee! OTL ...]

Hello quick question, what does "wo cao" mean? I know it's a bad word but I wanna know the literal translation, thanks <3

[Jasel]

Just to put this in. Don't post unless you have a question regarding Chinese or would like to clarify or add on to something so we don't wind up with 7 pages of people just talking. This will make it easier to keep things as organized as we can. Thanks.

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

Hello quick question, what does "wo cao" mean? I know it's a bad word but I wanna know the literal translation, thanks <3

It seems like someone is saying "I f***"

*Also to add onto what Jasel said, I plan on editing previous posts and posting grammar/Chinese there so that I don't have to make extra posts and so that the important posts are right together.

I still have to finish the first grammar post.

This post has been edited by FrenchVanillaNYC: Sep 23 2005, 05:45 PM

[Lee! OTL ...]

I fork? hhmmm that doesn't sound correct, angry counter-strike players >=|

[Eclectic Asian]

i have a question about "arrow" and "stone". they are both shi3 right? but they are written differently. but how can you differentiate in conversation. is it just by context? i mean you wouldn't say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.....arrow!!

[Jasel]

I know that arrow is shi3 / 失. Although in context I wouldn't be able to tell you much.

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

i have a question about "arrow" and "stone". they are both shi3 right? but they are written differently. but how can you differentiate in conversation. is it just by context? i mean you wouldn't say 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.....arrow!!

Stone is shi2 and arrow is shi3, but usually you can tell the context and they're not really used alone, like shi2 石 can be in 石头 (rock) or yan2 shi2 岩石 (rock), and 矢 I don't hear much orally, instead there's 箭头 (jian1 tou2) for arrow if you want to be more clear.

Jasel: that's a shi1 and it's "lose". It's 矢 's little brother.

This post has been edited by FrenchVanillaNYC: Sep 27 2005, 07:49 PM

[Eclectic Asian]

thanks for the clarification. also, i don't wanna practice the wrong stroke orders but i've seen "moon" written different ways. when i mean different, i mean different stroke order (they look the same). what's the correct way? the way i've been doing it is the right, then the 2 lines in the middle, and the downward stroke on the left.

other ways i've seen it are the left downward stroke first, then the right one, and then the 2 lines inside.

omg i'm so confused

EDIT:
oh crap, wait french, i meant stone and ten (as in the number). they are both shi2 or something? omg, i'm so confused lol.

This post has been edited by Eclectic Asian: Sep 27 2005, 08:30 PM

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

thanks for the clarification. also, i don't wanna practice the wrong stroke orders but i've seen "moon" written different ways. when i mean different, i mean different stroke order (they look the same). what's the correct way? the way i've been doing it is the right, then the 2 lines in the middle, and the downward stroke on the left.

other ways i've seen it are the left downward stroke first, then the right one, and then the 2 lines inside.

omg i'm so confused

EDIT:
oh crap, wait french, i meant stone and ten (as in the number). they are both shi2 or something? omg, i'm so confused lol.

Ohhh I see, stone and ten. Well you can definitely tell by the context. If someone says I have "shi" (ge) children, you're not going to mishear it as "I have stone children". If you hear "Somebody hit me in the head with a "shi" (tou)!", you're not going to mishear that is "Somebody hit me in the head with a ten!"

As for moon, I do the left stroke first, then right, then the middle lines.

This post has been edited by FrenchVanillaNYC: Sep 27 2005, 08:35 PM

[Eclectic Asian]

thanks for the clarification. also, i don't wanna practice the wrong stroke orders but i've seen "moon" written different ways. when i mean different, i mean different stroke order (they look the same). what's the correct way? the way i've been doing it is the right, then the 2 lines in the middle, and the downward stroke on the left.

other ways i've seen it are the left downward stroke first, then the right one, and then the 2 lines inside.

omg i'm so confused

EDIT:
oh crap, wait french, i meant stone and ten (as in the number). they are both shi2 or something? omg, i'm so confused lol.

Ohhh I see, stone and ten. Well you can definitely tell by the context. If someone says I have "shi" (ge) children, you're not going to mishear it as "I have stone children". If you hear "Somebody hit me in the head with a "shi" (tou)!", you're not going to mishear that is "Somebody hit me in the head with a ten!"

As for moon, I do the left stroke first, then right, then the middle lines.

as for na2 and na3 (that and which), are those moons in it? or something else? and are they written the same way like moon in terms of stroke order?

[FrenchVanillaNYC]

Actually no. I used to think they were moons too, but they're really 冉 (ran3) transformed.

And no, you don't write "na" like moon. The way you write "na" is about how you're writing moon now, you write the right then the strokes then left last (at least that's how I have been doing it).