Placing Chinese Characters In Your Electronic
Documents
20 minutes:
1. Structure of Chinese characters
2. Understand the different parts of the
Chinese/English dictionary
3. What are radicals and how to use them to
look up Chinese Characters in a
Chinese/English dictionary.
10 minutes
Break
20 minutes
4. Learn how to copy characters to
documents and to hyperlink these
Chinese characters to their definitions
and to the audio pronunciations in
Mandarin or Cantonese.
5. Why understanding pinyin and
simplified Chinese characters is
important
Optional
6. Questions you might have from last
month's workshop on how to create your
interactive family tree with PowerPoint
using hyperlinks.
Linking Chinese Characters to Chinese/English Dictionary - Steve Kwok April 26, 2014
My personal knowledge of Chinese characters and language
1. Speak some Cantonese
2. Don’t speak Mandarin or use pinyin
3. Can recognize some Traditional characters but not
Simplified characters
Use a dictionary to look up Chinese characters
List of dictionaries
www.mdbg.net
www.nciku.com
www.yellowbridge.com
Pleco apps for iOS and Android devices
There are several ways to look up characters
1. Using handwriting input
2. English
3. Copying a character from some other source
In either traditional or simplified Chinese
4. Enter pinyin
5. Enter jyutping
6. Use radicals
Characters have structure.
Linking Chinese Characters to Chinese/English Dictionary - Steve Kwok April 26, 2014
Radicals are part of that structure
See Radical Chart
Radical English
Radials can appear any where in the structure
Most dictionary use stroke counts. See Stroke Charts
Some use total stroke count
Majority use radical + remaining stroke count
The meaning may tell you what the radical might be
Look at this table of just 52 radicals
‎I use mdbg.net because it has everything that I need
Let‘s look at mdbg.net.
You should use what you are comfortable with
Lets start by picking a character:
陳麗 薇
Using mdbg.net: www.mdbg.net
Or look at the top 25 surnames in China (2007)
The radical for
陳is 阜or阝(on the left side)
This radical has 3 strokes
+ 8 remaining strokes for a total of 11
Select the Radical
阝
Linking Chinese Characters to Chinese/English Dictionary - Steve Kwok April 26, 2014
Select the radical, you will see a list of characters:
陳
Select the character, this is what you'll see:
Why do we care about Pinyin, simplified (or variant)?
Linking Chinese Characters to Chinese/English Dictionary - Steve Kwok April 26, 2014
If you want to put the character in an email, a Word or
PowerPoint document,
Go back to the list of characters select the character
Copy the character.
Then paste it to the document.
You can now change the font and font size
If you want to select multiple characters and link it to the
dictionary:
Select all the characters and paste it to the dictionary
Select the URL and hyperlink this to the characters
Linking Chinese Characters to Chinese/English Dictionary - Steve Kwok April 26, 2014
Strokes
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Radicals
一 丨 丶 丿 乙/乚 亅/了
二 亠 人/亻 儿 入 八 冂 冖 冫 几 凵 刀/
刂 力 勹 匕 匚 匸 十 卜 卩 厂 厶 又 讠
口 囗 土 士 夂 夊 夕 大 女 子/孑 宀 寸 小 尢 尸 屮 山 巛/
川 工 己/已/巳 巾 干 幺/乡 广 廴 廾 弋 弓 彐/彑 彡 彳 心/
忄 手/扌 水/氵/氺 犬/犭 艸/艹 辵/辶 邑/阝(on right side) 阜/阝
(on left side) 纟 门 飞 饣 马
心/忄 戈 戶/户 手/扌 支 攴/
攵 文 斗 斤 方 无 日 曰 月 木 欠 止 歹 殳 毋/
母 比 毛 氏 气 水/氵/氺 火/灬 爪/爫 父 爻 爿 片 牙 牛/牜 犬/
犭 玉/玊/王 示/礻 网/罒/罓 老/耂 艸/艹 辵/辶 见 贝 车 韦 风
毋/母 水/氵/氺 玄 玉/玊/王 瓜 瓦 甘 生 用 田/由/甲/
申 疋 疒 癶 白 皮 皿 目 矛 矢 石 示/礻 禸 禾 穴 立 网/罒/
罓 衣/衤 钅 长 鸟 龙
竹 米 糸/糹 缶 网/罒/罓 羊 羽 老/耂 而 耒 耳 聿 肉/
月 臣 自 至 臼 舌 舛 舟 艮 色 艸/艹 虍 虫 血 行 衣/衤 襾/西/
覀 页 齐
見 角 言/訁 谷 豆 豕 豸 貝 赤 走 足 身 車 辛 辰 辵/辶 邑/阝
(on right side) 酉 釆 里 卤 麦 龟
8
金/釒 長 門 阜/阝(on left side) 隶 隹 雨 青 非 鱼 黾 齿
9
面 革 韋 韭 音 頁 風 飛 食/飠 首 香
10
馬 骨 高 髟 鬥 鬯 鬲 鬼
11
魚 鳥 鹵 鹿 麥 麻 黄
12
黃 黍 黑 黹
13
黽 鼎 鼓 鼠
14
鼻 齊
15
齒
16
龍 龜
17
龠
Linking Chinese Characters to Chinese/English Dictionary - Steve Kwok April 26, 2014
Stroke
Name
Direction of
Writing
Name in
Chinese
Dot
dian
Horizontal
Line
heng
Vertical Line
shu
Down-Left
pie
Down-Right
na
Up-Right
ti
The “Meaning Radicals”
February 4, 2013 by djshin in CHINESE WRITING
Linking Chinese Characters to
Chinese/English Dictionary - Steve Kwok
April 26, 2014
Stroke
Name
Direction of
Writing
Hook
or
Vertical Stroke
with Hook
Horizontal
Stroke with
Hook
Bending
Stroke with
Hook
Slant Stroke
with Hook
Level Bending
Stroke with
Hook
The “Meaning Radicals”
February 4, 2013 by djshin in CHINESE WRITING
Name in
Chinese
gou
or
shugou
Variation of
shugou
hengou
Variation of
shugou
wangou
Variation of
shugou
xiegou
Variation of
shugou
pinggou
Linking Chinese Characters to
Chinese/English Dictionary Steve Kwok April 26, 2014
Stroke
Name
Direction of
Writing
Turn
Or
Horizontal
Stroke with
Vertical Turn
Stroke
Name in
Chinese
zhe
or
hengzhe
Vertical Stroke
with
Horizontal
Turn
Variation of
hengzhe
shuzhe
Name
Direction of
Writing
Name in
Chinese
Vertical Stroke
combined with
Level Bending
Stroke with
Hook
shuwangou
Down Stroke
to the Left
Combined
with Dot
piedian
Vertical Stroke
with Double
Turn and
Hook
shuzhezhegou
The “Meaning Radicals”
February 4, 2013 by djshin in CHINESE WRITING
Linking Chinese Characters to
Chinese/English Dictionary Steve Kwok April 26, 2014
Sometimes the radicals imply the meaning of the
character. Look at this table of just 52 radicals.
52 of the Radicals have meaning:
The “Meaning Radicals”
February 4, 2013 by djshin in CHINESE WRITING
Linking Chinese Characters to
Chinese/English Dictionary Steve Kwok April 26, 2014
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_common_Chinese_surnames
Rank
Character
2007
Radical
Trad.
1
玉玊王 + 0
2
木 + 3
3
弓 + 8
4
刀刂 + 13
5
阜阝 + 8
6
木 + 9
7
黃 + 0
8
走 + 7
9
口 + 4
10
口 + 5
11
彳 + 7
12
子孑 + 7
13
馬 + 0
14
木 + 2
15
肉月 + 5
16
邑阝 + 8
17
人亻 + 5
18
高 + 0
19
木 + 4
20
网罒罓 + 14
21
邑阝 + 12
22
木 + 7
23
言訁 + 10
24
宀 + 4
25
口 + 7
王
李
張
劉
陳
楊
黃
趙
吳
周
徐
孫
馬
朱
胡
郭
何
高
林
羅
鄭
梁
謝
宋
唐
Simp.
张
刘
陈
杨
黄
赵
吴
孙
马
罗
郑
谢
Romanizations
Mandarin
Cantonese
Pinyin
Jyutping
HK
Wáng
Wong4
Wong
Lǐ
Lei5
Lee Li
Zhāng
Zoeng1
Cheung
Liú
Lau4
Lau
Chén
Can4
Chan
Yáng
Joeng4
Yeung
Huáng
Wong4
Wong
Zhào
Ziu6
Chiu
Wú
Ng4
Ng
Zhōu
Zau1
Chow
Xú
Ceoi4
Tsui
Sūn
Syun1
Suen
Mǎ
Maa5
Ma
Zhū
Zyu1
Chu
Hú
Wu4
Wu
Guō
Gwok3
Kwok
Hé
Ho4
Ho
Gāo
Gou1
Ko
Lín
Lam4
Lam
Luó
Lo4
Lo
Zhèng
Zeng6
Cheng
Liáng
Loeng4
Leung
Xiè
Ze6
Tse
Sòng
Sung3
Sung
Táng
Tong4
Tong
Linking Chinese Characters to Chinese/English Dictionary - Steve Kwok April 26, 2014