Character Decomposer
Decompose any character into its semantic and phonetic components. Each character carries structure — see how one 学 becomes ⺍ + 子.
Read a character the way the dictionary does.
Try: 明 / 学 / 校 / 妈 / 请 / 海 / 好
sun → brightness, time
moon → brightness, time
Tip: semantic components hint at meaning; phonetic components hint at how the syllable sounds (with ~70 % historical accuracy).
Most Chinese characters are composed of 2–3 components. Once you understand the common 200 components, recognising 5,000+ characters becomes much easier.
The two halves of a character are not always visible in print. Semantic components hint at meaning; phonetic components hint at the syllable that was used when the character was invented. Phonetic fidelity degrades over the two millennia of borrowed sound, but the semantic half is usually stable.
Literal meaning is only half the story. When your boss says 「这个事情你再想想」 — is it advice, or an order?
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