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PART 3

Some Common Personal Names and Place Names

New Characters and Words

Study the six characters below and the common words written with them, paying careful attention to each character’s pronunciation, meaning, and structure, as well as similar-looking characters. After you’ve studied a character, turn to the Practice Essentials volume and practice writing it on the practice sheet, making sure to follow the correct stroke order and direction as you pronounce it out loud and think of its meaning.

13 大 dà big, large, great

大 is itself a radical. 大 is a picture of a person with the head, arms, and legs all outstretched to make her or him look as “big” as possible. 大 can also serve as a phonetic, e.g., 达 (達) dá “reach.” Contrast 大 and 六 liù (7).

大 dà big, large, great [SV]

14 山 shān mountain

山 is itself a radical. It is a picture of a mountain range, where the middle line represents the highest peak. 山 can itself serve as a phonetic in some rather rare characters such as 疝 shàn as in 疝气 (疝氣) shànqì “hernia.”

山 shān mountain [N]

15 明 míng bright

Radical is 日 rì “sun” [BF]. The colloquial name for this radical is 日字旁 rìzìpáng “side made up of the character 日.” The right-hand component is 月 yuè “moon” [BF]. Together, the “sun” and “moon” are very “bright.”

明 míng bright [BF]

16 北 bĕi north

Radical is 匕 bĭ “ladle” [BF].

17 京 jīng capital

Radical is 亠 tóu “head” [BF]. 京 itself can serve as a phonetic, e.g., 鲸 (鯨) jīng as in 鲸鱼 (鯨魚) jīngyú “whale” or 景 jĭng as in 风景 (風景) fēngjĭng “scenery.”

北京 Bĕijīng Beijing (lit. “northern capital”) [PW]

18 台 tái terrace; (abbreviation for Taiwan)

Radical is 口 kŏu “mouth.” This radical is referred to colloquially as 口字底 kŏuzìdĭ “bottom made up of the character 口.” In the traditional character system, there is a much more complex alternate form for 台 that is written 臺, which is sometimes still seen in formal titles like 臺灣銀行 Táiwān Yínháng “Bank of Taiwan” (in simplified characters this would be 台湾银行). However, even in the traditional character system, 台 is now much more common than 臺.

台北 Táibĕi Taipei (lit. “northern part of Taiwan”) [PW]

台山 Táishān Taishan, Toisan (county in Guangdong province from which many Chinese emigrated to the U.S.; was upgraded to a “county-level city” in 1992) [PW]

Reading Exercises (Simplified and Traditional Characters)

Now practice reading the new characters and words for this lesson in context. Be sure to refer to the Notes at the end of this lesson, and make use of the accompanying audio disc to hear and practice correct pronunciation, phrasing, and intonation.

A. PERSONAL NAMES

Read out loud the following Chinese personal names, each of which consists of a surname followed by a one- or two-syllable given name.

一、王大山

二、林京

三、王明山

四、林明明

五、王林

六、王明大

七、林台山

八、王明

九、王山明

十、林大明

B. PLACE NAMES

Read out loud each of the following place names.

一、台山

二、北京

三、台北

C. CHARACTER DIFFERENTIATION DRILLS

Distinguish carefully the following similar-looking characters, pronouncing each one out loud and thinking of its meaning.

一、六 六 六 大 大 大

二、大 大 大 六 六 六

Notes

A4.	Reduplicated names like 明明 can be pronounced either with full tones on each syllable (Míngmíng), or with a neutral tone on the second syllable (Míngming), which is how the speaker in the audio recording pronounces it here.
A5.	Some characters can occur both as surnames and in given names. For example, the character 林 is a common surname but can also occur in a one or two-syllable given name.

Kiosk in Hong Kong selling telephone calling cards and other items