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How to Use this Dictionary

This is a basic Chinese dictionary whose target user is the English-speaking language learner. It aims to put in concise form the basic and most frequently-encountered Chinese words a new learner to Chinese or one who has a basic understanding of Chinese is likely to look up.

The dictionary is conveniently divided into a Chinese-English section, and an English-Chinese section. All headwords are set in color, making the location of words very easy. Parts of speeches are given in small capitals (eg. V, N, ADJ, etc). All Chinese words are Simplified characters and they are accompanied by pinyin spellings, English translations for each word or phrase that are the nearest equivalent of the Chinese words.

For the Chinese-English section, words beginning with the same character are grouped together, and these follow alphabetically and according to the tonal structures – ie first tone, then second tone, and so on. For example:

kāi 开

kāicǎi 开采

kāichú 开除

kāidāo 开刀

kāifā 开发

kāifàng 开放

...

The same Chinese character with two or more different meanings will be considered as separate entries:

jiǎo 角¹ N corner

jiǎo 角² M. WD (Chinese currency)...

However, if the Chinese character has two different sounds, then each sound is treated as a distinct entry:

fēn 分 I V 1 divide 2 distribute 3 distinguish

fèn 分 N 1 component 2 limit

For Chinese words that have more than one word class, the differences in classes will be numbered separately, for example:

kùn 困 I V be stranded, be in a tough spot II ADJ sleepy

The List of Radicals (p ix) lists the radicals according to the number of strokes for each, and the number assigned to each radical. Use the radical number to look up the Radical Index (pp x–xxii). All characters under the same radical will be arranged according to the number of word strokes. Use the pinyin to locate the correct character in the dictionary.

List of Abbreviations Used

ADJ adjective

ADV adverb

CONJ conjunction

INTERJ interjection

M.WD measure word

MODAL V modal verb

N noun

NUM numeral

PT past tense

PP past participle

PREP preposition

PRON pronoun

V verb