汉字
The English phrase "characters" can be translated into Chinese as 汉字.
汉字 is the term used to refer to Chinese characters.
What does it mean word for word?
Literally, 汉字 means "Han characters", which refers to the writing system of the Han people.
Which one should you use?
While 汉字 refers specifically to the written characters, the term 字符 is used for "characters" in a technical computing or digital context, such as ASCII characters.
Did you know?
- Because 汉字 can be understood regardless of how they are pronounced, people speaking different Chinese dialects can often read the same text even if they cannot speak to each other.
- Ancient Chinese used a system called 'oracle bone script' where 汉字 were carved into turtle shells and animal bones for divination.
- There is a unique category of 汉字 called 'ideograms' that represent abstract ideas. For instance, the character for 'rest' 休 depicts a 'person' 人 leaning against a 'tree' 木.
Examples in context
- 汉字有多少个？How many Chinese characters are there?Tatoeba #10961163 by xjjAstrus, translation #10115637 by CK
- 你会写多少汉字？How many Chinese characters can you write?Tatoeba #10966804 by xjjAstrus, translation #7772319 by sharris123
- 我汉字写得很慢。I write Chinese characters very slowly.Tatoeba #3699589 by katshi94, translation #3699593 by katshi94
- 你认识这个汉字吗？Do you recognize this Chinese character?
- 请写下这个中文字的拼音。Please write down the Pinyin of this Chinese character.
- 这个字怎么读？How do you pronounce this character?
- 昨天学了五个文字。I learned five characters yesterday.
- 4 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
浩然 is teaching 雨婷 how to write Chinese characters.
- 雨婷 Yuting这些汉字怎么写？Zhèxiē Hànzì zěnme xiě?How do I write these characters?
- 浩然 Haoran这个汉字很难写。Zhège Hànzì hěn nán xiě.This character is hard to write.
- 雨婷 Yuting我能写好汉字吗？Wǒ néng xiě hǎo Hànzì ma?Can I write characters well?
- 浩然 Haoran雨婷，你会写好的。Yǔtíng, nǐ huì xiě hǎo de.Yuting, you will write them well.
Sources
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
