汉字
hànzì
汉字 (hànzì) is the Chinese term for Chinese characters.
汉字 refers to the logographic writing system used in the Chinese language.
What does it mean word for word?
The term is composed of 汉 (hàn), which refers to the Han people or the Chinese language and 字 (zì), meaning character or word.
Which one should you use?
While 汉字 (hànzì) refers specifically to the characters themselves, 汉语 (hànyǔ) refers to the spoken Chinese language. There are also two different written styles: 繁体字 (fántǐzì) refers to Traditional Chinese characters, and 简体字 (jiǎntǐzì) refers to Simplified Chinese characters.
How do you pronounce it?
hànzì
Did you know?
- Many 汉字 are 'phono-semantic compounds', where one part of the character suggests the meaning and another part suggests the pronunciation.
- The word 字 (zì) is also used in the historical practice of 'naming' oneself, where a scholar would choose a 'courtesy name' to be used instead of their given name.
- Because 汉字 are not alphabetic, the same written characters can be read differently in Mandarin, Cantonese and other Chinese dialects, though the meaning remains the same.
Examples in context
- 汉字有多少个？How many Chinese characters are there?This sentence is useful for asking about the total number of 汉字.Tatoeba #10961163 by xjjAstrus, translation #10115637 by CK
- 你会写多少汉字？How many Chinese characters can you write?This sentence is useful for asking how many 汉字 someone can write.Tatoeba #10966804 by xjjAstrus, translation #7772319 by sharris123
- 我汉字写得很慢。I write Chinese characters very slowly.This sentence is useful for describing the speed at which someone writes 汉字.Tatoeba #3699589 by katshi94, translation #3699593 by katshi94
- 4 more sentences on Tatoeba
Example conversation
Wei and Xiaowen are looking at a Chinese textbook in a cafe.
- 伟 Wei晓雯，这些汉字怎么读？Xiǎowén, zhèxiē Hànzì zěnme dú?Xiaowen, how do you read these chinese characters?
- 晓雯 Xiaowen这个汉字读作“书”。Zhège Hànzì dú zuò 'shū'.This chinese character is read as 'shū'.
- 伟 Wei原来如此，谢谢你。Yuánlái rúcǐ, xièxiè nǐ.I see, thank you.
- 晓雯 Xiaowen不客气，加油！Bù kèqì, jiāyóu!You're welcome, keep it up!
Sources
- Example sentences: Tatoeba CC BY 2.0 FR.
