Characters 1

你 nǐ : you

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Graphic components: 亻 human; 冖 roof; 小 small.
Etymology : The ancient character for the pronoun “you” is 尔 ěr, a simplification of 爾, which represented a frame for drying threads. This character was borrowed to denote the personal pronoun “you”. In modern Chinese, the human component 亻 was added to it to form 你.

好 hǎo : to be good, to be well
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Graphic components: 女 woman; 子 child.
Etymology : 好 hǎo is an ideogram made up of the woman and the child. It originally meant “to have a beautiful appearance”. Later its meaning broadened to “beautiful and good”, then “good”.

吗 ma : final interrogative particle

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Graphic components: 口 mouth; 马 horse.
Etymology : 吗 ma is a phono-semantic compound. It is made up of 口 (the mouth), which indicates the act of opening one’s mouth to speak or ask a question, and of 马 mǎ (the horse), which indicates the pronunciation of the character.

我 wǒ : I, me

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Graphic components: 扌 hand; 戈 halberd.
Etymology : 我 wǒ is a pictogram that represented an ancient weapon with a long handle and a three-pronged blade. It was later borrowed phonetically to denote the personal pronoun “I”.

很 hěn : very
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Graphic components: 彳 path / a step with the left foot; 艮 phonetic element gèn (characters formed with this component end in “en”).
Etymology : 很 hěn is a phono-semantic compound made up of the path 彳 and the phonetic element 艮 gèn. 艮 was an ideogram meaning “to look with anger” (you can recognize the eye 目 and a person 人). 很 originally meant “to go against”, “to disobey”, then took on the meaning of “to a high degree, strongly, very”.

也 yě : also, too

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Graphic components: As a component, 也 represents the viper or the vase.
Etymology : 也 yě is a borrowing from a pictogram that originally represented a snake. The character for the vase was very similar and became confused with it. It was borrowed phonetically to mean “also, too”.

不 bù : negation, not
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Graphic components: 不 is made up of four basic strokes (horizontal, left-falling, vertical, right-falling). 不 is not in the list of the 214 radicals, but it is a basic graphic element.
Etymology : 不 bù is a pictogram that represented the receptacle of a flower. It was later borrowed phonetically to denote negation.

客 kè : (host, guest); not used on its own
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Graphic components: 宀 roof; 夂 to go; 口 mouth.
Etymology : 客 kè is a phono-semantic compound made up of the roof 宀, under which our guests come, and the character 各 gè (each), which provides the sound cue.

气 qì : (breath); not used on its own. It loses its tone in the word kèqi “to be polite”.
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Graphic components: 气 is a graphic component.
Etymology : 气 is a pictogram that represented wisps of mist. Surprisingly, the simplified character revives the oldest form. Later, the rice component 米 was added to it to form the traditional 氣. The 气 is the famous QI (formerly written CHI), the energy that martial-arts practitioners cultivate and that acupuncture needles disperse or tonify.

再 zài : again, re-
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Graphic components: 一 one; 冉 drooping hairs.
Etymology : 再 zài was originally an ideogram made up of the number 2 二 and the fish 魚. It first meant “two fish”, then its meaning broadened to “two”, then “a second time / again”.

见 jiàn : to see, to catch sight of
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Graphic components: 见 is a graphic component.
Etymology : 见 jiàn is the simplification of the traditional character 見. It is an ideogram made up of the eye 目 and a human 人. It meant and still means “to see, to catch sight of”.

谢 xiè : (thank you)
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Graphic components: 讠 speech; 身 the body; 寸 the thumb.
Etymology : 谢 xiè is an ideogram. The old traditional character represented an object handed over with both hands. Even today, in China it is more polite to give things with both hands. The stylization of the character led to the evolution into the three graphic components we see here.