New releases - Cantonese/English Bilingual Rhyming Story Books

吃 (hek3)

This week’s character is 吃 (hek3) which means “eat”. This is the formal term, as usually we say 食 (sik6) in daily conversation. When you look at the two components of 吃 (hek3), you can see it is made up of 口 (hau2, meaning “mouth”) …

中 (zung1)

This week’s character is a simple but important one: 中 (zung1) which generally means centre but also has a lot of other meanings (including as a shorthand for China or Chinese). According to Uncle Hanzi, this character was originally a pictograph of a string heddle …

魚 (jyu4/jyu2)

This week’s character is 魚 (jyu2 when used as a single word, or jyu4 when used in a compound word) which means fish! It is one of my favorite easy characters to learn because its form is so close to the original pictogram of a …

奶 (naai5)

In celebration of World Breastfeeding Week, this week’s character is 奶 (naai5 / milk). The character 奶 has two components: the left half is the character 女 (neoi5 / female, a very important radical) and the right half of the character comes from the top …

月 (jyut6)

Our character for this week is 月 (jyut6)! Just like 日 (jat6), 月 (jyut6) refers both to the moon and a period of time: one month. That is because traditionally, Chinese people used a lunar calendar to measure time, rather than a solar calendar. We …

星 (sing1)

This week’s character is 星 (sing1) which means “star” but is also used to refer to the days of the week. For example, Monday is 星期一 (sing1 kei4 yat1). It’s made of up two characters that we learned earlier! The top part is the character …

火 (fo2)

This week’s character is 火 (fo2) which means fire. It comes from a pictogram depicting a burning fire! Many other characters for things to do with fire usually incorporate the 火 (fo2) character in its full form or in its radical form 灬 (fo2). Practice …

車 (ce1)

This week’s character is 車 (ce1) which means vehicle. This character has its origins in a glyph depicting a carriage as seen from above. The top and bottom horizontal strokes actually represent the two wheels on either side of the carriage, while the 田 (tin4) …

雪 (syut3)

This week’s character is 雪 (syut3) which means “snow” ❄️. With 11 brush strokes, this is one of the more complicated characters we have looked at so far. In its original form 䨮 it’s even more complicated, so no wonder that it was simplified in …

生 (saang1/sang1)

The character 生 originated from a pictogram of a plant sprouting from the ground. 生 (saang1/sang1) is pronounced differently, depending on context, as it is a special character with many meanings. While the two most common uses are birth/growth (saang1) and life (sang1), this character …