Level 1 - Cantonese/English Bilingual Rhyming Story Books

天 (tin1)

This week’s character is 天 (tin1) which means “sky” or “heaven” (the translation I like the most is “celestial”). The origins of this character is quite interesting. Since it’s very difficult to depict the sky in a glyph, this character developed from the 大 (daai6/big) …

女 (neoi5)

This week’s character is 女 (neoi5) which means “female” in general terms, but can be used to mean “woman”, “girl” or “daughter” depending on context. The correct formal pronunciation is “neoi5” but in day to day conversation, you’ll probably hear people say “leoi5” due to …

先 (sin1)

This week’s character is 先 (sin1) which means “first”. The origins of the 先 (sin1) character is actually quite involved! The top part comes from 㞢, an ancient form of 之 (zi1). 之 (zi1) has many meanings, but one of them is “to go”, which …

父 (fu6)

This week’s character is 父 (fu6), the formal term of address for “father” in Cantonese. Together with the 母 (mou5) character, it forms the compound word 父母 (fu6 mou5), the formal term for “parents” in Cantonese. It originally began as a pictograph of a hand …

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 …

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 …