Good morning my friend. In this video we are going to talk about this character 有. It has the meaning like 'to have' or 'to exist'. I will show you how to write it first.
One of the old writing style looks like this. The top part refers to a right hand, and the bottom part refers to a big chunk of meat. For the ancient people, to have a big chunk of meat was a big deal. That showed they did HAVE a fortune.
The most frequent usage of 有 is that it works the same way as the English word 'to have'. Such as, I have many good books. 我有很多好书。我 I, 有 have, 很多 many, 好 good, 书 book.
Another frequent usage of 有is that it works like the 'there be' sentence in English.
For example, there are many good books in the library.
图书馆有很多好书。
图书馆 library, 有 there be or exist, 很多 many, 好书 good book.
That's all for today. I will see you soon. Thanks for watching.
Good morning my friend. In this video, we are going to talk
about this character 人.
It means human, person. First, let's see
how to write it.
The oldest writing of this character looks like this. I
think it looks like a person is bending down his body, and working in the
field.
The modern writing looks like a person is striding ahead
towards this direction. What do you think?
人also
works as a building block to construct more characters. Let's see this
character, 从. There are two 人, standing side by side. Or we can say one person is following another
one. This character means follow.
Now I am adding another person into this group, and we get
this character 众,
which means crowd. The idea behind the designing of new character based on
existing character is pretty straight here.
人
can be used by itself. But more often it is combined with other characters to
form words. Such as, 男人;
男,
male, 男人
male person, that is man; Another
example,女人,
女,
female; 女人
female person, that is woman;
大人; 大 , big, 大人big person, that is
adult. But in certain context, such as
in the historical play, you may hear the word大人, which is a title of respect toward
superiors, such as, lordship.
We just talked about the big person, 大人, what about the small
person？
Yes, that will be 小人. 小, little, small; 小人, little person.
Since 大人,
big person, means adult, does 小人, small person, means child? That may be correct. Its meaning really
depends on the context. If this word is
used to refer to another person, its meaning is negative. It means a base
person, a vile character. This meaning is still widely used nowadays. While in
some historical play, a person may use this word to refer to himself humbly.
That's all for today. Thanks for watching. I will see you
soon. :)
If you would like to learn how to sing a song and play a cup in a beautiful rhythm, two pretty girls will show you how to do it in the following video. Have fun!
Attention please! There is a minor mistake I made in this video. The original writing of character 不 refers to a calyx, not a sepal, as sepal is each leave part of a calyx.
Video script:
Hello everyone. Today I am going to tell you some story
about this character to help you get better understanding of it, and hence
remember it in a more meaningful way. This character sounds bu4, means not or
no. First, let me show you how to write it.
The most important usage of 不 maybe is used in a negative
sentence. Such as, let's see two sentences examples. 我是医生。It means 'I am a doctor.' That's a positive sentence. 我不是医生。We add
a 不
in front of the character 是,
to be , this character. I am not a
doctor.
One of the oldest writing of 不 looks like this. What does
it look like? Maybe you have your own answer. But some linguists think it
represent the sepal. What is a sepal? Let's see a picture. Here I drew a
flower. And we see the flower's petal. And this part will be the sepal. So the
sepal works as a wonderful container. It supports and protects the beautiful
flower.
I think this explains why this character 杯 means cup. Now I separate
the two parts. We see the left part as character 木, means wood. The right part, we know the 不
character, has the meaning like
'container' , a beautiful container. So, maybe the first Chinese cup was made
of wood.
Character杯
finds many different characters as friends to form words. For example, 茶杯 means
tea cup; 酒杯means wine cup; 奖杯 means trophy cup.
杯
also works as measure word. For example, 一杯茶 , a cup of tea; 一杯酒, a cup of wine.
Next time when you go to a Chinese tea house 茶馆. You
can use this phrase to order a cup of tea:
请来一杯茶。
A cup of tea, please!
Or wait, maybe a cup of tea is not enough. I always order a pot
of tea.
请来一壶茶。
A pot of tea, please!
That's all for today. I will see you soon. Thanks for
watching. :)
