Main Character Energy

It's often said that Chinese has a lot of homophones, which is partially true. Sound changes since Middle Chinese have greatly reduced the number of distinct syllables in modern Mandarin. Furthermore, for learners who are not yet comfortable with tones, words that differ only by tone can reinforce the impression that Mandarin is full of homophones.

In practice, however, most Chinese words are composed of two characters (many of which would have been independent words in Middle Chinese), as a natural shift in response to the ambiguity created by homophones. The result is that each of these characters is essentially a word root.

In my experience with studying Chinese, I found that the bigger challenge wasn't homophones, it was remembering the many word roots. As I listened to Chinese, I would hear a word that began with a familiar syllable, and knowing the meaning of that syllable would help with understanding the word. For example, there are a whole host of words beginning with 古 (gǔ), all relating to something ancient or classical. Encountering new words, I found myself trying to recall the most common meaning associated with each syllable.

To help myself build those associations, I created this table.