Character

          Chinese characters are formed by combining different strokes (Stokes are the smallest units to make up Chinese characters). If you can master the basic forms of strokes, it will help you to write correct compound strokes or components. Common simple strokes include horizontal, vertical, dot, left-falling, right-falling, and rising strokes; compound strokes include horizontal-vertical hooks, vertical-bent hooks, and so on.
          Different strokes can form components, and different components can combine to form characters. Many characters are composed of different components (for example: the character "晴" is made up of the components "日" and "青"; the character "媽" is made up of the components "女" and "馬"). A component itself can be a character (for example: 日), but when it serves as a component in a compound character (for example: 青), its writing form will slightly change (the character becomes slightly narrower).
    Character structures include single-component characters, top-bottom structured characters, left-right structured characters, top-middle-bottom structured characters, left-middle-right structured characters, fully enclosed structured characters, semi-enclosed structured characters, and "品"-shaped structured characters. Learning character structures helps you to recognize character forms, thereby improving your ability to write and read Chinese characters.
          In addition, the radicals of Chinese characters provide important clues for recognizing and reading them. The radicals of commonly used words and phrases are mostly directly related to their meanings. For example, the radical "氵" in "海" (Sea) is usually on the left side of the character, indicating that "海" is related to water.