The Higher characters

1. Know what the Higher characters add

   Higher papers use the Higher words, and with them more characters. Many are built from parts you already know: 运动员yùndòngyuán is 运动yùndòng (sport) with 员yuán (a person with a role), and 邻居línjū and 环境huánjìng are new pairs that come up in the themes. Reading them quickly matters, because Higher texts are longer.

2. Use more radicals to work out a meaning

   The speech radical on the left of 说shuō, 话huà, 语yǔ, 请qǐng and 谢xiè tells you a character is about words. The heart, sometimes squeezed to a narrow form on the left, marks feelings and thinking: 想xiǎng, 忙máng, 您nín. The metal radical is in 钱qián, 银行yínháng and 钟zhōng, and the food radical is in 饭fàn, 饿è and 饺子jiǎozi.

3. Read the word endings 儿 and 者zhě

   儿 after a syllable adds an r sound rather than a new syllable: 哪儿nǎr is nǎr and 一点儿yīdiǎnr is yīdiǎnr. You hear it most in northern speech. 者zhě at the end of a word means a person who does something: 记者jìzhě (journalist), 志愿者zhìyuànzhě (volunteer).

4. Read the characters that have two pronunciations

   Some characters are said differently in different words. 觉 is jué in 觉得juéde but jiào in 睡觉shuìjiào, and 乐 is lè in 快乐kuàilè but yuè in 音乐yīnyuè. 行 is xíng in 行李xíngli but háng in 银行yínháng, and 还 is hái (still) but huán (give back). Learn the pronunciation with the word, never the character on its own.

5. Break long words into parts you know

   Higher words are often three or four characters long, and nearly always made of words you know. 动物园dòngwùyuán is 动物dòngwù (animals) and 园yuán (garden): a zoo. 公共汽车gōnggòng qìchē is a public car, a bus, and 飞机场fēijīchǎng is a field for planes. Look for the last character, which often tells you what kind of thing it is.

6. Learn the characters that end the names of places

   馆guǎn is a building for a purpose: 图书馆túshūguǎn, 博物馆bówùguǎn, 体育馆tǐyùguǎn. 店diàn is a shop or a place to stay (商店shāngdiàn, 酒店jiǔdiàn), 院yuàn a large building (医院yīyuàn, 电影院diànyǐngyuàn) and 站zhàn a stop or station (车站chēzhàn, 火车站huǒchēzhàn). 场chǎng is an open space: 停车场tíngchēchǎng, 广场guǎngchǎng.

7. Tell apart characters that sound alike

   Characters with the same sound are easy to swap in writing. 做zuò is to do or make (做饭zuòfàn), and 作zuò is in 工作gōngzuò and 作业zuòyè, so homework is 做zuò作业zuòyè. 他tā is he, 她tā she and 它tā it, all said tā. Learn each one in a word or two, so the word tells you which to write.

8. Work out an unfamiliar character in a reading text

   Higher texts can include a character you have never met. Use the radical for the kind of meaning, the sound part for a hint of the sound, and the rest of the sentence for the rest. Then read on: often the next sentence makes the meaning clear, and one unknown character rarely decides an answer.

Radical

The meaning part of a character, such as the speech radical in 说shuō and 语yǔ or the metal radical in 钱qián.

Sound part

The part of a character that hints at its sound, such as the 青qīng in 请qǐng. It is a clue, not a rule.

儿 ending

An 儿 that adds an r sound to the syllable before it, as in 哪儿nǎr (nǎr), without adding a syllable.

者zhě

A word ending that means a person who does something, as in 记者jìzhě (journalist).

Two pronunciations

A character said differently in different words, such as 觉 in 觉得juéde (jué) and 睡觉shuìjiào (jiào).

Homophone

A word or character that sounds the same as another but means something different, such as 他tā and 她tā.

Compound word

A word built from smaller words, such as 动物园dòngwùyuán from 动物dòngwù and 园yuán. The last part often names the kind of thing.

Context

The words around an unknown character, which often show what it must mean.

• Writing 作zuò in place of 做zuò, or the other way round, as in 作zuò饭fàn.

  做zuò is the verb to do or make: 做饭zuòfàn, 做zuò运动yùndòng. 作zuò is part of words like 工作gōngzuò and 作业zuòyè, which is why homework is 做zuò作业zuòyè.

• Reading 觉 in 睡觉shuìjiào as jué, or 乐 in 音乐yīnyuè as lè.

  Learn the pronunciation with the word: shuìjiào but juéde, yīnyuè but kuàilè.

• Saying 儿 as an extra syllable, so 哪儿nǎr becomes nǎ ér.

  儿 melts into the syllable before it as an r: nǎr, zhèr, yīdiǎnr.

• Writing 他tā for a girl or a woman.

  All three sound the same, but 她tā, with 女nǚ on the left, is she, 他tā is he and 它tā is it.

• Stopping at the first unknown character in a reading text.

  Guess from the radical and the sentence around it, then read on. One unknown character seldom decides the answer.

More Pinyin and characters topics

• Pinyin and tones
• The Foundation characters
• Word order
• Shì, yǒu and zài
• Measure words
• Numbers, dates and time

Keep reading

• What are the GCSE Chinese (Mandarin) grade boundaries?
• The GCSE Chinese (Mandarin) syllabus, explained