Hello!
So let’s say I encounter a Hanzi (hope I got the name right) that I have not seen before, nor know the meaning of or how it’s pronounced or written in Pinyin (also not a 100% sure about these).
Assume I can not just use the internet. In English I would open the dictionary and look for the meaning of the world by alphabetical order.
How would I find it in a Mandarin dictionary? I assume I won’t have to look through the entire dictionary trying to find the matching symbol.
Thanks in advance!
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Usually a mandarin dictionary have two indexes: one for Pinyin and one for radicals, also known as indexing components.
Pinyin is straight forward. Radicals are a components of characters, and they are organized by the number of strokes. Characters with no radicals take their first stroke as radical. The characters themselves are then grouped by their total number of strokes.
As an example, if you want tot find 你 (Ni as in Ni Hao), you first identify 亻as the radical, so in index you go to all radicals with 2 strokes, find 亻, then find 你 under characters with 7 strokes.
Side notes: sometimes after the number of strokes, the radicals and characters are then organized by the rank of strokes (i.e. the order five basic strokes . – | / then special strokes), and finally the order which you write the strokes, though this is not always the case in modern dictionaries.
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