Types of Chinese Characters
Characters from LCWW1 and 2
In LCWW1 you learnt 35 strokes, only two (一、乙) of these single strokes are characters. In LCWW2, you learnt 240 qTRAILS Alphabets organised according to the 32 Stroke Patterns. Some of these alphabets are also characters themselves which means they are meaningful and can be used to form vocabularies. Do the revision activities on pages 21-23 to find out which qTRAILS these characters belong to.
Part Order of Intersecting Parts (Type 4)
Characters with parts that are Crossed (i.e. overlapping one another) may confuse some beginners as the strokes look tangled. Some common patterns are observable.These characters are presented systematically to help you see patterns within them and separate the parts at one glance.
Unique Part Order (Type 5)
Each character is written in a sequence that is different from the standard part order. Characters with unique part sequence violate the standard rules and have to be remembered individually. These are rare and few.
Simple to Complex (Type 6)
What about characters with complex structures?
These characters can be formed by characters with simpler structures. They will look easy to you as you will be able to identify patterns within them using the knowledge you learnt in LCWW1, 2 and 3.
Characters from LCWW3
In LCWW3, you will learn more characters formed according to the 7 Part Order Rules (7POR), the standard part order that can be used to form most of the Chinese characters. There are some exceptions that have Intersecting Parts or Unique Part Order (UPO).
7 Part Order Rules (Type 3)
Most characters follow the standard structures in their formations and can be summarised into 7 Part Order Rules (7POR). The components in these characters are Apart or Bonded to one another. A minority of these characters have parts that Crossed one another. (recall the ‘Triple ABCs Concept’ in LCWW1).
