Learning Chinese R/W way - Lesson 5

In this lesson, let's learn some descriptions about weather and see how the "radicals" are used in constructing a Chinese character.

We have learnt that to express the day of a month, we can use 日. In fact, 日 means "Sun" and 月 means "Moon". So when you see "Sun", it is a day. When you see one cycle of the change of moon, it is 28 days - close enough to equal that to "month".

Let see some Chinese words with 日 in them:
明 (Sun and Moon together) means "Bright".
A sunny day, we say "晴天"
Morning is 早晨 (which is also the greeting in the morning, equivalent to "Good Morning"). These two words both have 日 at the top.

Now let's move on to another radical.
雨 is rain as in 雨天 (rainy day). When used as a radical, it is always on top.
雪 is snow. 雹 is hail. 霧 is fog.
雷 is thunder, 雷電 is lightning and thunder. (電 is electricity by itself.)


In this lesson, we have learnt these words:
明晴 早晨 雨雪雹霧 雷電
and see how 日and 雨 are used as radicals.

There is another new word which I have not explain what it means 天. Can you guess what it means? Answer in next lesson.