Using Mnemonics to Learn and Remember Multi-Character Words

My recent posts have focused on using mnemonics to help learn and remember characters and the components used to construct them. Mnemonics can also play a role up one level, in learning multi-character words. A significant fraction of Chinese words are composed of two or more characters. In some cases, the meaning of a word is closely related to the characters used to construct it, and therefore easy to remember. In other cases, the relationship is not so clear.

I have found there are four general classes of words in this respect. From easiest to most difficult they are:

1. Literals
2. Doubles
3. Literal + Other
4. Non-Literals

These are my own, layman’s classifications of how these words appear to me as a language learner; they are not based on the actual etymology of the words.

Literals

Most relatively new words to the language seem to have a fairly clean, literal, and intuitive association with the characters used to construct them. The names for electrically powered devices, for example, typically are easy to break-down and remember according to their functional nature. Most begin with the character 电 (diàn) = electric, and the literal translation often is somewhat entertaining. Some of my favorites include:

• 电脑 (diànnǎo) = Electric + Brain = Computer
• 电梯 (diàntī) = Electric + Ladder = Elevator

The literal translation makes these words seem as if they are from a decades old science fiction book. These words were easy to learn, and I’m sure I will never forget them.

Some other words are less functionally “correct” in terms of literal translation, but still provide very strong visual images, and therefore also are easy to learn and remember (once their root characters have been salted into memory). A great example is popcorn:

• 爆米花 (bàomǐhuā) = Explode + Rice + Flower = Popcorn

“Exploding Rice Flower!” How perfect of an image is that?

Some more conceptual words also fall into this class. An example is:

• 开心 (kāixīn) = Open + Heart = Happy

Little effort is required to develop a mnemonic story for remembering this word.

Doubles

Some words are made up of two characters that have a similar meaning to the word they form. The most straightforward are those in which a character is doubled. For example:

• 看看 (kànkàn) = See + See = To examine

More frequently, a word may consist of two different characters that both have a similar meaning to the word they form:

• 告诉 (gàosù) = Tell + Inform = To tell, to inform
• 休息 (xiūxi) = Rest + Rest = Rest

These types of words are fairly easy to learn and remember once the underlying characters have been absorbed into memory.

Literal + Other

Some words have a similar meaning to one of their characters, but not the other. I would guess these combinations had a more literal, intuitive relationship at some point in the distant past, but have since evolved over time. An example is:

• 如果 (rúguǒ) = If + Fruit = If

I’m not sure how the fruit got in there.

Non-Literals

Most words have a less visibly literal relationship with the characters they are made from, probably due to evolution over time. They vary in how easy they are to develop mnemonics for. An example of an easy one is:

• 拿手 (náshǒu) = Hold + Hand = Expert

Of course an expert can help by offering to hold hands through the process.

If you are an entrepreneur and one of your life focuses is a business idea, then here is another easy one:

• 生意 (shēngyi) = Life + Idea = Business

And, if you are a journalist, then when a big news event occurs, your rest probably vanishes:

• 消息 (xiāoxi) = Vanish + Rest = News

But, most words are more difficult than this. They require more effort to build a story for, and therefore generally are more difficult to remember. A couple arbitrary examples:

• 从来 (cónglái) = From + Come = Always
• 照顾 (zhàogu) = Shine + Look Back = To take care of