Do Chinese characters represent words or letters?
Chinese characters do not constitute an alphabet or a compact syllabary. Rather, the writing system is roughly logosyllabic; that is, a character generally represents one syllable of spoken Chinese and may be a word on its own or a part of a polysyllabic word.
What type of letters does Chinese use?
However, the standard Chinese writing system uses a non-alphabetic script with an alphabet for supplementary use. There is no original alphabet native to China. China has its Pinyin system though sometimes the term is used anyway to refer to logographic Chinese characters (sinograms).
Does the Chinese language have an alphabet?
The Chinese language doesn’t have a real alphabet. There are no letters that make up written words, only lines that together form a character, a sort of pictogram representing a word. So without letters, how can someone type words in Chinese?
What is the difference between Chinese characters and letters?
Chinese characters are not letters (with some exceptions), Chinese characters represent an idea, a concept or an object. While in the west each of the letters of our alphabet represents a sound that generally has no particular meaning.
What is a Chinese word?
Chinese is all about characters and we don’t put them together like we do with letters in our alphabets to make a word because these characters actually make up words themselves. Each character is one syllable. One character on its own can be a word, but many words are made up of two, three or even more characters put together.
What is a Chinese text like?
A Chinese text is like a grid of characters. Chinese kids, when they practice writing, use grid paper. They are instructed to pay careful attention to the proportions and position of the characters inside the virtual square. A character is not a random drawing.