Mandarin Chinese, with nearly 1 billion native speakers, is the world's most spoken language and is tonal, meaning words can change meaning based on pronunciation. Although there are over 80,000 characters, understanding basic literacy requires knowledge of just 1,000 characters. Chinese characters often visually represent the meaning of the word, allowing for creativity in forming new words.

1. FUN FACTS ABOUT THE
CHINESE LANGUAGE
There are almost 1 billion native
Chinese speakers making it the most
spoken language in the world.
Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language.
The word 'ma' has 4 different pronunciations
& meanings.
The Chinese language counts
over 80,000 characters, but only
1/4 of these are used.
With 1,000 characters you can
understand basic Chinese literacy
200 characters constitute 40% of
basic Chinese language
(signs, news...)
One character represents one word and by combining 8 of these characters,
you can form up to 32 words!
The shape of Chinese characters is inspired by the physical
appearance and meaning of the word.
穴
mā(媽)
mother
mā(馬)
horse
Fire + Mountain = VolcanoTree Woods
(2 trees)
Forest
(3 trees)
Crowd
(3 persons)
Follow
(2 persons)
Person
mā(罵)
scold
má(麻)
hemp
人 木 林 森 火 + 山 = 火山从
: Umbrella : Cave
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