|
The most popular chinese characters flash cards |
|
|
|
|
||
|
|
|
|
Writing chinese characters
The seven basic strokes
Chinese characters are written with the following seven basic strokes:
- the dot
, for instance: 
- the dash
, for instance: 
, - the down stroke or vertical stroke
, for instance: 
, - the left Falling Stroke
, for instance: 
- the right falling Stroke
for instance: 
, - the hook
, for instance: 
, - the right Up stroke or rising stroke
,for instance: 
Aesthetics and Proportions
When writing a character, the following rules should be respected :
- each character should be written in the centre of an invisible square,
- characters should be uniformly written with equal spacing between each,
- each component of a character should be connected to the whole.
Stroke Order
Writing characters in the correct order is essential for the character to look correct. Nine basic rules are followed:
Rule 1: Top before bottom
Rule 2: Left before right
Rule 3: Outside to inside
Rule 4: Center stroke before wings
Rule 5: When two strokes cross, horizontal stroke before vertical stroke
Rule 6: Left vertical stroke before top horizontal stroke
Rule 7: Left-falling strokes before right-falling strokes
Rule 8: Bottom horizontal stroke last
Rule 9: dot strokes last
Component Order
Most Chinese characters are composed of two or more component characters. Like for the strokes, when writing a character composed of more than one component, the following three rules should be respected:
Rule 1: each component is written in its entirety before another component is written
Rule 2: Top component before bottom component
Rule 3: Left component before right component
