← How the World Writes · Lesson 4 of 4
Build a character
Many Chinese characters are built from smaller ones. 木 is a tree. Two trees, 林, are a wood; three, 森, are a forest. A reader who knows the parts can often guess a character they have never met.
Most characters combine a part that hints at the meaning with a part that hints at the sound. The meaning part tells you the topic — water, hand, speech — and the sound part tells you roughly how it is said.
OrthoForge lets a teenager build characters from parts. With a pencil, you can try it too: draw the parts, then put them together.
日 is the sun and 月 is the moon. The character 明 puts them side by side. What might it mean?
A lesson is kept once you've answered the question and written at least 8 words. Nobody grades it; it stays on this device.