Components making up Chinese characters: the phonetic component

The phonetic component is the part that gives the clue to the reading, hence the label "phonetic".

    A quick English equivalent would be the sound of each letter of the Latin/Roman alphabet, e.g.,

k/K sound, l/L sound, s/S sound

    The Latin alphabet in English can be equally dodgy as an indication to the pronunciation, e.g.,

c: cent (vs catch)

g: good (vs general)

    What's the point of knowing the pronunciation of the character?  It's quicker to look it up under its sound than the other way -- I shall cover this in another blog.

    The example I always use in introducing the phonetic component to Beginner level students is the series that uses the component 番 fān (first tone).  For the guide to the pronunciation, the tone isn't relevant, i.e., the other characters in the series using 番 may not all be in the same tone.

番: this is pronounced fan.

蕃: this character contains the phonetic 番, so the deduction would be the pronunciation should be fan (never mind which tone) --> yep, you're right.

翻: this character contains the phonetic 番, so the deduction would be fan (never mind which tone) --> yep, you're right.

潘: apply the rule from above, and you'd think this character should be pronounced fan --> nope, it's pan (a common surname).

播: first guess is fan --> nope; second guess is pan --> nope.  It's bo (pronounced more like bwo).

    As you can see from the above exercise, applying the "rule" can trip you up.  This is rather like irregular verbs in English not behaving like the rest, e.g., add -ed for past tense [cook, cooked; like, liked], which doesn't work for eat [not "eated"] nor drive [not "drived"].

    Still, it works for the majority of the series, which is helpful for cutting down the dictionary search.  Better than nothing.