Lesson 04 Right angle ㄇ and 口 Square

Lesson 04 Right angle ㄇ and 口 Square

This lesson we will learn how to write the Chinese symbol 口, the mouth, a square shape. I am not talking about the traditional calligraphic way, that kind of ancient art needs some styles and skills with the using of brush pen and black ink. We are learning the handwriting skill of modern Chinese words, use a pen, pencil, or any tool you used to write on paper. The Chinese characters in handwriting are the combination of lines, curves, dots, and hooks which can be assembled together to express different styles of writing strokes. 

口

mouth

pronunciation: Kǒu

It’s kind of troublesome to create this GIF animation in three different layers and colors, each color presents a continuous stroke as the order of writing (or drawing) for this Chinese symbol 口, a standard square shape, that’s a very important element of lots of Chinese words related to talk, speak, month, and eat.

1. the first stroke, the green color vertical bar, drawing from top to bottom.

2. the second stroke, the red color lines, a right angle, one horizontal bar connected with another vertical bar. Drawing from the top of the green vertical bar, as the red path shown, drawing horizontally from left to right, then turn a right angle down, keep drawing downward to finish the vertical bar. So far we have complete a ㄇ shape.

3. the third stroke, the blue color bar of the lower side, this one is a easy part, just draw a horizontal bar to seal the uncompleted square, the ㄇ shape. Please remember don’t leave any gap for the whole square, this 口 symbol is an hieroglyph for “mouth, talk”, and ancient Chinese people did think keeping mouth shot is a virtue. 

品

taste, grade

pronunciation: Pǐn

Another word contains three 口 symbols, just an exercise to write three times. Note the shape of upper square is a litte bit different from the lower two squares, that’s the style of font, just don’t bother this time.

This symbol 品 is a symbolic Chinese word, related with talking (of course, containing three 口 symbols, so many mouths), lots of people talking, discussing, commenting together on something or someone. 

We will see some 3-of-kind symbol like 品, that is, three identical elements pyramided together. For example, three fire symbols 火 forming the word 焱 (flames), three wood symbols 木 forming the word 森 (luxuriant vegetation), three water symbols 水 forming the word 淼 (vast, flood), three dog symbol 犬 forming the symbol 猋 (storm, gale, dogs running fast)…well, that’s too much for this lesson, maybe we will talk about these special Chinese symbols later.

回

back, return

pronunciation: Huí

The next symbol is 回, a big square contains another smaller square, the writing strokes for each square are the same as the way of symbol 口, and normally we draw the smaller one first, thus we will have an open space to draw the big square to surround the smaller one. The basic way to write each 口 symbol is the same as what we have just learned.

This Chinese symbol 回 has several meanings, it could be “back, return”, somehow Chinese doesn’t emphasize the expression of noun, verb, tense like English or Féminin and Masculin in French (OMG the verbal inflection!), this 回 symbol could also be an adjective or adverb to act with other words (like back, return, reverse something), it also means the rounds of a game, fight, classic novel chapters, and the symbolic name for the Muslim people in China.

Thanks for your reading and practicing, any feedback is welcome.

Review and further study

口

mouth

pronunciation: Kǒu

click to view more details about this symbol:
with pronunciation play button, calligraphic strokes animation, different calligraphic styles, related Chinese words, and more…

品

taste, grade

pronunciation: Pǐn
click to view more details about this symbol:

with pronunciation play button, calligraphic strokes animation, different calligraphic styles, related Chinese words, and more…

回

back, return

pronunciation: Huí
click to view more details about this symbol:

with pronunciation play button, calligraphic strokes animation, different calligraphic styles, related Chinese words, and more…