Lesson 14 Small symbol 小

Lesson 14  Small symbol 小

This lesson is an easy character 小, it’s “small, little” in Chinese.  We are going to review some related characters which we have learned before also.

小

small, little

pronunciation: Xiǎo

The writing strokes are not complicated, as shown in the animation, draw a vertical bar (red) from top to bottom in the middle position, with a little hook at the end of the vertical stroke. The second part (blue) contains two short strokes on left and right sides of the vertical bar to balance the whole thing.

Let’s review the opposite word of this 小(small) symbol, the symbol 大(big) we have learned in Lesson 06:

大

big, large

pronunciation: Dà

Still remember how to write it? As shown in the animation, draw a horizontal bar first, then write the 人(human) symbol to carry the horizontal bar and balance the whole thing.

Now we have the size Small 小, and size Large 大, how about the size Middle 中, which we have also learned in Lesson 05.

中

center, middle

pronunciation: Zhōng

The writing strokes are very basic, drawing a square 口 first, then adding a vertical bar at the center, and that’s it.

Any 2-character Chinese word to create?

Here are some words with the symbol 小(small, little) combining other characters we have learned before.

小友 little friend

小友 little friend = 小 (little) + 友 (friend)

The symbol 友 (friend) is in Lesson 10, here is the animation for your review:

友

friend

pronunciation: Yǒu

The strokes are a little bit complicated, please review in Lesson 10, there are several similar symbols related with the element 又

another 2-character Chinese word:

小兒 little son

小兒 little son = 小 (little) + 兒 (son)

note: this is the traditional Chinese character for 兒(son), which is in Lesson 07.

Review for 兒(son):

兒

son, child

pronunciation: Ér

traditional Chinese

Well, I think it’s kind of complicated for you this time, let’s recall the simplified version ㄦ(son) also from Lesson 07,

小ㄦ little son

小ㄦ little son = 小 (little) + ㄦ (son)

Review for ㄦ(son):

儿

son, child

pronunciation: Ér

simplified Chinese

Now we have little son, how about little daughter?

Here she is:

小女 little daughter

小女 little daughter = 小(little) + 女(woman)

note: the Woman symbol 女 we learned at last lesson could be used as “girl, daughter” here as a noun.

Review for 女(girl, daughter):

女

girl, daughter

pronunciation: Nǚ

Well, I think that’s enough for this lesson. Thanks for your reading and practicing!

Review and further study

小

small, little

pronunciation: Xiǎo

click to view more details about this symbol:

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

小友

little friend

pronunciation: xiǎo yǒu

小兒

little son

pronunciation: xiǎo ér

(traditional Chinese)

小ㄦ

little son

pronunciation: xiǎo ér

(simplified Chinese)

小女

little daughter

pronunciation: xiǎo nǚ