Chinese Symbol for Love
Mandarin Phrases -- Chinese symbols: Love (Written)
There are countless ways to express one's love.
What we are going to learn here is to use the Chinese symbol for love -- i.e. the Chinese character for describing the notion of love -- to express our feeling.
It is a lovely character. We are going to show you how the character is written in both simplified and traditional Chinese.
In the next lesson, we will show you how the word is pronounced. In addition, you also learn how to character is used in phrases, like 'I love you' in Chinese. If it is the latter that you are more interested in, go to the next lesson (Say 'I love You' in Chinese).
You can use the symbol to express not only romantic love, but also love in general. Chinese, however, are usually rather reserved as far as expressions for love are concerned. If you are unfamiliar with the culture, we would suggest that you use the symbol for only the people that you are close to or romantically involved in. Examples are husband or wife, girl or boy friend, parents, children and siblings.
Chinese symbols: Love
Chinese is written in two manners: the simplified and traditional Chinese. The simplified version is used in China, and countries like Singapore. The traditional version, on the other hand, is used in places like Taiwan and Hong Kong.
The choice of version, therefore, depends on the recipient. In general, the simplified version is now more widely used.
Simplified Version
This is the simplified version:
爱
Although there are two written versions, there is only one way to pronounce the word in Mandarin: ‘ai’ in the forth tone.
As you can see, the character is rather complex. It consists of several strokes, and is not easy to write.
When we are writing Chinese character, the order of strokes is important. It is, therefore, usefully for you to watch carefully how it is written in the video tutorial, rather than just imitate the shape.
The composition of the character is interesting. You will see that in the lower part of the character, there is a sub-character 友. Pronounced as ‘you’, the character means friendship. This implies that however intimate you are with you loved ones; you should respect him or her as a friend.
Traditional Version
This is how the symbol ai is written in the traditional form.
愛
Again, watch how the characters written in the video tutorial, paying attention to the sequence of the strokes.
The sub-characters in the traditional version is different. In the middle part of the character, you see the sub-character 心, which is pronounced as ‘xin’and means heart. This implies that if you love someone, the feeling comes right from your heart!
Simplied or traditional, the character is not easy to write, especially when Chinese is not your primary language. If you can write it, however, it will be a good way to prove your sincerity to your loved ones.
So, why don't you make it a try, and write the symbol yourself when called for?
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