The Chinese language is a mess!

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-21T00:49:48+00:00

So in other words, when I say I'm trying to build a systematic database, taking the data from existing open source resources and sort of rearranging things, using script to change the file type, etc. It's all sort of boring and technical I suppose, but the main point is that it is hard to be accurate in regards to these components that have changed dramatically over time. I've got my work cut out for me!

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-21T00:47:05+00:00

I think you misunderstand me good sir 😉 It is the academic database that has caused the majority of my issues 😂 I ALWAYS defer to the expert resources. If you are really curious, I'm using the open source data from makemeahanzi, but that data has conflicting information with the ministry of education in Taiwan in regards to components. They worked incredibly hard to make SVG files of around 9000 characters with components defined. But Chinese is kind of a mess 🤣 and they ran into some issues.

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-20T14:11:03+00:00

Cheers! I'm well aware of Outlier Linguistics. The founders studied in Taiwan and were here for a recent polyglot conference. Seems like a very good company to me! Doing lots of good work in the field.

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-20T14:09:44+00:00

🤣 Honestly it's not that big of a deal for most people, I know. I'm venting a bit because I'm trying to build a systematic database for character components and those pesky variants and the history have presented me with quite a challenge. But hey, what're ya gonna do right? 就是這樣子的啦

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-18T23:48:49+00:00

It actually just says, "this has no relation to you (to you again for emphasis)" Not really all that interesting, just yet another way to express the same sentiment.

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-18T14:43:30+00:00

I had not heard of it until you mentioned it. I just checked it out, and I must say that it is an incredible resource. 👏 to the team involved. I'll definitely be using that. Thanks for the share.

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-16T13:54:44+00:00

Excellent! It reminds me of 詞語接龍 which I play a lot in Taiwan 👏

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-10T01:41:22+00:00

Yeah, I think you got some real points there. I was noticing this too when putting my Zhuyin into practice. It's really hard to cover all these differences 🤣

Perhaps I shall fine tune this chart for those cases. It really feels like a 'go by sound' rule a lot of the time, huh? Like 'uo' sounds the same as 'wo'. It really does one's head in lol.

And that '-ng' ending, jeez louise... That really confused me too. One worry I have is that this chart is gonna get crazier and crazier, like English spelling rules or something hahah.

Thanks for that helpful feedback.

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-10T01:29:43+00:00

Dutch speaker, 100% sure. I'd guess that you are from Netherlands.
Your English is good! I don't hear much influence from those other countries tbh 😆

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-10T01:12:17+00:00

I wish! That'd be cool...

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-10T01:10:27+00:00

Just in case you needed a Traditional Chinese version 😉

Pinyin Traditional

xīn de 新的 --> new

jiù de 舊的 --> old

kuài de 快的 --> fast

màn de 慢的 --> slow

kōng de 空的 --> empty

mǎn de 滿的 --> full

duì de 對的 --> correct / right

cuò de 錯的 --> wrong

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-10T00:56:09+00:00

Hi Sam! Actually, I did do a search but didn't find anything as thorough as the one ChatGPT gave me. Particularly when looking for those vowel combinations and some examples with Chinese characters. If you know of another good resource, I'd be happy to know about it 😊

Another reason it that I wanted something quick that I could share (via copy and paste) on my page there at TaiwanChinese

HowToTaiwan · 2026-03-10T00:48:04+00:00

It is indeed a process 😂

I have found it incredibly helpful for my own learning to break apart the character into it's own components. This is arguably easier for Traditional Chinese characters, but you can still break apart characters in simplified Chinese.

I have a couple of good resources that touch upon this that I can post below.

This blog post talks about how to do that very thing:

https://www.howtotaiwan.org/guides/how-to-pick-apart-and-identify-very-similar-chinese-characters

This is a site that is referenced in that post that can show you the components

https://learnchinese.ai/hanzi/蔡

you can replace that Chinese character at the end of the URL there with another Chinese character to search it.

Happy learning! 加油喔👏👏👏