Table of Contents
How do Chinese people spell their names?
Unlike English names, Chinese people write their family name (normally a single letter) first and then their given name (one or two letters). There are over 700 Chinese surnames, but only about 100 are commonly used.
How do Chinese write on the phone?
Every Chinese character has a pinyin (essentially how a word is pronounces using the english alphabet plus a few accents.) and when people type a string of pinyin then, like the spell check bar at the top of your keyboard on your phone, suggestions pop up in order of likeliness.
Are Chinese names hyphenated?
Chinese from the People’s Republic of China are likely to use Pinyin spellings (Mao Zedong) for all proper names. In Pinyin style, the personal name generally is not hyphenated (Zhao Ziyang, Lui Binyan, Mao Zedong), while Wade-Giles style generally does use hyphens (Wang Mao-hsin or Liu Mei-lai).
How do you come up with a Chinese name?
If you are studying Cantonese or Mandarin and planning on creating a Chinese name, here’s a few tips.
- Be clear what you are aiming for.
- Choose your surname first.
- Keep it short.
- Ask for help.
- Don’t name yourself after a celebrity.
- Test several names.
- Share your name with your family.
- Read more stories.
How do Chinese phone keyboards work?
It’s called Wubi. You type a sequence of keys, not corresponding to the sound of the word, but to the shape of the character. The keyboard is divided into regions associated with the strokes in each character — you “type” the character by punching the keys corresponding to what each part of the character looks like.
Do Chinese names have meanings?
Chinese people’s names have inherent meanings. The choices for a Chinese name can be infinite. Chinese people attach more importance to what the name means compared to how it sounds. The given name is usually made up of one or two characters, each bearing a different meaning.
How do you capitalize Chinese names?
Capitalize Proper Nouns in Pinyin When the name has multiple words in it, each word should be capitalized. For Chinese people’s names, The surname is capitalized and the given name is capitalized, but two-syllables given names should be written as one word (no space), with no intercaps, and not hyphenated.
What is the difference between Chinese alphabet and Chinese character?
An alphabet consists of a small number of letters. Letters represent sounds. They spell out how words should be pronounced. Letters don’t have any meaning by themselves. A Chinese character on the other hand is a more complex unit. It contains an indication of pronunciation as well as an indication of meaning.
How many syllables does a Chinese family name have?
The family name usually has one syllable. All the top 100 Chinese family names have only one syllable and these surnames cover about 85 percent of mainly China’s citizens. The most common three family names in mainland China are Li ( 李 ), Wang (王) and Zhang ( 张 ), shared by more than 270 million people.
What is a Chinese text like?
A Chinese text is like a grid of characters. Chinese kids, when they practice writing, use grid paper. They are instructed to pay careful attention to the proportions and position of the characters inside the virtual square. A character is not a random drawing.
Do Chinese people write family name before or after given name?
In Chinese people write family name before given name. However many students (including me) choose to switch the order in pinyin. Either way is acceptable. It’s not a bad idea to ask which is which. Unlike western families, a huge number of unrelated Chinese families share the same family names.