As I continue to study Chinese, I have been both baffled and intrigued by how similar some of the Chinese characters (汉字) are. My intention was to first create a master list of the most commonly confused characters. But, then I soon realized the list would just go and on.
This got me thinking two things:
- It will be necessary to physically write Chinese characters in order to master them.
- It is essential to have an understanding of the radicals in order to differentiate characters.
I have asked my Chinese friends if they ever make mistakes when reading look-alike characters. They don’t because when reading text quickly, they look for context to identify the correct character. Even though a character looks alike, it doesn’t mean they are at all related. All characters are commonly found in certain words or phrases. For example 时 (shí) and 的 (de), in my opinion can be easily confused if you are reading quickly (at least in the beginner stages). But you will soon realize 的 is a posession particle and 时 relates to time. These characters naturally have different contexts. 的 is most commonly used in possessive pronouns like 我的 Wǒ de (my) and 她的 tā de (her). The character 时 is used in time phrases like 什么时候 shénme shíhou?（what time?) or 时间 shíjiān (time).
Here is a list below of some of the characters that confused me when starting to learn Chinese. Keep in mind that these are blown up images of the characters. They tend to even look more alike when they are standard size.
其 具 真 qí/ jù/ zhēn
请 情 清 青 晴 qǐng/ qíng/ qīng/ qīng/ qíng
人 入 rén/ rù
他 地 tā/ de
了子 le/ zi
的 时 de/ shí
这 还 过 zhè/ hái/ guò
和 知 hé/ zhī
着 看 春 zhe/ kàn/ chūn
那 哪 nà/ nǎ
年 午 牛 生 nián/ wǔ/ niú/ shēng
家 象 jiā/ xiàng
方 万 力 fāng/ wàn/ lì
或 成 huò/ chéng
所 听 加 suǒ/ tīng/ jiā
又 文 义 yòu/ wén/ yì
法 去 fǎ/ qù
十 干 士 shí/ gàn/ shì
天 夫 tiān/ fu
住 主 zhù/ zhǔ
军 车 东 jūn/ chē/ dōng
定 走 dìng/ zǒu
写 与 xiě/ yǔ
里 理 哩 lǐ/ lǐ/ li
者 身 老 zhě/ shēn/ lǎo
同 间 问 向 何 tóng/ jiān/ wèn/ xiàng/ hé
使 更 便 shǐ/ gèng/ biàn
无 先 洗 wú/ xiān/ xǐ
没 设 méi/ shè
买 实 mǎi/ shí
开 并 kāi/ bìng
此 比 些 cǐ/ bǐ/ xiē
已 己 yǐ/ jǐ
清 请 情 qīng/ qǐng/ qíng
重 量 zhòng/ liàng
等 第 děng/ dì
果 保 guǒ/ bǎo
毛 手 máo/ shǒu
代 付 dài/ fù
产 声 户 chǎn/ shēng/ hù
合 台hé/ tái
们 门 men/ mén
名 各 míng/ gè
水 冰 shuǐ/ bīng
海 每 hǎi/ měi
通 确 tōng/ què
I learned/learn characters the Heisig way, and looking down this list, I could really tell the difference between them fairly easily. Granted, I haven’t looked at the rest of your blog, so you may already be aware, but if you’re not, you might wanna check out Remembering the Hanzi by James Heisig.
I have heard about the Heisig way. I think stories are a good way to learn characters. Sometimes I will make up my own stories for each character and it does help me remember. The only drawback to Heisig’s approach is that the stories are just made up. Many characters in fact have a real story that can teach Chinese culture, along with learning the character. But in terms of merely learning characters, it is certainly a viable approach.
You also have 夭 with 天， 夫。
And 四西, even more confusing as it’s si and xi, respectively.
I agree with Seth – Heisig is definitely the way to go. I note your response to him about the “real story”, but I think you’ll be disappointed how few characters will have that “real story” – especially if you’re using Simplified Characters.
From personal experience, it took me just 106 days to get through 1500 characters using Heisig, give it a shot :-)
高 Gao
宫 Gong
营 Ying