Some students find learning to read and write characters the most difficult part of learning Chinese, and they wonder if there are any rules to help them along. Fortunately for them (and you, perhaps), the answer is yes. Students sometimes remark that Chinese characters seem to be random pictures. Although some Chinese characters did in fact originate from pictures, they're not just a random arrangement of strokes.

The part of the character known as the radical (or 部首/bùshǒu in Chinese) can aid language learners in deciphering a character's meaning or pronunciation. In paper dictionaries, they are also used to arrange the order of the characters, so being able to recognize radicals is an important part of knowing the language.

This month, I'm going to introduce the walking radical: 辶 (chuò). Written in Simplified Chinese, this radical is a pared-down version of the original ancient script. Unlike the radicals I have discussed in previous columns, this radical is never used as a standalone character. Nonetheless, it is a very commonly used radical and is often seen in characters related to movement (walking, running, sending).

One common way to form a character is by consisting one radical and one character, one implies the meaning, while the other implies the sound. Let me give you an example. 远 yuǎn, which means far, is consisted of the radical 辶 and the character 元, as you might know, 元 is pronounced yuán, which implies the sound, while the radical 辶 implies the meaning. In this way, when you meet a character which you only recognize a part of it, you may get the pronunciation right by pronounce the part you know.

辶 appears in all of the following characters:

远 yuǎn far

逃 táo to run away, to escape

逛 guàng to hang out or wander around, as in 逛街 (guàngjiē) – to go shopping

达 dá to reach (as in a number or goal), achieve

运 yùn to carry, to send

送 sòng to give away, to see somebody off

过 guò indicates past tense, as in 我去过 (wǒ qù guò) – I have been to; past as in 过去 (guòqù)

迷 mí to be lost

迅速 xùnsù very fast

返 fǎn to go back

This article by Lucy Wang was first published in CHENGDOO citylife Magazine, issue 60 ("old school").