What's the term for "look-alike" characters?

R

root

Member
For example: 同向问回词司 , I routinely mix these up.

For alphabet-based languages we have synonyms, homonyms, and homophones, they need special care while studying. For Chinese , it seems groups of similar-looking characters should have a term as well, no?

Is there a term for groups of look-alike characters in Chinese, and maybe a way to see the full group to help distinguish them ( like in the radicals dictionary)
 
R

root

Member
Thanks, guys, for the feedback!

I looked up 同形字, I think that translates as "homoglyph". I can't read chinese very well, so I looked up the wikipedia in English, and it seems to say that items that are homoglyphs are (almost )identical.

I think what i was trying to describe is more like the 别字， or 白字, in English these sound like "erroneously written characters" (someone has a better translation). This is what I was trying to get to, characters that I read erroneously. Thanks, Danny, this is a great start for me.

Now just need to find a method to look up all of these "erroneous characters" for the ones that give me trouble. My new trouble batch is 春看着, took a while to realize what they are...
 
feng

feng

榜眼
DannyC said:
I believe you're describing 别字, also known as 白字
Click to expand...
Those two terms do not refer to characters that look a like. They simply mean "incorrectly written character". The first term refers to writing a character incorrectly; the second could be that (or wrong strokes) or mispronouncing it (various dictionaries offer various nuances).

同形字
Click to expand...
This (and 同形詞) mean that the shape/form is the same, but the pronunciation and meaning are different. For example, 的 has three different pronunciations in modern Chinese: de5, di2, and di4. Each of these has its own meaning. That is what is meant by 同形字：the same shape (with different meaning and pronunciation).

Off hand the only word I can think of is 易混字 ("easily confused characters"), but I will ask about and see if there are other terms.

If you don't mind my asking, do you spend much time writing characters?
 
feng

feng

榜眼
gato said:
They are called 近形字:
Click to expand...
Not sure why you (apparently) imagine 易混字 is not a name for this situation. For what it's worth I double checked with two Chinese friends if they knew of something other than 易混字 and they said no. I suggest to you that 易混字 is most common in speech, and it is almost twice as common as 近形字 on the web too.

As for “近形字” specifically, it is much more commonly 形近字 (and that is the most common of the three terms on the web). Go to Amazon.cn and you can find zero books searching for 近形字, but oodles of books searching for either 形近字 or 易混字。
 
G

gato

状元
易混字 is a broader category that also includes homophones that people commonly mistaken one for another.

近形字 and 形近字 are both used. There are dictionary titles with both names.
 
Last edited:
R

root

Member
Excellent info here, thanks again, everyone. The baidu link is very useful -- the big list is just what I was looking for.

I realized in Pleco the radicals dictionary already has this "distinguish from:" function, I guess I think I should also try this for other chars that give me trouble.
 
R

root

Member
feng said:
[...]
If you don't mind my asking, do you spend much time writing characters?
Click to expand...

I started using Skritter about a month ago, and I do about 30 min per week writing. I can read about 1000 characters, and the trouble I have with confusing characters is for reading.

I did notice that once I start writing characters, then reading becomes easier, maybe that's the trick -- I should add the whole list of "confused characters" to my writing practice?
 
feng

feng

榜眼
gato said:
近形字 and 形近字 are both used. There are dictionary titles with both names.
Click to expand...
A search of Amazon.cn turns up zero books with 近形字 in the title, but a whole pile for either 形近字 or 易混字。


root said:
I started using Skritter about a month ago, and I do about 30 min per week writing. I can read about 1000 characters, and the trouble I have with confusing characters is for reading.

I did notice that once I start writing characters, then reading becomes easier, maybe that's the trick -- I should add the whole list of "confused characters" to my writing practice?
Click to expand...
Yes.
Although there certainly are some characters that look similar, especially in the PRC character set, if one writes regularly with a pen/pencil/brush, it will generally cease to be much if any problem. Depending on how far you want to take Chinese, I would recommend daily writing with a pen/pencil/brush. IMHO, Skritter or other mouse/trackpad/finger things are not going to provide you with the same understanding (I doubt a stylus on a screen could either); they won't help you nearly as much. If you can write more often than once a week, that would be good. If you were learning Italian, no big deal since the letters are the same as English and you just need to get used to the spelling, but to really get the hang of reading Chinese, one needs to write it with a pen/pencil/brush, since the script is completely new to you when you start. My two cents :)
 
R

root

Member
feng said:
...to really get the hang of reading Chinese, one needs to write it with a pen/pencil/brush, since the script is completely new to you when you start. My two cents :)
Click to expand...

I agree very much! I've tried that a couple of years back, and it is still my plan. As of right now I don't have anyone who can give me feedback as to the quality of handwriting, so I am using scritter. I hope to move to brush writing in about a year, when I can remember the order for a thousand characters or so...
 
CodinCat

CodinCat

Member
More vernacular, just "相似字" or "近似字"

已己
仰抑
傅傳
茶荼
易陽踢湯...

If you have any questions just ask me!
 
Last edited:
feng

feng

榜眼
Hi Codin Cat, and welcome!

Not meaning to confuse matters, but I decided to ask a few more friends, in Taiwan and the PRC. Another hundred friends and it might be possible to map this regionally! I asked them about five words: 相似字、近似字、近形字、易混字、形近字。They gave me some more. I've put suggestions for on which side of the strait they may be more popular, but it is just a guess since the number of people is so small. I do _not_ make any claims to infallibility. I am just reporting what I have been told. Let's not forget also that whatever the language is, each person tends to think he is saying it the same way as everyone else (or they like him).

形近字：PRC, the most popular for my respondents. Seems to also be used in Taiwan.
形似字：TW？
近似字：TW？One person from the PRC never heard this before, but said 相似字 was common.
相似字：TW？
相近字：PRC？
近形字：PRC？One person said he never heard the word before. Another said it was the most popular way to say it!
長得像：Two people also said that in speech they just said things like "those two characters 長得很像。"

易混字：This and the one below can of course be used for sound as well.
易錯字：This perhaps shouldn't be here since it seems to only refer to writing a wrong character, generally looking wholly different, not on confusing two characters that look similar.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top