Chinese Alphabet

Several Chinese alphabets currently and previously have existed. The standard Chinese writing system uses a non-alphabetic script accompanied by a supplementary alphabet. There is no Chinese alphabet in the sense that the West understands it.

While in the West, each letter of the alphabet represents a sound that generally does not have a particular meaning attached to it. However, Chinese characters represent an idea, concept, or object. One character on its own can be a word, but many words are made up of two, three, or more characters combined.

There are over 6500 characters in Chinese. Because Chinese does not have an alphabet, it has pictograms. The pronunciation of Chinese characters is important because each syllable exists in four tones. The first is a level tone, the second tone rises (like asking a question), the third tone goes down and then up, and the fourth goes down (like when someone is angry). The tones can change the meanings of words.