Frequency

• Spoken: 258th (0.01%)
• Written: 224th (0.10%)

KangXi Radical: 女, #38

• 681 derived characters (1.39%)

Our next character, 女, fills the role of the English words for “feminine”, including “woman” and “female”. In modern usage, it often occurs with another character to create the full word. For example, “女人”, literally “female person” is Chinese for “woman”. 女-child and 女-son = daughter. 女-friend = girlfriend.

A slightly compressed form also acts as a radical usually on the lefthand side of characters related to women.

The original form of 女 was pictographic. It showed the profile of a kneeling woman with arms crossed in front of her as if swaddling a baby. The primary difference between the Oracle Bone inscriptions and the modern form is that we see two arms and one leg rather than the opposite. By the time of the Seal Script, the second arm had descended down to also form a second leg. This form was eventually simplified into the modern character with one stroke showing both arms and two strokes depicting the  crossed legs.

This character may potentially be confused with the following: 文 (culture), 又 (right hand), 攵 (tap), 夂 (go), and 夊 (go slowly). In each case, 女 can be distinguished because the first stroke goes continuously from almost vertical to diagonal. Also note that the “arms” of 女 fully cross the character.

Frequency:  

• Spoken: 24th (0.61%)
  
• Written: 7th (0.97%)
  

KangXi Radical: 人, 亻, #9

• 794 derived characters (1.98%)
  

Our first word is the Chinese for man or person. In addition to meaning an individual, it can be used like the traditional English term, man, meaning mankind or humanity. 人 is also used with a place name to indicate a person’s origin. For example, America-人 means an American.

This character can be combined with others to form many words. Some examples include work-人, worker; 人-work, manpower; 人-mouth, population; 人人, everybody; male-人 and female-人, man and woman; big-人, grown-up.

As you may guess, this word is very ancient and common. By the time of Oracle Bone inscriptions, 人 was standardized as the profile view of a man standing with arms slightly extended. This form still occurs as the “standing man” radical, which we’ll encounter in future characters. 

During the time of Seal Script, the strokes were extended in order to fill the required rectangular space. This was later simplified into the modern form where the two strokes are about equal in size.

This character can be easily confused with three others. Take care to distinguish it from 入 (enter) where the second stroke extends above and to the left of the first and 八 (eight) and 儿 (child) where the two strokes are slightly separated. The latter’s right hand stroke is also closer to a 90 degree angle.