The Polyphonic Characters 多音字

The Polyphonic Characters have more than two pronunciations are known as polyphonic characters. Polysemous characters help reduce the total number of characters, but give rise to the difficulties in distinguishing one character from another. Learners are advised to be aware of the dissimilitude of them.

There are some examples of the polyphonic characters.

1. “还” has two pronunciations.

One of the pronunciation is “还(hái)”, which means could be “and, also, still or who (what) else” etc. Another pronunciation is “还(huán)”, which means “return”.

我和大明还(hái)有小明一起去学校。
I`m going to school with Daming and Xiaoming.

我已经把书还(huán)给了他了。
I have return the book to him.

2. “觉” has two pronunciations.

One of the pronunciation is “觉(jiào)”, which means could be “sleep” etc. Another pronunciation is “觉(jué)”, which means “feel or think”.

我想睡觉(jiào)。
I want to sleep.

我觉(jué)得这本书很好。
I think this book is good.

3. “长” has two pronunciations.

One of the pronunciation is “ 长(cháng)”, which means “long”. Another pronunciation is “长(zhǎng)”, which means “grow”.

这条路很长(cháng)。
This road is very long.

草长(zhǎng)的很快。
Grass grow very fast.

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