Mnemonic comic for

Translation

dāo = d + ao1: knife / blade / single-edged sword / cutlass / CL:把[ba3] / (slang) dollar (loanword) / classifier for sets of one hundred sheets (of paper) / classifier for knife cuts or stabs

Mnemonic

A mnemonic is a short, deliberately ridiculous scene, built to be hard to forget. Who appears in it and where it takes place are how the pronunciation is stored; the objects in it stand for the parts the character is written with. That is the Marilyn Method, and the comic below is the same scene, drawn.

Mnemonic symbol: 刀 looks like a cleaver (while 刂 looks like a kitchen knife).

Don Quixote (d) serves his good deed of the day in front of the aorta (ao1). In order to feed the people, he uses a plow (㇆) to dig up bananas (丿), and cuts them into slices with a broad cleaver (刀).

Loading...

Comments

Giving Stable Diffusion another try! And it's sooo ridiculous!! I love it!

Stable Diffusion has no idea what a plow looks like, and it also doesn't know very well who the heck Don Quixote is. I could live with that, but oh man, three legs??? Also, it was impossible to get banana slices. Well, the panels are ridiculous enough to remember them, so I'll take it.

Matthias, about 2 years ago

How to pronounce 刀

MandarinBanana teaches pronunciation with the Marilyn Method: every Pinyin syllable is one initial plus one final, the initial becomes a person, an animal or a deity, and the final becomes a place in your memory palace — with the tone deciding which part of that place the scene happens in. Remember the little story below for each half and the whole syllable comes back with them.

= d initial

D is for Don Quixote.

By Matthias • updated 3 months ago
+ ao1 final

In front of the aorta.

By Matthias • updated 5 months ago

刀 character breakdown

Chinese characters are built out of smaller characters. Each component carries a mnemonic symbol - one concrete object that stands in for it - and a mnemonic story hands those objects to the person and the place that stand for the pronunciation. Learn a component once and every character that reuses it gets easier.

Component Translations
Character component without intrinsic meaning
Loading...
Loading mnemonics…
丿
piě = pi + e3
radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 4) / see 撇[pie3]
Loading...
Loading mnemonics…

Characters with 刀 as component

chǒu = ch + ou3
clown / 2nd earthly branch: 1-3 a.m., 12th solar month (6th January to 3rd February), year of the Ox / ancient Chinese compass point: 30°
Loading...
Loading mnemonics…
chǒu = ch + ou3
shameful / ugly / disgraceful
Loading...
Loading mnemonics…
shào = sh + ao4
surname Shao / name of an ancient state that existed in what is now Shaanxi Province
Loading...
Loading mnemonics…

Words with 刀

show 214 more
scissors / CL:把[ba3]
knife / CL:把[ba3]
cutting edge or point of a knife, sword or tool
Sentences with 刀
ǎn
lǎo
sūn
de
huán
dāo
lái

Want to remember 刀 for good?

Make it your learning target and MandarinBanana works out the shortest route to it: the two sounds its syllable is built from, then the components of the character itself, one short step at a time. No account needed to start.

dāo

knife / blade / single-edged sword / cutlass / CL:把[ba3] / (slang) dollar (loanword) / classifier for sets of one hundred sheets (of paper) / classifier for knife cuts or stabs

Prompt snippets

No snippets yet.

AI Images

No AI images generated yet.