Mnemonic comic for

Translation

yān = y + an1: cigarette or pipe tobacco / CL:根[gen1] / smoke / mist / vapour / CL:縷|缕[lü3] / tobacco plant / (of the eyes) to be irritated by smoke

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.

Maud Younger (y) is giving René Descartes (因) a light (火) for his tobacco (烟) pipe in front of the anthill (an1).

Loading...

Comments

Love how there's even "smoke" in the comic even though I didn't think of requesting it.

Matthias, 11 months ago

How to pronounce 烟

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.

= y initial

Y is for Maud Younger.

By Matthias • updated about 2 months ago
+ an1 final

In front of the anthill.

By Matthias • updated 5 months ago

烟 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
yīn = y + (e)n1
old variant of 因[yin1]
Loading...
Loading mnemonics…
yīn = y + (e)n1
cause / reason / because
Loading...
Loading mnemonics…
huǒ = hu + o3
fire / urgent / ammunition / fiery or flaming / internal heat (Chinese medicine) / hot (popular) / classifier for military units (old) / Kangxi radical 86
Loading...
Loading mnemonics…

Characters with 烟 as component

烟 is not used as a component in another character.

Words with 烟

show 100 more
to smoke (a cigarette, tobacco)
cigarette / smoke from burning incense / CL:支[zhi1],條|条[tiao2]
to smoke
Sentences with 烟
烟 currently does not appear in any sentence.

Want to remember 烟 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.

yān

cigarette or pipe tobacco / CL:根[gen1] / smoke / mist / vapour / CL:縷|缕[lü3] / tobacco plant / (of the eyes) to be irritated by smoke

Prompt snippets

No snippets yet.

AI Images

No AI images generated yet.