Mnemonic comic for 丁

Translation

dīng = di + (e)ng1: male adult / the 4th of the 10 Heavenly Stems 天干[tian1 gan1] / fourth (used like "4" or "D") / small cube of meat or vegetable / (literary) to encounter / (archaic) ancient Chinese compass point: 195° / (chemistry) butyl

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.

Dorothy Gale (di) balances a flute (一) on a crowbar (亅) in front of the engine ((e)ng1). For this trick, she wins the fourth (丁) place in an artists competition and gets a quarter (丁) of a pizza as prize. Unfortunately, there is a big nail (丁) on the pizza slice.

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How to pronounce 丁

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.

= di initial

Di is for Dorothy Gale.

By Matthias • updated about 3 hours ago
+ (e)ng1 final

In front of the engine.

By Matthias • updated about 3 hours ago

丁 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
一
yī = y + Ø1
one / single / a (article) / as soon as / entire; whole; all; throughout / "one" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 1) / also pr. [yao1] for greater clarity when spelling out numbers digit by digit
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亅
jué = ju + e2
"vertical stroke with hook" radical in Chinese characters (Kangxi radical 6) / see also 豎鉤|竖钩[shu4 gou1]
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Characters with 丁 as component

盯
dīng = di + (e)ng1
to watch attentively / to fix one's attention on / to stare at / to gaze at
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可
kè = k + e4
used in 可汗[ke4 han2]
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可
kě = k + e3
can / may / able to / to approve / to permit / to suit / (particle used for emphasis) certainly / very
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Words with 丁

show 175 more
Martin (name)
Latin / (in former times) to press-gang / to kidnap and force people into service
pudding (loanword)
Sentences with 丁
丁 currently does not appear in any sentence.

Want to remember 丁 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.

丁
dīng

male adult / the 4th of the 10 Heavenly Stems 天干[tian1 gan1] / fourth (used like "4" or "D") / small cube of meat or vegetable / (literary) to encounter / (archaic) ancient Chinese compass point: 195° / (chemistry) butyl

Prompt snippets

The nail is a large, hand-forged iron nail with a broad, flat round head and a long, straight shaft that tapers to a point; the tip is bent slightly to the left like a small hook. Its dull grey metal shows hammer marks and faint patches of rust.

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