Mnemonic comic for 从

Translation

cóng = cu + (e)ng2: from / through / via / to follow / to obey / to engage in (an activity) / never (in negative sentence) / (Taiwan pr. [zong4]) retainer / assistant / auxiliary / subordinate / related by common paternal grandfather or earlier ancestor

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.

Kitty Cat (cu) struts around in the engine’s kitchen ((e)ng2) with a rubber chicken (从) in her mouth, making it squeak with every bite. Spellbound by the sound, two Neanderthal Men (人) follow (从) her in single file, one right behind the other.

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How to pronounce 从

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.

= cu initial

Cu is for Kitty Cat.

By Matthias • updated 7 days ago
+ (e)ng2 final

In the engine’s kitchen.

By Matthias • updated 7 days ago

从 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
人
rén = r + (e)n2
person; people / CL:個|个[ge4],位[wei4]
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Characters with 从 as component

坐
zuò = zu + o4
to sit / to take a seat / to take (a bus, airplane etc) / to bear fruit / variant of 座[zuo4]
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variant of 眾|众[zhong4]
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crowd; multitude / many; numerous
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Words with 从

show 74 more
always / at all times / never (if used in negative sentence)
never (in the past) / never did
since (a time) / ever since
Sentences with 从
自
zì
从
cóng
弼
bì
马
mǎ
温
wēn
来
lái
此
cǐ
以
yǐ
后
hòu

Want to remember 从 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.

从
cóng

from / through / via / to follow / to obey / to engage in (an activity) / never (in negative sentence) / (Taiwan pr. [zong4]) retainer / assistant / auxiliary / subordinate / related by common paternal grandfather or earlier ancestor

Prompt snippets

The rubber chicken is a molded, bright yellow latex figure featuring a textured, plucked-skin surface, a wide-open beak, and exaggerated, bulging eyes. Its body is constructed from flexible, hollow rubber with deep, molded creases at the neck and joints to facilitate compression.

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