to be (followed by substantives only) / correct; right; true / (respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well / (adverb for emphatic assertion)
是
=
旦
+
龰
:
Mnemonic symbol: a skull, from "to be or not to be".
Sherlock Holmes (sh) starts his day in the space station's bathroom (Ø4) with a mug of coffee (旦). Holding a skull (mnemonic symbol for 是) in his hands, he asks himself "to be, or not to be" (是). He wonders if he can make the skull come back to life using lots of coffee, and injects coffee from his mug into the skull using a syringe (龰).
是
=
日
+
下
+
人
:
Mnemonic symbol: a skull, from "to be or not to be".
Sherlock Holmes (sh) watches the Neanderthal Man (人) trying to climb to the sun (日) on a ladder (下) in the space station's bathroom (Ø4). Sherlock is afraid that he'll open the window, so he puts on a big skull (是) and scares him off.
to not be; not / wrong; incorrect / non-; un-; in-; de- / to reproach; to blame / (coll.) to insist on; simply must
非
=
三
+
丿
+
丨
:
Mnemonic symbol: a negative film (photography)
非
=
三
+
丿
+
丨
:
Frankenstein's monster made an effort to photograph the Eiffel Tower, but now his negative is a big mess. In front of the tower her set up a camera on a Cartesian coordinate system as a tripod, and he attached a banana and a dinosaur bone to the camera so that he can finely tune the angles. All was for naught as he now holds the messed up negative in his hands.
曲
=
囗
+
卄
:
Mnemonic symbol: a harp. Cupid (qu) is playing a harp (曲) in the space station's living room (Ø3). He's sitting on a big enclosure (囗), playing the harp (曲) and wielding a double axe (卄) at the same time.
straight / to straighten / fair and reasonable / frank / straightforward / (indicates continuing motion or action) / vertical / vertical downward stroke in Chinese characters
直
=
十
+
目
+
一
:
Mnemonic symbol: someone straight edge. James II of England (zh) decided to go straight edge (直) in the space station's kitchen (Ø2), and he also decided that this means he won't listen to music anymore. The Eye of Providence (目) promptly plays some music on its flute (一) to tease him, whereupon the James II of England defends himself by holding up a cross (十).