1.17 Characters 351-400 — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read the fifty characters at ranks 351 to 400 of this course's own corpus and say what each one means: 者 zhě · 谈 tán · 故 gù · 洗 xǐ · 单 dān · 猫 māo · 收 shōu · 穿 chuān · 其 qí · 馆 guǎn and forty more. Read an ordinary corpus sentence in which every character is inside the set you now have, such as 我还年轻。 [33] wǒ hái nián qīng , without looking anything up. Recognise the 20 characters in this set that change shape in traditional writing, among them 谈 which becomes 談 , and 单 which becomes 單 . Say what the coverage figures at the head of this lesson mean for how you should spend the next month, and why the answer changes as the number rises. Produce ten new words built from these characters, among them 帮助 bāng zhù and 年轻 nián qīng . Prerequisites : 1.16, which gave you ranks 301 to 350. This lesson is the last of the fifty-character lists, and every example on it outside the review exercise is written inside the first four hundred characters. Where this list comes from Ranks 351 to 400, the last block of fifty. As before, the list is simply the next fifty by frequency, so it can include characters already listed in earlier lessons; they appear again here without a note of where they first appeared. Lessons 1.9 and 1.11 gave you the figure for four hundred characters: 81.1 per cent of running text. This block is the step that gets you there. The first three hundred and fifty characters covered 78.8 per cent; these fifty take you to 81.1 per cent, a step of 2.3 points against 2.7 points for the block before. That is the figure from lessons 1.9 and 1.11, and it is worth being precise about what it means, because the number is easy to misread. 81.1 per cent coverage of characters means that in a line of ten characters you can expect about two you cannot read. That is not a line you can read. What it is, is a line you can work at with a dictionary and get to the bottom of, which is a different thing from the fragments you were looking at in lesson 1.9 and a long way from reading fluently. From here the course closes much of that gap through reading, rather than through character lists alone. One note on how this lesson is organised. The table lists the characters in order of how often they occur in the 55,691 corpus sentences counted since lesson 1.9, not grouped by the components they are built from. The rank tells you how common a character is and nothing about its shape. Many of these characters do share components with ones you already know, and pairing them by component as you read down the table, as lesson 1.11 suggested, is still the best way to make them stick. How to use the table The first column gives the character, its pinyin, and where the traditional form differs, that form in brackets. The second gives a bare meaning, enough to recognise the character and not enough to use it alone. The third gives one or two ordinary words that contain it, each written entirely inside the characters you now have, so that you can read every part of every word on the page. Read across each row aloud once and move on. Do not try to memorise the third column: it is there so that each character arrives attached to something, because a shape learned with a bare gloss is gone within the week while a shape learned inside two words it really appears in is not. 其 qí is a good case — the gloss will not tell you how it is used, and the two words beside it will. The characters Character Meaning Words that use it 者 zh zhě one who (does something); -er; -ist 记者 jì zhě reporter; journalist 作者 zuò zhě author; writer 谈 zh tán （ 談 ） to talk; to discuss 谈谈 tán tan to have a talk 谈论 tán lùn to discuss; to talk about 故 zh gù reason; cause; old; incident; on purpose 故事 gù shi story 事故 shì gù accident 洗 zh xǐ to wash; to bathe; to develop (photographs) 洗手 xǐ shǒu to wash one's hands 洗衣 xǐ yī to do the laundry 单 zh dān （ 單 ） single; alone; list; bill 名单 míng dān list of names 单位 dān wèi unit; place of work 猫 zh māo （ 貓 ） cat 小猫 xiǎo māo kitten 收 zh shōu to receive; to collect; to put away 收到 shōu dào to receive 收音机 shōu yīn jī radio (the set) 穿 zh chuān to wear; to put on; to pierce; to pass through 穿上 chuān shang to put on (clothes) 穿过 chuān guò to pass through; to cross 其 zh qí (written) his; her; its; their; that 其他 qí tā other 其实 qí shí actually; in fact 馆 zh guǎn （ 館 ） building; hall; shop 图书馆 tú shū guǎn library 餐馆 cān guǎn restaurant 轻 zh qīng （ 輕 ） light; gentle; easy 年轻 nián qīng young 轻轻 qīng qīng lightly; softly 包 zh bāo to wrap; bag; bundle 面包 miàn bāo bread 钱包 qián bāo wallet; purse 岁 zh suì （ 歲 ） year (of age); years old 几岁 jǐ suì how old? (usually asked of a child) 十岁 shí suì ten years old 忘 zh wàng to forget; to overlook 忘记 wàng jì to forget 难忘 nán wàng unforgettable 食 zh shí to eat; food 食物 shí wù food 美食 měi shí good food; delicacies 功 zh gōng achievement; merit; skill 成功 chéng gōng to succeed; success 用功 yòng gōng hard-working (at one's studies) 趣 zh qù interest; interesting 兴趣 xìng qù interest (in something) 有趣 yǒu qù interesting; amusing 确 zh què （ 確 ） true; really; firm 确定 què dìng to make sure; definite 正确 zhèng què correct; right 四 zh sì four 四月 sì yuè April 四十 sì shí forty 德 zh dé virtue; morality; Germany (short for 德国 ) 德国 dé guó Germany 道德 dào dé morality; morals 怕 zh pà to be afraid; to fear 可怕 kě pà terrible; frightening 不怕 bù pà not afraid 风 zh fēng （ 風 ） wind; style; custom 风雨 fēng yǔ wind and rain 台风 tái fēng typhoon 第 zh dì a prefix that makes ordinal numbers 第一 dì yī first 第二 dì èr second 助 zh zhù to help; to assist 帮助 bāng zhù to help; help 自助 zì zhù self-service 交 zh jiāo to hand over; to make (friends); to cross 交通 jiāo tōng traffic; transport 公交 gōng jiāo public transport 处 zh chù · chǔ （ 處 ） chù: place; office; chǔ: to deal with; to get along with 处理 chǔ lǐ to deal with; to handle 相处 xiāng chǔ to get along (with someone) 识 zh shí （ 識 ） to know; knowledge 认识 rèn shi to know (a person); to recognise 意识 yì shí consciousness; awareness 声 zh shēng （ 聲 ） sound; vo