Cheng & Tsui Chinese Character Dictionary: A Guide to the 2,000 Most Frequently-Used Characters [Paperback]

Wang Huidi (Author, Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0887273149 | ISBN-13: 978-0887273148 | Publication Date: June 1, 1999

This pocket-sized guide to the core 2,000 characters provides the easiest road to success in written Chinese. The many rules and characters of Chinese present learners with what can seem like an overwhelming amount of complicated information, and tasks such as writing characters correctly are often a major stumbling block. In this dictionary aimed specifically at learners, characters are organized alphabetically by pinyin and are printed in large, clear fonts (both Kai and Song script) in two colors, making it easy to discern their appearance and structure, and to distinguish between similar-looking characters. Basic meanings and examples of use are given in English and pinyin, and each entry also includes information on radicals, number of strokes, stroke order, structural classification and the diagrammatic form of each character. Simplified characters.

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Cheng & Tsui (June 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0887273149
• ISBN-13: 978-0887273148
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,209,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Convenient Reference, July 13, 2005

By 

Benjamin Joseph Shelak "Chinaphile" (MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cheng & Tsui Chinese Character Dictionary: A Guide to the 2,000 Most Frequently-Used Characters (Paperback)

I have been using this book for several years and find it to be an invaluable reference source for 1) characters that I have forgotten how to write, 2) new characters and 3) stroke order. What this book does not offer is a means to lookup words in English but this is not its intent, although a simple indexing of English words in alphabetical order with corresponding page numbers would be nice. However, since this is a "character" dictionary and not an "English to Chinese" dictionary this feature is understandably not part of the scope of this work. But, as a character dictionary of the most common simplified characters, this work excels! I strongly recommend it to any student of Chinese and I hope that Cheng and Tsui are able to follow-up on this excellent work with a traditional character version. It is estimated that a knowledge of the most frequently used 700 simplified characters enables an understanding of as much as 82% of the written language but that the ability to recognize and use the most common 2,000 characters bumps this percentage up to 97%. As an essential reference, Cheng and Tsui's "Chinese Character Dictionary" makes learning written Chinese that much easier.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Guide to Chinese Characters, October 12, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Cheng & Tsui Chinese Character Dictionary: A Guide to the 2,000 Most Frequently-Used Characters (Paperback)

This book goes through the 2000 most commonly used Chinese characters in a way that I haven't seen done before. It is very helpful because it includes just about every detail one would ever want to know about the character. One aspect that I appreciated was how it gave the character with other characters to show its many meanings. It was helpful to see the order of strokes needed to write the characters properly. For those who are studying Chinese on their own or through a class, this is a great book.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Very Good Dictionary, December 29, 2006

By 

Wayne L. Harbuziuk "prayin_wayne" (Wheaton, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cheng & Tsui Chinese Character Dictionary: A Guide to the 2,000 Most Frequently-Used Characters (Paperback)

On the whole, this is a very good character dictionary. The characters are given in both Kai and Song typeface. Each character is also placed (in red) on a grid so the correct proportions can be seen. Separately, the stroke order is clearly delineated via a series of strokes until the complete character is drawn. The corresponding Pinyin word is given, usually accompanied by two or three compound words and their English meanings. My major complaint is that the Pinyin word corresponding to the character is not always defined. For instance, the entry for ke(4) does not tell you that it means class, lesson, or course. However, three compounds and their definitions are given: keben (textbook), kewai (extra-curricular/after class), and gongke (schoolwork/homework). Giving the basic definition of the character would seem to be important, and wouldn't be much trouble. In fact, some of the entries give the basic definition, but not all of them. This oversight prevents me from rating the dictionary at 5 stars. Otherwise, for the small size of the book, it packs quite a bit of information.