| A: | 哎，哎，哎 ...... |
| ài, ài, ài ...... |
| Agh, agh, agh... |
| B: | 你怎么唉声叹气的？ |
| nǐ zěnme āishēngtànqì de? |
| What are you moaning and groaning about? |
| A: | 我想看中文报纸，可是这么多字不认识！ |
| wǒ xiǎng kàn Zhōngwén bàozhǐ, kěshì zhème duō zì bù rènshi! |
| I'd like to read a Chinese newspaper, but there are so many words I don't recognize. |
| B: | 可以查字典啊！ |
| kěyǐ chá zìdiǎn a! |
| You can look them up in the dictionary! |
| A: | 中文字典太难查了。还要分析什么部首。 |
| Zhōngwén zìdiǎn tài nán chá le. hái yào fēnxī shénme bùshǒu. |
| Chinese dictionaries are too hard to use. And you have to analyze stuff like "radicals." |
| B: | 其实没你想的那么难。认识几个常用部首的话，查起来会方便些。 |
| qíshí méi nǐ xiǎng de nàme nán. rènshi jǐ ge chángyòng bùshǒu dehuà, chá qǐlái huì fāngbiàn xiē. |
| Actually, it's not as hard as you think. When you recognize a few commonly used radicals, it's easier to look things up. |
| A: | 哦，那你快教教我吧！ |
| ò, nà nǐ kuài jiāo jiao wǒ ba! |
| Oh, then hurry up and teach me! |
| B: | 没问题。很多字的部首在左边，比如 “ 打 ” 的部首叫 “ 提手旁 ” 。 “ 住 ” 的部首叫 “ 单人旁 ”。 |
| méiwèntí. hěn duō zì de bùshǒu zài zuǒbiān, bǐrú " dǎ ” de bùshǒu jiào " tíshǒupáng ” . " zhù ” de bùshǒu jiào " dānrénpáng ”. |
| No problem. The radical in a lot of words is on the left. For example, in the character for " to hit ", the radical is called " the raising hand radical." In the character for " to live in, " the radical is " the single person radical." |
| A: | 哦，单人旁像 “ 人 ” 字。 |
| ò, dānrénpáng xiàng " rén ” zì. |
| Oh, the "single person radical" looks like the character for "person." |
| B: | 对。“很”的部首也在左边，叫“双人旁”。看，有两个撇。 |
| duì." hěn” de bùshǒu yě zài zuǒbiān, jiào" shuāngrénpáng”. kàn, yǒu liǎng ge piě. |
| Right. And in the character for "very," the radical is also on the left. It's called "the double person radical." Look, it has two falling-left strokes. |
| A: | 真有意思。 |
| zhēn yǒu yìsi. |
| That's really interesting. |
| B: | 再看这个 “ 冰 ” 字，它的部首叫“两点水 ”。“ 酒 ”的部首呢，叫 “ 三点水 ”。 |
| zài kàn zhè ge " bīng ” zì, tā de bùshǒu jiào" liǎngdiǎnshuǐ ”." jiǔ ” de bùshǒu ne, jiào " sāndiǎnshuǐ ”. |
| Now take a look at this character for "cold." The radical is called "two-dot ice." The radical in "alcohol”is "three-dot water." |
| A: | 哦，单人旁，双人旁，两点水，三点水，还挺形象的。 |
| ò, dānrénpáng, shuāngrénpáng, liǎngdiǎnshuǐ, sāndiǎnshuǐ, hái tǐng xíngxiàng de. |
| Oh-- "single person," "double person," "two-dot ice," "three-dot water." And they're actually pretty good depictions. |
| B: | 好玩儿吧？你去拿一下字典。 |
| hǎowánr ba? nǐ qù ná yīxià zìdiǎn. |
| Fun, huh? Go grab your dictionary. |
| B: | 先看 “ 部首目录 ” 。我们要根据部首查字。 |
| xiān kàn " bùshǒu mùlù ” . wǒmen yào gēnjù bùshǒu chá zì. |
| First look at the "Table of Radicals." We look up characters by their radicals. |
| A: | 这么多！什么时候才能学会啊！ |
| zhème duō! shénme shíhou cáinéng xuéhuì a! |
| There are so many! When will I ever be able to master them all? |
| B: | 除了我刚才教你的，还有一些你肯定认识。比如这个就是“木字旁”。 |
| chúle wǒ gāngcái jiāo nǐ de, hái yǒu yīxiē nǐ kěndìng rènshi. bǐrú zhè ge jiùshì" mùzìpáng”. |
| Besides the ones I just taught you, there are definitely some you recognize. For instance, this one is the "wood radical." |
| A: | 哦，原来一些简单的字也是部首。哎，这些笔画也算部首？ |
| ò, yuánlái yīxiē jiǎndān de zì yě shì bùshǒu. āi, zhèxiē bǐhuà yě suàn bùshǒu? |
| Oh-- so some simple characters are also radicals. Ah-- do these strokes also count as components? |
| B: | 没错。而且就算不知道部首，也可以查字的。 |
| méicuò. érqiě jiùsuàn bù zhīdào bùshǒu, yě kěyǐ chá zì de. |
| Yes. And even if you don't know the radicals, you can still look up the character. |
| A: | 哦，那怎么办？ |
| ò, nà zěnme bàn? |
| Huh? How do you do that? |
| B: | 合体字的话，你可以先把简单的那部分当成“部首”。独体字的话，可能它自己就是一个部首。 |
| hétǐzì dehuà, nǐ kěyǐ xiān bǎ jiǎndān de nà bùfen dàngchéng" bùshǒu”. dútǐzì dehuà, kěnéng tā zìjǐ jiùshì yī ge bùshǒu. |
| With characters with multiple components, you treat the simple part as the radical. Characters with a single component might be radicals themselves. |
| A: | 好！我现在就查查看。 |
| hǎo! wǒ xiànzài jiù chá cha kàn. |
| Great! I'm going to look some up now! |
| B: | 真是个急性子！我还没教你怎么查呢！ |
| zhēn shì ge jíxìngzi! wǒ hái méi jiāo nǐ zěnme chá ne! |
| You're really impatient! I haven't taught you how to look them up yet! |