Thursday, March 24, 2011

Correcting my stroke order when writing 那

Ouch, I just learned from my iPod that I've been writing the very basic 那 character using the wrong stroke order for many years. I had been starting with the leftmost downward stroke, and couldn't get 那 to come up as a possible choice of character on the iPod.

A little investigation confirmed that starting with the other natural (to me) first choice of stroke, going left to right at the top, then down, is correct, and that brings up 那 as a choice from which to select.

It is just wonderful to have such convenient chances with the iPod to easily practice Chinese characters (and split infinitives).

2 comments:

  1. ah, but is that the "correct" order according to all the authorities? Sometimes I see different stroke orders depending on which reference or program I consult.

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  2. Well, it is the same stroke order given by the Besta (無敵; without enemies ["matchless?"]) electronic Chinese dictionary that I bought in Taiwan (a future blog entry about the Besta has been simmering for a while). Stroke order is not in any of the free Chinese dictionary apps that I have been using.

    I had the same stroke order problem with 認識 (ren4shi4; to know/understand/recognize). It is no surprise that any occurrence of that 刀 component (dao1; knife) should be written in the same order: top stroke first, the other one second. That principle is undoubtedly one of the basic ones which I haven't always followed because of inertia from writing left to right in English. A capital letter D has some similarity to 刀, and I imagine most people write the vertical line first, as I do.

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