The character 门
And its component form
门
mén
- door
- gate
The character 门 was created to look like the image of door. Can you see it?
门 is both a character and a character component
门 can be used as a meaning component in a Chinese character. You’ll find 门 in characters related to doors, gates and things that are closed.
These characters all contain 门 :
When used as a component, 门 can also change shapes.
The component 门 is usually easy to spot, once you know it can also take another form, its traditional form.
門
You can find it in words looking like this in words like:
瞷 jiàn: to spy
閛 pēng: the sound of a door opening or closing
Do you see how 门 looks in its traditional form?
You’ll also find the meaning component 门 in many other Chinese characters. Browse the full list here.
All 80,000+ Chinese characters share the same character components. Character components are therefore essential for Chinese learners: they are the building blocks of Chinese. Character components help tremendously with understanding a character: they provide information on its meaning or on its pronunciation. In short, knowing character components will help you analyse, learn and remember each Chinese character much better.
Join us on Ninchanese as we teach you everything about the Chinese character components you need to know, little by little.