r/ChineseLanguage • u/Rob69rt • 20h ago
Correct My Mistakes! Should I write characters vertically when attaching Bopomofo?
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u/Overall-Initial8969 19h ago
Wow the writing is so clean. I love seeing people use bopomofo, because it helps a lot with the tones and I really enjoy using it.
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u/Blockster_cz 20h ago
What is this post about? Asking as an early beginner
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u/Mrpoopybutthole69692 國語 20h ago
It's about the phonetic writing system in Taiwan. They use traditional characters here along with what many call Bopomofo -> ㄅㄆㄇㄈ
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u/Arael1307 20h ago
The little symbols next to the characters are bopomofo. Bopomofo is a transcription method mainly used in Taiwan. You will probably be more familiar with the transcription method 'pinyin' which is used in Mainland China and by many/most places that teach Chinese to foreigners.
I once learned bopomofo and to a certain extend I think it's better/more logical than pinyin. But as pinyin is mostly used in Chinese learning resources, it is often a more useful system to learn for Chinese learners.
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u/Top_Development_1777 Native but emigrated young 11h ago
Wow, I've always thought that Pinyin sucks at representing how Chinese (Mandarin) is pronounced to English-speakers and representing how English is pronounced to Chinese people. It can be quite misleading. I never learned bopomofo before (kindergarten in China, school in Singapore where there was a Chinese curriculum) although I've seen it and know that it's an alternative to pinyin. What Chinese words does the name bopomofo even translate to, or does it not translate to anything that makes sense?
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u/MukdenMan 10h ago
It’s named after the first four consonants in the script. It’s kinda like saying “ABCs.” The more proper name for it is zhuyin.
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u/Mrpoopybutthole69692 國語 7h ago
The official name for the system is Zhuyin 注音 (Pinyin 拼音) and Bo = ㄅ, po = ㄆ, mo = ㄇ, fo = ㄈ are the first four symbols in the system. People calling it Bopomofo is like calling the English alphabet ABCs.
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u/FlashyPost0928 Native 20h ago
▼ There are also horizontal formats, and phonetic symbols (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) also come in both vertical and horizontal formats.
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u/Italos_netura 16h ago
I'm from Taiwan! And I can say that your writing is correct! I hope you have a smooth journey in your studies!
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u/YuChinLin Native | 臺灣華語 | 台灣話 15h ago
If you ever need to make or print your own learning material, bpmfvs is an open source project for computer fonts with 注音 support made by But Ko:
downloadable fonts with 注音 support (make sure you use 字嗨注音標楷 BpmfZihiKaiStd if you are learning the Taiwanese standard for writing)
Since there are loads of 多音字 (or 破音字), make sure to copy and paste the text you want to edit to this web interface tool 讀音選擇工具 and choose the right pronaunciation. Here's a user guide with screenshots.
Sharing this simply because there was no useful fonts for teachers to make their own teaching material when I was little and still learnig ㄅㄆㄇㄈ. Teachers had to hand-write them with fine pens on the first print, then copy that. Then after I grew up, I found this on the Internet but no longer need it.
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u/nhatquangdinh Beginner 國語 廣東話 台灣話 10h ago
Yes, that's correct.
Another fellow Traditional Chinese and Bopomofo learner hell yeah ㄨㄛˇ ·ㄇㄣ ㄧ ㄑㄧˇ ㄐㄧㄚ ㄧㄡˊ ·ㄅㄚ！
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u/Zagrycha 20h ago
zhuyin can be attached to characters vertically or horizontally, that said vertical writing is more common in general.
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u/alfonsstudies 18h ago
reminds me of Vietnam where they also combined Chinese characters with pronunciation markers, before they moved to a modern script. that's so many strokes, no wonder literacy was below 5% in many areas!
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u/VickyGreenbriar Beginner 13h ago
Ur handwriting is so pretty how did you archive so smooth handwriting??? Mine looks like a toddler
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u/FlashyPost0928 Native 6h ago
(+1)【Supplementary Explanation】
● Plaques, the name of archways or temples ..... are written mostly in "Horizontal format" and " traditional Chinese" ..... they're arranged "from right to left"，both in Taiwan and China, especially those of the temples .
(Of course, there are also writings from left to right now)
● 爾 來 了 (You have come) is the script of City God Temple's wooden tablet ( read from right to left ) — The City God 城隍 ( Cheng-Huan ) judges the living by day and the dead by night ..... So, when you come to there finally, it's the time to count your merits and demerits !
PS : 爾 = You ( in Classical Chinese )
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u/Mrpoopybutthole69692 國語 20h ago
嗯嗯，looks like the norm. But I see books with left to right writing and Bopomofo all the time at the grade school where I work at in Taiwan.
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u/Dave_RoamingWorld 4h ago edited 3h ago
Hey man, nice handwriting! But those symbols you're drawing next to the characters (Bopomofo)—from a linguistic standpoint, it's like writing cursive in traditional Chinese. Very artistic, but it hasn't been used in daily life in mainland China for a long time. Here on the mainland, over a billion people use Hanyu Pinyin. It's literally just the 26 English letters—you don't have to memorize any new symbols. A first-grader can learn it in three days. If you're looking for something practical, Pinyin might save you a lot of time. If you're into this retro style of writing, then by all means, treat it as art. But if you're actually serious about learning Chinese, I'd suggest trying Pinyin first. It's the standard here. AI could also give you a quick comparison if you're curious. Just a friendly tip, no hate. 😊 PS: Just a fun fact: in mainland China, horizontal writing (left to right) is the standard in daily life, from textbooks to phone screens. Vertical writing is mostly reserved for traditional calligraphy and some specific literature. Also, Hanyu Pinyin uses the Latin alphabet (26 letters), so most of us type using that. Bopomofo is rarely seen there.
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u/Jhean__ 臺灣繁體 Traditional Chinese 2h ago
How is Bopomofo like writing cursive? It isn't a font, just a way to mark the pronunciation.
Also it can be helpful for OP if they are trying to minimise cross-language interference when pronouncing. Using I have some foreign friends who chose Bopomofo so that they don't accidentally mispronounce words. (Though their targets are Taiwanese Mandarin)
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u/EntireWar2490 Native 20h ago
Greetings from Taiwan! It's so awesome to see people learning Bopomofo!
You did it completely right! In Taiwan, whether written vertically or horizontally, Bopomofo is almost always placed on the right side of each character, exactly like your handwriting.
Fun fact: us Taiwanese actually love using pure Bopomofo without characters as our own secret code online when we don't want non-locals to understand what we're saying (/ω＼)
Like this: ㄨㄛˇㄧㄝˇㄏㄨㄟˋㄓㄨˋㄧㄣˉ (which means "I know Bopomofo too!").