Introduction to components

Components are items in HanziHero that correspond to a common group of strokes that make up characters.

Viewing components

The list of components in the application can be viewed at any time by clicking on the Components link in the application navbar, or by directly navigating to the components page.

Learned components

If you have already learned a component in your lessons, it will show up as a dark blue color, as pictured below.

Unlearned components

However, if you have not yet covered a component in your lessons, it will have an overlay graphic, as pictured below.

Component page

You can navigate to a component by clicking on its blue tile. Doing so will take you to the component page, which covers all aspects of that component. For example, the picture below depicts the water component page.

Subcomponents

The Subcomponents section shows all subcomponents contained within that component. As their name indicates, these are smaller components within the component. These subcomponents are used in the component’s meaning mnemonic to help you remember the component.

You can navigate to any of the subcomponents’ pages by clicking on their light blue tile.

Not all components have subcomponents. Those that do not will not have this section on their page.

Meaning

The Meaning section shows the names of the component, any user synonyms, and a mnemonic to help you remember it.

The name shows up under the Primary heading. If there are Alternate names for a component, that will also show up as well.

If there is a similar name you think a component should have that does not currently have it, you can add it as a component user synonym by clicking on the Add synonym button under the Your synonyms section.

Found in components

The Found in components section shows any components that this component is found in. That is, it will show any components that this component is a subcomponent of.

Visually similar components

The Visually similar components section shows any components that are visually similar to this component. You can reference this to help with better separating in your mind the subtle differences between different components.

If you find that a component you think is visually similar is not listed here, let us know via the chat widget ! We can add that visually similar component for you so it will show up for you and others.

Some components do not have any visually similar components. Those that do not will not have this section on their page.

Found in Hanzi

The Found in Hanzi section shows any characters that contain this component. You can navigate to any of those characters by clicking on their tile.

Radicals and components

Radicals are components that are specifically used for character indexing. There are around 200 standard radicals that are used for this purpose.

The set of over 500 components at HanziHero includes all of these standard radicals.