What is the difference between simplified characters and traditional characters?

“人”, when you look at this Chinese character, what do you think in your mind? Do you think it looks like a person standing on the ground?

Yes, “人”, it is a “ren—person/people” standing there. As you know, Chinese language is a pictographic language. However as a matter of fact, Chinese characters have developed a lot in its 5000 years history. Only about 5% Chinese characters nowadays have still kept their original figures which people can guess out their meanings from their appearance.

In 1956, a new Chinese character system was promoted in the China’s mainland, it was called “Simplified Chinese characters”. After more than 50 years, it is popular used in the mainland, Singapre and Malaysia. Meanwhile, people in Taiwan and Hongkong still kept using traditional characters.

So, you may ask what is the difference between simplified characters and traditional characters? From the form below, you may find the difference.

Simplified characters	Traditional characters	Meaning of characters
龙	龍	N.dragon
岛	島	N. island
鸟	鳥	N. birds
爱	愛	V. to love
国	國	N. country
为	為	Prep. For
汉	漢	N. Chinese
学	學	V. to study

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