Daily Mandarin Lesson Love in Chinese

Love is a central part of life, perhaps even the most important! Expressing love in a foreign language can be difficult and require a good sense of the language, but starting from the word for love itself is a good idea.   Character The Chinese character for love or to love is æ„› in traditional Chinese, but it can also be written as çˆ ± in simplified Chinese. Traditional Chinese is more commonly used in Taiwan and Hong Kong, whereas simplified Chinese is used in mainland China. The main difference between the two characters is that the simplified version does not have the component, Ã¥ ¿Æ'. In Chinese, Ã¥ ¿Æ' (xÄ «n) means heart.  Thus, a running joke among advocates of traditional Chinese is that there is no love in places that use simplified Chinese because the character is stripped of its heart.   æ„› /  Ã§Ë† ± can be used as a noun or as a verb—to love someone or to love doing something. The character is roughly used in the same manner as the Chinese character Ã¥â€"Å"æ ¬ ¢, which means like or to like. Pronunciation The pinyin for æ„› /  Ã§Ë† ±Ã‚  is à  i. The character is pronounced in the 4th tone, and can also be referred to as ai4. Sentence Examples Using  Ãƒâ‚¬i TÄ  à  i chà  ng gÄ“.ä »â€"æ„›å” ±Ã¦ ­Å'ä »â€"çˆ ±Ã¥â€ ±Ã¦ ­Å'He loves to sing. WÇ’ à  i nÇ Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã¦â€žâ€ºÃ¤ ½  Ã¦Ë†â€˜Ã§Ë† ±Ã¤ ½  I love you.   Zhà ¨ shà ¬ yÄ «gà ¨ à  iqà ­ng gà ¹shà ¬.這æ˜ ¯Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¥â‚¬â€¹Ã¦â€žâ€ºÃ¦Æ'…æ•…ä ºâ€¹Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¨ ¿â„¢Ã¦Ëœ ¯Ã¤ ¸â‚¬Ã¤ ¸ ªÃ§Ë† ±Ã¦Æ'…æ•…ä ºâ€¹Ã£â‚¬â€šThis is a love story. TÄ men zà  i bÄ›ijÄ «ng à  i shà  ngle.ä »â€"們åÅ" ¨Ã¥Å'â€"ä º ¬Ã¦â€žâ€ºÃ¤ ¸Å Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€šÃ¤ »â€"ä » ¬Ã¥Å" ¨Ã¥Å'â€"ä º ¬Ã§Ë† ±Ã¤ ¸Å Ã¤ ºâ€ Ã£â‚¬â€šThey fell in love in Beijing.