你疯啊？
Feng 风 means wind. It’s etymologically related to “sail”. I found 风 easiest to remember as the wind of justice 义 yi hitting the sail 帆fan 凡。
冂jiong1 means “cover” 几ji3 means how many, 几ji1 means table.
Hanzi are HIGHLY STYLIZED SIMPLIFIED pictures and symbols; these are combined to form concepts in cases of complex characters. They may be “recycled” as pictorial, semantic, or auditory elements which are meant to be mutually reinforcing wherever possible.
This Feng 疯 means Crazy. 疯 features a sideways sickbed on top and left (two legs of bed on left, heating portion on top. Yes ancient china had heated beds. Civilized! And there we see that wind character again. The crazy person is sick and the sickness is like a strong wind blowing through them.
PICTURE SOUND AND MEANING ARE MUTUALLY REINFORCING IN HANZI.
风 here is phonetic AND semantic in exactly the way I describe.
你 means you ni3. It’s 人 ren2 on the left. On the right may be a picture of a crossbow (c.f. hanziyuan.net). On the right is 尔 which means “thou“; like thou 尔 is a bit archaic, antiquated, literary no longer part of ordinary speech. 尔 is small (小xiao3） and a sideways/abbreviated/compressed person 人ren2 character on top. The small you is THOU.
了 le/liao is a great easy character which can mean: change of state le (often used in cases of past tense, but not exclusively). 了 can also mean to understand liao. 了 can also be used pictographically to portray e.g. a stick as in 老人 old person lao3ren2 Hanzi may be recycled as pictorial, auditory, or semantic symbols.
为什么 Wei Shen Me Why
为=. 刀 DAO1 A KNIFE powerfully 力 LI4 SPLITS 办 BAN4 EIGHT BA1 八 into TWO 二 er4 parts.
WHY? just BECAUSE!
什 ren + ten sounds like SHEN2 means WHAT
ren2 person 人+十 shi2 10 = renshi (homophone 认识)
么 question particle; originally meant smallest one
为
Why
Ever
Is WHY BECAUSE WEI
什
Such
Hard
Examples
Now WHAT SHEN
么
Me?
Eric? QUESTION PARTICLE. ME=”?”
刀力办认识吗？ might be the logic behind 为什么 and does make it memorable – if you speak Chinese.
Shop is Dian right on the Dot, let’s figure it out!
店 = 广 manor on a hill + 上 + 口。 口 mouth. here it’s the building shang 上 means up/on top.
店
Drop
In
Anytime
Now! DIAN SHOP
上
So
High
And
Now
Go UP SHANG
口
Kneel
Open
Up MOUTH KOU
广
Grandiose
Umfassend
Amazing
New
Grand BROAD GUANG
歹 歹毒 餐 死 残
Decoding these Doozies nexx time! XAXA