You can often work out an unknown word without a dictionary, because the sentence around it carries clues. The skill is to look for the clue, form a guess, and test the guess by putting it back into the sentence. It appears in reading tasks and when you meet new words in a text you want to learn from.
It builds on using a new word in a natural collocation and sits in Characters, words and context.
What kinds of clue should I look for?
Four clue types cover most cases.
- Description: the sentence describes the thing: 路很窄，车子走得很慢.
- Contrast: the sentence opposes the word to a known one: 不是平坦的，而是崎岖的.
- Example: the sentence gives examples: 蔬菜，比如白菜、菠菜.
- Result: the sentence tells you what happened because of it: 他很疲惫，一回家就睡着了.
The clue is usually within one or two clauses of the word.
A step-by-step routine
- Mark the word and cover it mentally with “something”.
- Find the clue type in the sentence.
- Guess a plain meaning in your own words.
- Put the guess back and read: does the sentence still make sense and keep the same tone?
- Check the word’s parts only after the sentence test, as a second clue.
Worked example
This is an invented passage for practice.
这条山路崎岖不平，车子走得很慢，我们在车里颠簸了一路。
The unknown word is 崎岖 (qíqū).
Step 1: the word describes 山路 (mountain road) and is followed by 不平 (not level).
Step 2: clue types: description (车子走得很慢, the car goes slowly) and result (颠簸了一路, bumped along the whole way).
Step 3: guess “rough and uneven, hard to travel”.
Step 4: put it back: “This mountain road is rough and uneven, the car went slowly, we were bumped about the whole way.” The sentence makes sense.
So 崎岖 means rough and uneven, and is used for roads and paths.
A mistake that looks reasonable
A student reads 含糊 (hánhu) in this sentence:
问他去不去，他只含糊地说了一句“再看看”。
The student sees 含 (contain) and 糊 (paste) and guesses “to hold something sticky”. That guess fits the characters but not the sentence.
The sentence clue is the answer “再看看” (let us see), which neither says yes nor no. So 含糊 means “vague, unclear”. The correction is to read the sentence first and use the characters only as a second clue.
Self-check
Work out the meaning of the marked word. These are invented sentences.
1. 弟弟很顽皮，一刻也不肯安静，不是爬树就是追狗。
Show answer
顽皮 means “naughty, playful”. Clue: he never stays quiet and is always climbing or chasing.
2. 他的字迹很潦草，老师看了半天也认不出来。
Show answer
潦草 means “untidy, scrawled”. Clue: the teacher cannot read it (result clue).
3. 听到这个消息，她茫然地站着，不知道该做什么。
Show answer
茫然 means “blank, at a loss”. Clue: she did not know what to do.
Where to go next
Learn how a mark in the sentence can also mark where your guess starts and stops in relating punctuation to a sentence boundary. Then try the mixed practice set. The summary selection and paraphrase studio is useful for choosing the parts of a passage that matter.
If you would like a teacher to practise this routine on passages at your level, our team offers online one-to-one Chinese tuition.