how do you refer to a particular character?

[Guest Yau]

homophone is common in chinese. In daily conversation, it isn't a big problem because you can understand most things by context, but when you spell a name and have to make a reference to a particular character, there's always a problem.

The solution is to verbally dismantle a chinese character, and spell out these small parts.

e.g.

林 , 雙木林

張, 弓長張

李, 木子李

Any more examples? How do you say 弘 ? 陳? 拼?

[Claw]

I think the more common solution is to use the character in a readily recognizable word. For instance:

林：森林的林

[Guest Yau]

I think it's more common among cantonese but in no putonghua. I'm not really sure.

I just met a boy, whose name is 嘉維. (a student who got 9As in HK Cert Exam this year )

He introduced himself like this:

My name is 嘉維，嘉頓的嘉, 維他奶的維.

[Claw]

I'm pretty sure that it's just as common in putonghua. My putonghua teacher taught us the same technique.

He introduced himself like this:

My name is 嘉維，嘉頓的嘉, 維他奶的維.

[yonglan]

In Taiwan, everyone uses XY 的 X, except for a few characters (mostly surnames) like 雙木林 or 耳朵陳.

[skylee]

I wonder why 我姓李，木子李 exists. Is there another homophone surname?

He introduced himself like this:

My name is 嘉維，嘉頓的嘉, 維他奶的維.

You know what he has for breakfast.

[roddy]

I've mostly heard the same as Yonglan - it's XY de Y most of the time, and sometimes a breakdown of the character.

Which one you use depends on whhether the question was 'Which character is the C in BC?' or 'How do you write the C in BC'.

Roddy

[Guest Yau]

其實用普通話是怎樣唸部首呢?

在廣東話裡, 我們經常會說「車字邊, 一個干字, 就是"軒"字.」又或: 「繞絲邊, 一個工字, 就是"紅"字.」普通話會怎樣說呢?

I wonder why 我姓李，木子李 exists. Is there another homophone surname?

大概很多的母語不是北京話, 說 li3 字時, 可能唸成 li2 (黎) ,

為免混淆, 就說「木子李」吧.

突然想起香港的李鵬飛, 在立法會說有位叫「陳壽山」的人物威脅他,

最後才知聽錯了, 是成綬三才對.