Chinese Language --- Xing Sheng

The term for "phonetic compounds" (xing sheng) literally means "form and sound," and characters in this category are just that, a combination of a visual meaning element with a phonetic element. Two examples are shui "sleep" and qu "to take a wife." The phonetic element in shui is chui, "to hang down," and the meaning element is mu, "eye," i.e. when a person's "eye hangs down "he" sleeps." Chui and shui are close in pronunciation. The Qu portion of the character Qu "to marry (a woman)," means "to take," and also indicates the pronunciation of the character; nu means "woman." Most phonetic compounds are also at the same time compound ideographs, since the phonetic element not only represents a linguistic sound, but also contains a meaning that is related to the new character as a whole.