In this unit, we'll start by revisiting the concept of pictophonetic characters, which you learned about in the previous lesson. Recall that these characters are like linguistic puzzles, with a meaning-indicating radical and a sound-indicating phonetic component. Today, you'll encounter two more characters of this kind: 猫 (māo), meaning "cat," and 狗 (gǒu), meaning "dog."

Notice how the new dog radical 犭 indicates the meaning in both characters, while the phonetic components 苗 (miáo) and 句 (gōu) contribute to their pronunciation.

But that's not all! Brace yourselves for an entirely new type of Chinese character: pictographic characters. These characters have a fascinating origin, dating back thousands of years to the original oracle bone script. The examples you'll explore are 鱼 (yú), meaning "fish," and 鸟 (niǎo), meaning "bird." You'll be amazed to see how these characters have evolved over millennia, capturing the essence of the creatures they represent.