Chinese is made up of 字 zì single syllable characters; one or more 字 forms a 词 cí which is a word. When reading a sentence in Chinese it is not always clear which 字 should be grouped together to form a 词. If you group the wrong 字 together the meaning of the sentence will be vastly different from the original. I made this mistake while reading the second chapter of 小王子 xiǎo wángzǐ The Little Prince.
The sentence that I misread:
他丝毫不象是一个迷失在旷无人烟的大沙漠中的孩子。
Tā sīháo bù xiàng shì yīgè míshī zài kuàng wú rényān de dà shāmò zhōng de háizi.
He did not seem in the slightest to be a child lost in the vast desert far from any sign of human habitation.
旷 kuàng vast
无 wú not
人烟 rényān sign of human habitation
The 字 zì characters 人 rén "person" and 烟 yān "smoke" should be grouped together to form the 词 cí word 人烟 rényān "sign of human habitation", instead I tried to read each 字 character as two separate 词 words, this will create the misreading of the sentence as "He did not seem in the slightest to be a lost child, not a person or smoke [from a fire] in the vast desert." I was quite baffled.
Sometimes translation software will correctly group the 字 together to form the intended 词 but sometimes it will be wrong. At least Google translate correctly identified the proper noun 撒哈拉沙漠 sǎhālā shāmò Sahara Desert.
There were a lot more vocabulary words that I didn't know in Chapter 2 than Chapter 1:
１. 故障 gùzhàng malfunction; bug (in software)
故 gù instance
障 zhàng to hinder
２. 机械师 jīxiè shī mechanic
机械 jīxiè mechanical
机 jī machine
械 xiè appliance
师 shī expert
３. 试图 shìtú to try
试 shì to experiment
图 tú to attempt
４. 拂晓 fúxiǎo daybreak
拂 fú to brush away
晓 xiǎo dawn
５. 逊色 xùnsè inferior
(often in the combination 毫无逊色, not in the least inferior)
逊 xùn to abdicate
色 sè appearance
６. 生涯 shēngyá career
生 shēng birth
涯 yá horizon
７. 荒诞 huāngdàn beyond belief
荒 huāng absurd
诞 dàn boast
My three favorite phrases:
1. 惊雷轰击 jīngléi hōngjī struck by thunder
惊雷 jīngléi sudden clap of thunder; [figurative] surprising turn of events
轰击 hōngjī bombard
惊 jīng to startle
雷 léi thunder
轰 hōng explosion
击 jī to strike
2. 凝眸望着 níngmóu staring intently at
凝 níng to concentrate attention
眸 móu pupil of the eye
望 wàng to gaze into the distance
着 zhe [aspect particle indicating action in progress]
3. 喜笑颜开 xǐxiào yán kāi [idiom] grinning from ear to ear; beaming with happiness
喜笑 xǐxiào laughter
喜 xǐ delight
笑 xiào smile
颜 yán countenance
开 kāi open
Le Petit Prince http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300771h.html
