Any kind of language has certain forms which can be used to describe the state of the things of illustrate some truths. All westerners who learn Mandarin Chinese know there are T-shirt, U-turn and Xing in English language. Students should know Chinese language is pictograph, originating from the drawing. Then it gradually developed into words composed of morphemes and syllables. Some students who learn Mandarin may feel the forms are diverse with a large number. But is has strong ability in rhetoric ways, one of which is to use the forms.

As a matter of fact, there are many rhetoric ways because of the diverse forms of Chinese characters. When learning Mandarin Chinese, you may often see Chinese people use the forms of the characters to describe the shapes or appearances of things. The followings are some examples, 只见队伍 ” 一” 字儿排开, 他在床上躺成个 “大” 字, “八” 字还没一撇呢. When you learn Mandarin, you should know some of such words are formed into form words like 八字胡 and 丁字街. Some of the characters were from the pictograph like 山，门 and 马.