Difference between Chinese characters and words

A character is a written symbol that represents an object, action, idea, etc. When said thing being represented can stand alone in a sentence, it is a word, but if it depends on other characters to express an idea, it is a morpheme. Therefore, the differences between characters and words are usually differences between morphemes and words. See the two examples below:

wǒ
我
I		 xiǎng
想
to want		 mǎi
买
to buy		 diàn
电
electronic		 nǎo
脑
brain
I to want to buy computer
I want to buy a computer.
wǒ
我
my		 jiā
家
home		 méi
没
not		 yǒu
有
to have		 diàn
电
electricity
my home to not to have electricity
There is no electricity in my home.

▮ character; ▮ word

Characters

In the two examples above, there are five “symbols” in each sentence, so there are five characters per sentence.

Words

In the first example, 电 (diàn) “electronic” and 脑 (nǎo) “brain” cannot stand alone as two separate ideas in the sentence, as they rely on each other to form a distinct meaningful element, “computer,” so there are four words.

However, in the second example, 电 (diàn) is used alone as a word that means “electricity,” and since all the other characters are also used alone, there are five words in the sentence.

Note

Whether a character is a morpheme or a word depends on how it is used in a sentence. Let’s take the English word “able” for example. It is a word, “able,” in the first example below, but it is a morpheme, “-able,” in the second example. However, a small number of characters are only used as morphemes, similar to -ing as in “drinking.”

Example: I will be able to work tomorrow.

Example: This water is not drinkable.