Making "-ize" and "-ify" verbs with "hua"

化 added at the end of words in order to make them the equivalent of "-ize" or "-ify" in English.

Structure

You can take some nouns or adjectives and add a 化 to the end of it to make "-ize" or "-ify" them. Basically, 化 takes the noun or adjective and makes it into a verb. One example of how we do that in English is to take the word "modern" and turn it into "modernize." Most of the time, the words that is is used with are two-character words.

Noun/Adjective + 化

Examples

The following is a short list of examples 化 words and sentences.

With a Noun

• 现代化modernize
• 中国化sinicize, Chinese-ify
• 美国化Americanize
• KFC 的 中国 本土化 经营 做 得 非常 成功。KFC's Chinese localization has been implemented very successfully.
• 邓小平 提出了 四 个 现代化：工业现代化、农业现代化、国防现代化、科学技术现代化。Deng Xiaoping set forth the Four Modernizations: industrial modernization, agricultural modernization, national defense modernization, and scientific technology modernization.
• 现在 我们 公司 的工作 流程 和 人事 管理 已经 初步 制度化 了。These days our company's workflows and HR management have already started to be systematized.

With an Adjective

• 美化beautification
• 绿化greenify
• 软化soften
• 你 应该 让 黄油 软化，然后 跟 面包 一起 吃。You should allow the butter to soften, then eat it with bread.
• 我们 保护 环境 是 为了 美化 我们 的 城市。We protect the environment in order to beautify our city.
• 每年 我们 的 绿化 面积 都 在 扩大。Every year our green[ified] area is expanding.

Sources and further reading

Books

• 卓越汉语－公司实战篇(p.68) →buy

• Contemporary Chinese 4 (当代中文4)(p.17) →buy

• Short-term Spoken Chinese: Intermediate (汉语口语速成中级篇)(p.90) →buy

HSK5