非
=
三
+
丿
+
丨
:
Mnemonic symbol: a negative film (photography).
Frankenstein's monster (f) made an effort to photograph the Eiffel Tower (ei1), but now his negative (非) is a big mess. In front of the tower he set up a camera on a Cartesian coordinate system (三) as a tripod, and he attached a banana (丿) and a dinosaur bone (丨) to the camera so that he can finely tune the angles. All was for naught as he now holds the messed up negative in his hands.
to divide; to separate / to distribute; to allocate / to distinguish (good and bad) / (bound form) branch of (an organization); sub- (as in 分局[fen1 ju2]) / fraction / one tenth (of certain units) / unit of length equivalent to 0.33 cm / minute (unit of time) / minute (angular measurement unit) / a point (in sports or games) / 0.01 yuan (unit of money)
分
=
八
+
刀
:
Symbol for this character: A stopwatch (from the meaning "minute"). Frankenstein's monster (f) participates in the annual championship of chopping eight-balls (八) in front of the encampment ((e)n1). Using a cleaver (刀), he chops (kind of divides / separates (分)) as many eight-balls as he can in one minute (分).
之
=
丶
+
Z
:
Mnemonic symbol: Sooo sleepy... "zZz" (the character looks like a "Z"). James II of England (zh) fell asleep in front of the space station (Ø1). He sleeps on a big petal leaf (丶), making loud "zZz" (之) sounds.
to read / to study (a subject) / to attend (a school) / to read aloud / to give (sb) a tongue-lashing (CL:頓|顿[dun4]) / to miss (sb) / idea / remembrance / twenty (banker's anti-fraud numeral corresponding to 廿[nian4])