The suffix 化 (huà) can be added to the end of many Chinese words to make them into verbs, the equivalent of "-ize" or "-ify" in English.
Structure
You can take some Chinese nouns and adjectives and add a 化 to the end of them 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 Chinese words that 化 is added to are two-character words.
Examples
The following is a short list of examples 化 words and sentences. Note that while the suffix 化 most often corresponds to "-ize" or "-ify" in English, these are not the only options in English. (Ah, you gotta love the endless variety of the English language!)
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
- Contemporary Chinese 4 (当代中文4)(p.17)
- >Short-term Spoken Chinese: Intermediate (汉语口语速成中级篇)(p.90)