Characters are written .
Characters are printed with no spaces between words ; yet in practice most Chinese words consist of two - syllable compounds , and it was Chao 's bold innovation in 1922 to reflect this in GR orthography by grouping the appropriate syllables together into words .
Characters are written and printed with no spaces between words ; yet in practice most Chinese words consist of two - syllable compounds , and it was Chao 's bold innovation in 1922 to reflect this in GR orthography by grouping the appropriate syllables together into words .