Why a small set goes a long way
Chinese has thousands of characters, but they are not used equally. A small group appears again and again: the most common few hundred make up most of a typical text, and the 100 in this table turn up in almost every sentence you read.
Learning them first gives you the skeleton of written Chinese: the words for "is", "not", "have", "I", "you", "this", "that", and the grammar words that hold sentences together. What they do not give you is the content words of any particular topic, which is why the next step is always words, not more characters on their own.
Characters are not the same as words
A character is one syllable with a meaning. A word is often two characters: 学 (xué, study) and 生 (shēng, be born, life) make 学生 (xuésheng, student). Most modern Chinese words are two characters long, and one character can appear in dozens of words.
That is why the table gives example words. Knowing that 电 means "electricity" helps you remember 电话 (diànhuà, telephone) and 电脑 (diànnǎo, computer), but the word is what you actually say and read.
The grammar characters at the top
The very top of the list is full of characters that are hard to translate because they do grammatical work:
| Character | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 的 de | Links a description to a noun, like "’s" or "of" | 我的书 (wǒ de shū), my book |
| 了 le | Marks a completed action or a change | 我吃了 (wǒ chī le), I ate |
| 是 shì | "To be" between two nouns | 我是学生 (wǒ shì xuésheng), I am a student |
| 不 bù | "Not" | 不好 (bù hǎo), not good |
| 在 zài | "At, in", or an action in progress | 我在家 (wǒ zài jiā), I am at home |
| 着 zhe | An ongoing state | 门开着 (mén kāi zhe), the door is open |
| 么 me | Part of question words | 什么 (shénme), what |
Learn these inside short phrases, not as dictionary entries. "的 = of" will mislead you; "我的, 你的, 他的" (mine, yours, his) will not.
Characters with more than one reading
Some common characters are read differently depending on the word. The table gives the readings you will need most:
- 了 is le after a verb, but liǎo in 了解 (liǎojiě, to understand).
- 地 is dì as "ground, place" (地方, dìfang), but de after a description of how something is done.
- 得 is de after a verb (跑得快, pǎo de kuài, runs fast), dé in 得到 (dédào, to get), and děi as "must".
- 着 is zhe as a grammar marker and zháo in 着急 (zháojí, anxious).
- 行 is xíng (to walk, OK) but háng in 银行 (yínháng, bank).
- 还 is hái (still, also) but huán (to give back).
- 只 is zhǐ (only) but zhī as a measure word for animals.
Learn the reading together with the word, and these stop being confusing. The pinyin guide and the tones guide explain how the readings are written.
Simplified and traditional forms
The characters are in their simplified forms, used in mainland China and Singapore. The traditional column shows how they are written in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Many are the same; others differ (这 / 這, 国 / 國, 学 / 學).
A few simplified characters stand for two different traditional ones, because simplification merged them: 后 is both 後 (after) and 后 (queen), 发 is both 發 (to send, to issue) and 髮 (hair), and 只 is both 只 (only) and 隻 (a measure word). The table shows both forms for these.
The components inside many characters are radicals, which hint at meaning. The radicals table lists all 214.
How to learn them
- Learn each character with one or two words it appears in, not on its own.
- Review on a schedule. Spaced repetition, a little every day, beats long sessions.
- Read early. Graded readers and simple texts show you the same characters again and again in context.
- Follow a word list. The HSK vocabulary lists put these characters into the words learners are tested on.
- Type them. Typing with pinyin makes you recall the sound; see how to type Chinese.
Common mistakes
- Learning meanings without sounds. Each character needs its pinyin and tone, or you cannot use it in speech.
- Treating a character as a word. 电 alone is rarely said; 电话 and 电脑 are.
- Translating grammar characters one to one. 的, 了, and 着 have no single English equivalent.
- Mixing simplified and traditional in one text. Pick the script you need and stick to it.