The 100 Most Common Chinese Words

These are the 100 most common Chinese words, ranked by how often they appear in real Chinese text and speech, drawn from published word-frequency research. Frequency-first learning works: a small core of high-frequency words does most of the work in everyday sentences, so mastering this list with spaced repetition gives you the fastest possible start.

#	Word	Pronunciation	English meaning
1	的	duh	of
2	我	woh	I
3	你	nee	you
4	是	shir	be
5	了	luh	(completed-action particle)
6	他	tah	he
7	不	boo	not (negation)
8	在	dzahy	at
9	有	yoh	have
10	这	juh	this
11	个	guh	(measure word)
12	好	how	good
13	就	jyoh	then, right away
14	会	hway	can (know how to); will
15	要	yow	want (need, will)
16	什么	shen-muh	what
17	说	shwoh	say
18	她	tah	she
19	想	shyahng	would like to; think
20	一	ee	one
21	很	hun	very
22	知道	jir-dow	know
23	人	ren	people
24	吗	mah	(question particle)
25	来	lahy	come
26	都	doh	all
27	去	chyoo	go
28	到	dow	to
29	那	nah	that
30	也	yeh	also
31	没有	may-yoh	not have
32	看	kahn	look
33	对	dway	correct
34	能	nung	can (be able to)
35	还	hahy	still
36	把	bah	(object-fronting particle)
37	给	gay	give
38	上	shahng	on
39	和	huh	and
40	让	rahng	let
41	做	dzwoh	do
42	大	dah	large
43	里	lee	in
44	时候	shir-hoh	time
45	自己	dzih-jee	self
46	现在	shyen-dzahy	now
47	怎么	dzen-muh	how
48	可以	kuh-yee	may, be allowed to
49	事	shir	thing
50	点	dyen	point
51	我们	woh-men	we
52	他们	tah-men	they
53	吧	bah	(suggestion particle)
54	呢	nuh	(follow-up question particle)
55	啊	ah	(exclamation particle)
56	但是	dahn-shir	but
57	因为	een-way	because
58	所以	swoh-yee	so (therefore)
59	如果	roo-gwoh	if
60	觉得	jyweh-duh	feel (think, have an impression)
61	真	jen	really
62	太	tahy	too (excessively)
63	再	dzahy	again
64	只	jir	only
65	从	tsohng	from
66	跟	gen	with
67	为	way	for
68	别	byeh	don't (prohibitive)
69	请	cheeng	please
70	谢谢	shyeh-shyeh	thank you
71	喜欢	shee-hwahn	like (be fond of)
72	爱	ahy	love
73	找	jow	look for
74	听	teeng	listen
75	走	dzoh	walk (leave)
76	回	hway	return
77	开	kahy	open (start)
78	打	dah	hit (do, play)
79	吃	chir	eat
80	买	mahy	buy
81	用	yohng	use
82	帮	bahng	help
83	等	dung	wait
84	问	wen	ask
85	告诉	gow-soo	tell
86	东西	dohng-shee	thing (stuff)
87	地方	dee-fahng	place
88	时间	shir-jyen	time (duration)
89	今天	jeen-tyen	today
90	孩子	hahy-dzih	child
91	朋友	pung-yoh	friend
92	家	jyah	home (family)
93	钱	chyen	money
94	问题	wen-tee	question (problem)
95	小	shyow	small
96	多	dwoh	many (much)
97	新	sheen	new
98	天	tyen	day
99	次	tsih	time (occasion)
100	一起	ee-chee	together

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Ranked by lemma frequency in published Chinese corpus research; proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Pronunciation is a respelling guide, not phonetic notation.

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Frequently asked questions about Chinese words

How many Chinese words do you need for a basic conversation?

Frequency research shows the 1,000 most common words cover roughly 85 percent of everyday speech, and the top 100 alone appear in almost every sentence. You can manage simple exchanges with a few hundred words; this list is the foundation to build on.

What is the fastest way to memorize these 100 words?

Spaced repetition: review each word just before you would forget it, at growing intervals. It moves vocabulary into long-term memory far faster than rereading a list. Turn the 100 words into flashcards and review a small batch daily; the whole list fits into two to three weeks.

Are 100 words enough to speak Chinese?

No. One hundred words let you recognize the skeleton of most sentences, but not hold a real conversation. They are the right starting point: after this list, grow toward the most common 1,000 words and start speaking practice early, even with simple phrases.

Where does this Chinese word list come from?

From published Chinese word-frequency research: lemma-ranked corpus lists cleaned for learners, with proper nouns, numbers, and duplicates removed. Rankings are approximate, since real usage varies by region and register, but the core is stable across corpora.