What are the most common Chinese words?

The 100 most frequent words among HSK Studio's dictionary entries, each with pinyin, English meaning and HSK level, and how the top 1,000 split across the HSK levels. Free, no account.

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The 100 most common words

Ranked by word counts in the jieba segmentation dictionary, among the 11,623 words in HSK Studio's HSK 3.0 dictionary. Words missing from the dictionary, many names and slang among them, are not ranked.

The 100 most common Chinese words with pinyin, meaning and HSK level
#	Word	Pinyin	Meaning	HSK
1	了	le	particle indicating completed action or change of state	1
2	是	shì	to be	1
3	在	zài	to be at; at; in the middle of	1
4	和	hé	and, with	1
5	有	yǒu	to have, to exist	1
6	他	tā	he, him	1
7	不	bù	not, no	1
8	我	wǒ	I	1
9	的	de	possessive or modifying particle	1
10	人	rén	person	1
11	也	yě	also, too	1
12	为	wèi	for, because of, to	3
13	就	jiù	just, then; (as early as, only, as soon as)	2
14	这	zhè	this	1
15	上	shàng	up, above; to go up	1
16	年	nián	year; measure word for years	1
17	中	zhōng	middle	3
18	你	nǐ	you	1
19	说	shuō	to speak, to say	1
20	一	yī	one	1
21	到	dào	to arrive	1
22	都	dōu	all, both	1
23	等	děng	to wait; (and so on, until)	2
24	着	zhe	particle indicating ongoing action or state	2
25	对	duì	correct, right; to, toward, for; (to treat; pair)	1
26	来	lái	to come	1
27	与	yǔ	with, and	4
28	地	de	particle modifying an adjective into an adverb	2
29	还	hái	still, also; quite	1
30	要	yào	to want, to need	1
31	又	yòu	again, also	3
32	大	dà	big	1
33	而	ér	but, and, yet	4
34	之	zhī	auxiliary word (classical)	4
35	道	dào	path, way, method; measure word for long objects	4
36	以	yǐ	with, by, according to; (in order to)	5
37	得	de	particle indicating degree or manner	2
38	她	tā	she	1
39	中国	Zhōngguó	China	1
40	个	gè	measure word for general objects	1
41	后	hòu	behind, later	1
42	去	qù	to go	1
43	将	jiāng	with, by (used to introduce the object of a verb, similar to 把); will, shall, be about to	4
44	那	nà	that; (then)	1
45	但	dàn	but, however; (only, merely)	2
46	从	cóng	from; (ever)	2
47	月	yuè	month; moon	1
48	下	xià	down, below; to go down; measure word for times	1
49	把	bǎ	measure word for objects with handles; particle for object-fronting	3
50	被	bèi	by	3
51	于	yú	in, at, to	6
52	时	shí	time, moment; (season, period)	2
53	只	zhī	measure word for animals, one of a pair	1
54	多	duō	many, much; to have more; how many, how much; (more, over)	1
55	我们	wǒmen	we	1
56	过	guò	to pass, to cross; excessive	2
57	可	kě	but; (yet)	3
58	他们	tāmen	they	1
59	并	bìng	to combine, to merge; actually, indeed; and, also	4
60	能	néng	can, be able to	1
61	好	hǎo	good; (well); (to be fond of)	1
62	会	huì	can, to be able to	1
63	自己	zìjǐ	oneself	2
64	没有	méiyǒu	to not have; have not	1
65	出	chū	to go out, to leave	2
66	国家	guójiā	country	3
67	或	huò	or; (perhaps, maybe)	3
68	日	rì	measure word for days; (sun)	1
69	由	yóu	by, through, from, because of	4
70	里	lǐ	inside, in, mile	1
71	用	yòng	to use	3
72	所	suǒ	measure word for places; place, office	5
73	向	xiàng	to face, to turn toward; toward, to	3
74	已	yǐ	already	4
75	其	qí	his, its, that	5
76	可以	kěyǐ	can, may; okay, fine	1
77	给	gěi	to give; (to, for)	1
78	很	hěn	very	1
79	发展	fāzhǎn	to develop	3
80	看	kàn	to see, to look	1
81	工作	gōngzuò	work; to work	1
82	使	shǐ	to make, to cause, to use	4
83	前	qián	front, before	1
84	新	xīn	new	1
85	想	xiǎng	to think; to want	1
86	却	què	but, yet, however	4
87	这个	zhège	this one	1
88	它	tā	it	1
89	最	zuì	most, -est	2
90	什么	shénme	what	1
91	见	jiàn	to see	1
92	起	qǐ	to rise, to get up; (measure word for events)	3
93	主要	zhǔyào	main	3
94	小	xiǎo	small; prefix indicating small size or endearment	1
95	高	gāo	tall, high; height	2
96	更	gèng	more	3
97	如	rú	like, as; if	5
98	问题	wèntí	question	1
99	再	zài	again, then	1
100	才	cái	just, only	3

How the most common words split across HSK levels

Number of the most common words at each HSK level
Top words	HSK 1	HSK 2	HSK 3	HSK 4	HSK 5	HSK 6	HSK 7-9
Top 100	57	13	15	10	4	1	0
Top 500	130	64	91	120	61	25	9
Top 1,000	170	100	157	251	216	72	34

Each row adds up to its top count. To study a level in full see the HSK vocabulary lists, to see how many words a passage needs use the HSK level checker, and to plan the time use the study plan calculator.

Frequently asked questions

What are the most common Chinese words?

Among the words in HSK Studio's dictionary, ranked by their counts in the jieba segmentation dictionary, the most common start 了, 是, 在, 和, 有, 他, 不, 我, 的, 人. Many are grammar words and pronouns, which is why they top any frequency list. The table above lists the top 100 with pinyin, meaning and HSK level.

Where does the ranking come from?

It orders the dictionary's words by the counts in jieba's dict.txt (MIT licence), a word list used for Chinese text segmentation. Only the 11,623 words in HSK Studio's dictionary are ranked, so this is the order among those words, not among all Chinese words, and jieba's counts are not a published HSK or corpus-linguistics frequency table.

Are the most common words all HSK 1?

Not all, but most of the very top are. The second table shows how the top 100, 500 and 1,000 words split across the HSK levels, computed from the same data as the list.

Should I learn words in frequency order?

Frequency is a good guide to what you will meet most often, which is why HSK Studio's daily plan hands out each level's words most-common first. It is a rule of thumb: the words you most need depend on what you want to read.

How many words do I need to read Chinese?

There is no single number, because it depends on the text. To see how much of a particular passage a level's words cover, paste it into the HSK level checker, which reports the lowest HSK level whose words cover 90% of the running words.

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