Top 50 Chinese Words
最常用五十个词
These are 50 of the most common Chinese words, ranked by their frequency in written Chinese: the pronouns, verbs and question words that carry everyday Mandarin — 我们, 他们, 什么, 这个, 可以. It is a natural first vocabulary list for Chinese learners, and every entry is a word of two or more characters; the single-character words like 的 and 是 are covered by the character lists instead.
Download this list as a PDF
Two printable PDFs, both vector — sharp at any zoom and safe for a 300 DPI print. No email, no account.
- List PDF — every entry with its rank, pinyin and meaning.
- Practice sheet — One block per word: the word, its pinyin and meaning, every stroke drawn in order, then blank Tianzige cells to write it in. All 50 words. Print it and write.
50 most common Chinese words, in frequency order
Every word links to its own page with stroke order, pinyin and example words.
| # | Word | Pinyin | POS | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 我们 | wǒmen | pron | we, us |
| 2 | 他们 | tāmen | pron | they, them |
| 3 | 自己 | zìjǐ | pron | self |
| 4 | 什么 | shénme | pron | what |
| 5 | 这个 | zhège | pron | this |
| 6 | 可以 | kěyǐ | v | may, can |
| 7 | 问题 | wèntí | n | question, problem, issue |
| 8 | 没有 | méiyǒu | v | have not, there be not |
| 9 | 这样 | zhèyàng | pron | this (kind of, sort of); so |
| 10 | 知道 | zhīdào | v | know |
| 11 | 现在 | xiànzài | time | now |
| 12 | 工作 | gōngzuò | v | work, do a job |
| 13 | 因为 | yīn wèi | conj | because |
| 14 | 已经 | yǐjīng | adv | already |
| 15 | 时候 | shíhou | n | when, time when… |
| 16 | 这些 | zhèxiē | pron | these |
| 17 | 发展 | fāzhǎn | v | develop |
| 18 | 社会 | shèhuì | n | society |
| 19 | 一些 | yìxiē | num | some |
| 20 | 如果 | rúguǒ | conj | if |
| 21 | 世界 | shìjiè | n | world |
| 22 | 生活 | shēnghuó | v | live |
| 23 | 怎么 | zěnme | pron | how |
| 24 | 国家 | guójiā | n | country |
| 25 | 开始 | kāishǐ | v | begin, start |
| 26 | 时间 | shíjiān | n | time |
| 27 | 起来 | qǐlái | v | get up, rise; [following a verb to indicate the beginning of a situation] start to; [following a verb to indicate completedeness or effectiveness] |
| 28 | 今天 | jīntiān | time | today |
| 29 | 可能 | kěnéng | v | might (happen) |
| 30 | 孩子 | háizi | n | child, children |
| 31 | 地方 | dìfang | n | place, space, room; locality (in relation to central administration) |
| 32 | 但是 | dànshì | conj | but |
| 33 | 所以 | suǒyǐ | conj | so, therefore |
| 34 | 认为 | rènwéi | v | think, believe |
| 35 | 经济 | jīngjì | n | economy |
| 36 | 公司 | gōngsī | n | (business) company |
| 37 | 文化 | wénhuà | n | culture |
| 38 | 关系 | guānxì | n | relation, relationship; connections, ties |
| 39 | 觉得 | juéde | v | think, feel |
| 40 | 出来 | chūlái | v | come out |
| 41 | 进行 | jìnxíng | v | go on, last; be under way; carry on, carry out, perform |
| 42 | 重要 | zhòng yào | adj | important, vital |
| 43 | 这么 | zhème | pron | so, such, like this |
| 44 | 情况 | qíngkuàng | n | situation, condition, circumstance |
| 45 | 这里 | zhèlǐ | pron | here |
| 46 | 你们 | nǐmen | pron | [plural] you |
| 47 | 而且 | érqiě | conj | (not only …) but also |
| 48 | 企业 | qǐyè | n | business establishment, enterprise |
| 49 | 方面 | fāngmiàn | n | aspect, respect, side |
| 50 | 那么 | nàme | pron | so, that; in that way |
Studying from a frequency list
1. Work front to back
The order is the whole point. Twenty new words from the top of this list are worth more than a hundred from the bottom, because you will meet them far more often.
2. Write them, don't just read them
Download the practice sheet: every word gets its own block with the strokes drawn one by one, then blank Tianzige cells to write it in. Handwriting is what makes a character stick.
3. Open the entry pages
Every word links to its own page with the stroke order animated, all its readings, and common words built from it — the fastest way to turn a ranked row into something you remember.
4. Read past the list
Use the generator to turn any Chinese text into a worksheet, then check the characters you meet against this ranking.
Questions about this list
How many Chinese words do I need to know?
1,000 words gets you through everyday conversation and simple reading; 2,000–3,000 is where newspapers and novels open up. Because this list is ranked by corpus frequency, the top of it is the highest-value study time you can spend.
Is the top 50 chinese words list free to download?
Yes. Both PDFs on this page are free, need no account, and print on US Letter. The list PDF has all 50 words; the practice sheet covers 50 words, each with its strokes drawn in order and blank cells to write in.
What order is the list in?
Strict frequency order, taken from a corpus-derived frequency dictionary of Mandarin Chinese. Rank 1 is the most frequent entry in the corpus, not the easiest or the first one a textbook introduces.
How is this word list different from the character lists?
This list only carries words of two or more characters, so it answers a different question from the character lists. Single-character words such as 的, 是 and 一 do sit at the very top of the raw frequency ranking — in Chinese a single character is often a word in its own right — but they are already covered by the character lists and by each character's own page, so repeating them here would just push the vocabulary you came for off the page.
Other frequency lists
Turn any Chinese text into a worksheet
Paste a lesson, a poem or a news paragraph and print it as Tianzige practice grids with tone-marked pinyin and stroke-order breakdowns — free vector PDF.