50 Common Chinese Words Every Beginner Should Know

Mandarin Chinese has more native speakers than any other language in the world, and it uses a character-based writing system entirely unlike alphabetic scripts — which means beginners benefit from a slightly different approach: learning words as whole characters or character pairs, not sound-by-sound spelling.

Greetings and courtesy

你好 nǐ hǎo (hello), 谢谢 xièxiè (thank you), 不客气 bú kèqi (you're welcome), 再见 zàijiàn (goodbye), 对不起 duìbùqǐ (sorry) — the essential opening phrases for any conversation.

Numbers

一 yī (one) through 十 shí (ten) — Chinese numbers are famously simple and regular past ten (11 is literally "ten-one," 20 is "two-ten"), making counting one of the more approachable early topics.

Family

妈妈 māma (mum), 爸爸 bàba (dad), 朋友 péngyou (friend) — note that Chinese kinship terms are often far more specific than English (different words for older vs. younger sibling, maternal vs. paternal relatives), which is worth knowing exists even before memorising every term.

Everyday life

水 shuǐ (water), 吃饭 chīfàn (to eat), 家 jiā (home), 学校 xuéxiào (school), 工作 gōngzuò (work).

Time

今天 jīntiān (today), 明天 míngtiān (tomorrow), 现在 xiànzài (now).

Why characters matter more than pinyin alone

Pinyin (the romanised spelling with tone marks) is a useful pronunciation aid, but it isn't how Chinese is actually written or read day to day — signs, menus, and text messages all use characters. Relying on pinyin alone, long-term, means being unable to read the language you're supposedly learning; looking up and recognising the actual character from the start builds a skill transliteration can't substitute for.

A simple way to build from this list

1. Learn five words a day as whole characters, not just their pinyin spelling.
2. Practice writing or tracing each character a few times — this reinforces recognition more than reading alone.
3. Note the tone for each word explicitly; Chinese is a tonal language where pitch changes meaning.
4. Review yesterday's words before adding new ones.

Look up any Chinese word instantly, in proper characters, offline, with English Chinese Dictionary →