Language/Mandarin-chinese/Vocabulary/10-Most-Common-Chinese-Characters

Here are the 10 most common Chinese Characters:

If you learn them, you will already have the feeling you know a little how to read when walking around the streets in China.

However, you will still have to study a lot before you reach 3,500 and 4,000 characters, the average number a high school-educated Chinese person is thought to know.

的

• de: grammatical particle
• dì: goal
• dí: real

一

• yī: one
• yí: one (before falling tone) 一个人 yí gè rén = one person
• yì: one (before high, rising, low tones) 一点儿 yìdiǎnr = a little

是

• shì: to be

不

• bù: not (before high, rising, low tones)
• bú: not (before falling tone)

了

• verb particle
• liǎo: finish

人

• rén: people

我

• wǒ: I, me

在

• zài: at

有

• yǒu: have
• yòu: again

他

• tā: he; someone else, something else