Chinese for Beginners: Your First 50 Words
The absolute minimum you need to start understanding Chinese. These 50 words and characters are drawn from the HSK 1 list and from character-frequency data, so they are the ones you actually meet first in real Mandarin: greetings, pronouns, the grammar glue (的, 了, 吗, 不), question words, the ten most useful verbs, and a handful of everyday nouns. The front shows the Chinese with Pinyin; the back gives the English meaning plus a short usage note where it matters.
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Cards in this deck
#1
Q:你好 (nǐ hǎo)
- A:hello
#2
Q:谢谢 (xièxie)
- A:thank you
#3
Q:再见 (zàijiàn)
- A:goodbye
#4
Q:对不起 (duìbuqǐ)
- A:sorry / excuse me
#5
Q:请 (qǐng)
- A:please
#6
Q:我 (wǒ)
- A:I / me
#7
Q:你 (nǐ)
- A:you
#8
Q:他 (tā)
- A:he / him
#9
Q:她 (tā)
- A:she / her — same sound as 他, different character
#10
Q:我们 (wǒmen)
- A:we / us — 们 makes a pronoun plural
#11
Q:是 (shì)
- A:to be (am / is / are); also "yes, that's right"
#12
Q:不 (bù)
- A:not / no — goes in front of a verb or adjective
#13
Q:有 (yǒu)
- A:to have / there is
#14
Q:没 (méi)
- A:not — the negative used with 有 and with the past
#15
Q:在 (zài)
- A:at / in; to be located at
#16
Q:的 (de)
- A:links owner to thing, like 's or "of" (我的 = my)
#17
Q:吗 (ma)
- A:turns any statement into a yes/no question
#18
Q:了 (le)
- A:marks a finished action or a change
#19
Q:很 (hěn)
- A:very
#20
Q:也 (yě)
- A:also / too
#21
Q:都 (dōu)
- A:all / both
#22
Q:和 (hé)
- A:and — joins nouns, not sentences
#23
Q:好 (hǎo)
- A:good / well / OK
#24
Q:大 (dà)
- A:big
#25
Q:小 (xiǎo)
- A:small
#26
Q:多 (duō)
- A:many / much
#27
Q:人 (rén)
- A:person / people
#28
Q:一, 二, 三 (yī, èr, sān)
- A:one, two, three
#29
Q:十 (shí)
- A:ten
#30
Q:个 (gè)
- A:the all-purpose counter word (一个人 = one person)
#31
Q:什么 (shénme)
- A:what
#32
Q:谁 (shéi)
- A:who
#33
Q:哪儿 (nǎr)
- A:where
#34
Q:怎么 (zěnme)
- A:how
#35
Q:多少 (duōshao)
- A:how much / how many
#36
Q:去 (qù)
- A:to go
#37
Q:来 (lái)
- A:to come
#38
Q:吃 (chī)
- A:to eat
#39
Q:喝 (hē)
- A:to drink
#40
Q:看 (kàn)
- A:to look at / to watch / to read
#41
Q:说 (shuō)
- A:to speak / to say
#42
Q:要 (yào)
- A:to want / to need; also "going to"
#43
Q:想 (xiǎng)
- A:to want to / to think / to miss someone
#44
Q:会 (huì)
- A:can — a skill you learned; also "will"
#45
Q:喜欢 (xǐhuan)
- A:to like
#46
Q:水 (shuǐ)
- A:water
#47
Q:钱 (qián)
- A:money
#48
Q:家 (jiā)
- A:home / family
#49
Q:朋友 (péngyou)
- A:friend
#50
Q:中国 (Zhōngguó)
- A:China — literally "middle country"