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Chinese for Beginners: Your First 50 Words

50 cardsChinese → EnglishBeginner~25 minUpdated Aug 6, 2026
chinesemandarinbeginnerhsk1vocabularycharacters

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.

This is a free, public flashcard deck on Memor More containing 50 cards about Language Learning, covering chinese, mandarin, beginner for learning English from Chinese. Estimated study time: 25 min. Designed for spaced repetition — review with the Memor More iOS app for optimized recall.

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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"
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