Most common Chinese characters
In order of how often they're written, a few at a time. Just the top 10 accounts for 20% of everyday spoken Chinese.
Your next 5 characters
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Top 10 · accounts for 20% of everyday spoken Chinese · 10 to go
- 这zhè
- 为wèi
- 中zhōng
- 个gè
- 大dà
- 会huì
- 们men
- 他tā
- 来lái
- 和hé
- 年nián
- 上shàng
- 以yǐ
- 要yào
- 到dào
- 时shí
- 对duì
- 么me
- 能néng
- 你nǐ
- 就jiù
- 发fā
- 可kě
- 地dì
- 生shēng
- 家jiā
- 出chū
- 也yě
- 说shuō
- 于yú
- 学xué
- 后hòu
- 成chéng
- 与yǔ
- 过guò
- 行xíng
- 用yòng
- 日rì
- 多duō
- 自zì
- 现xiàn
- 都dōu
- 没méi
- 作zuò
- 下xià
- 得de
- 开kāi
- 经jīng
- 还hái
- 法fǎ
- 动dòng
- 好hǎo
- 方fāng
- 而ér
- 公gōng
- 子zi
- 事shì
- 分fēn
- 之zhī
- 民mín
- 主zhǔ
- 里lǐ
- 政zhèng
- 看kàn
- 吗ma
- 本běn
- 月yuè
- 所suǒ
- 天tiān
- 新xīn
- 业yè
- 同tóng
- 全quán
- 定dìng
- 部bù
- 最zuì
- 其qí
- 进jìn
- 如rú
- 前qián
- 机jī
- 美měi
- 那nà
- 当dāng
- 工gōng
- 关guān
- 实shí
- 小xiǎo
- 被bèi
- 但dàn
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Why learn by frequency?
A few characters do most of the work, so each stage you finish lets you read much more of any page.
| How many you know | Everyday spoken Chinese they cover |
|---|---|
| Top 10 | 20% |
| Top 50 | 41% |
| Top 100 | 52% |
| Top 300 | 72% |
| Top 1,000 | 92% |
| Top 2,000 | 98% |
| Top 3,000 | 99.7% |
How often characters are written: wordfreq by Robyn Speer, CC BY-SA 4.0, with data from Google Books Ngrams and SUBTLEX by Marc Brysbaert and others. Meanings: CC-CEDICT, CC BY-SA 4.0. Sentences: Tatoeba, CC BY 2.0 FR. How often they're said: FrequencyWords and OPUS, from OpenSubtitles.