The Most Common Chinese Characters
As a Mandarin teacher, students frequently ask me: “If I want to learn Chinese characters to be able to live conveniently in China, how many characters is enough?” Unfortunately, there is no accurate way to count how many Chinese characters one should know. However, depending on how one counts variants, 50,000+ is a good approximation for the current total number. It is generally accepted that one needs to know between 2,000 to 3,500 characters for basic literacy in Chinese (for example, to read a Chinese newspaper), while a well-educated person should know well in excess of 4,000 to 5,000 characters. Don’t be scared by the numbers; if you know a few thousand, you’ll be just fine. Here, I list the most frequently used Chinese characters that can help you survive in China. 1. Verbs to know: 是 shì to be 开 kāi open/hold 在 zài to be in/at/on 用 yòng use 有 yǒu have/there is 会 huì can/to meet; meeting 要 yào want/will/need 见 jiàn to meet 来 lái come 出 chū go out/come out...
