Characters
Chinese writing uses characters (汉字, hànzì) rather than an alphabet. Each character represents a syllable and carries meaning — there are no letters to sound out. This is fundamentally different from alphabetic languages and requires a different learning approach. The good news: characters aren't random symbols; most have logical components that help with recognition and memorisation.
Simplified vs Traditional
Modern Chinese has two character systems. Simplified characters were introduced in mainland China in the 1950s–60s to increase literacy, reducing stroke counts in many common characters. Traditional characters preserve the original forms. If you're learning for mainland China business, simplified is the practical choice:
| Simplified | Traditional | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 中国 | 中國 | Zhōngguó | China |
| 学习 | 學習 | xuéxí | study |
| 说 | 說 | shuō | speak |
- Simplified: Used in mainland China, Singapore
- Traditional: Used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau
This guide uses simplified characters.
How characters work
Understanding how characters are constructed helps you learn them. Characters aren't arbitrary — most follow patterns that give clues to meaning and/or pronunciation. Here are the main types:
Pictographs (pictures)
The oldest characters evolved from stylised pictures. These make up only about 5% of modern characters but include many basic vocabulary items. You can often see the original picture if you squint:
- 日 (rì) — sun ☀️
- 月 (yuè) — moon 🌙
- 山 (shān) — mountain ⛰️
- 水 (shuǐ) — water 💧
Ideographs (ideas)
Some represent abstract ideas:
- 上 (shàng) — up, above
- 下 (xià) — down, below
- 一二三 (yī èr sān) — one, two, three
Compound characters (most common)
About 80% of Chinese characters are "phono-semantic compounds" — they combine two elements: a "radical" that hints at meaning, and a "phonetic" component that hints at pronunciation. Understanding this structure makes learning new characters much easier:
- Semantic component (radical) — hints at meaning
- Phonetic component — hints at pronunciation
Example: 妈 (mā, mother) = 女 (female) + 马 (mǎ, horse, gives sound)
Common radicals
Radicals are the building blocks of characters. There are about 214 traditional radicals, but learning the most common 30–50 will help you recognise patterns in thousands of characters. When you see a character with 氵(water), you can guess it relates to water or liquids; 口 (mouth) suggests speaking, eating, or sounds:
| Radical | Meaning | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| 亻 | person | 他 (he), 你 (you) |
| 女 | female | 她 (she), 妈 (mother) |
| 口 | mouth | 吃 (eat), 喝 (drink) |
| 氵 | water | 河 (river), 海 (sea) |
| 木 | wood/tree | 树 (tree), 林 (forest) |
| 心/忄 | heart | 想 (think), 情 (feeling) |
| 讠 | speech | 说 (speak), 语 (language) |
Stroke order
Chinese characters must be written in a specific stroke order. This isn't arbitrary — consistent stroke order helps with handwriting speed, character recognition, and looking up characters in traditional dictionaries. Following these rules also makes your handwriting more legible to native readers:
- Top to bottom
- Left to right
- Horizontal before vertical
- Outside before inside
- Close the box last
How many characters?
A common question: "How many characters do I need to learn?" The answer is encouraging: a relatively small number gives you functional literacy. Unlike European languages where knowing 5,000 words still leaves gaps, Chinese characters have high utility — the most common 1,000 cover 90% of typical text:
| Level | Characters | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| Basic literacy | ~1,000 | 90% of text |
| Newspaper reading | ~2,000 | 98% of text |
| Educated adult | ~3,000-4,000 | Normal fluency |
| Full dictionary | ~50,000+ | Including rare characters |
Learning strategy
- Learn characters in context (words, sentences)
- Use spaced repetition (Anki, Pleco)
- Practice writing by hand
- Learn radicals to recognise patterns
- Don't try to memorise all characters before speaking