Tutorial overviewLesson 3 of 3

Your first 12 Chinese characters

Characters are the destination; pinyin is the bridge. Each character is one syllable and carries meaning — and many words are just two characters combined.

These 12 HSK1 characters were chosen because they combine with each other into real words. Tap the audio to hear each one:

I, me
In a word
我们
wǒmen
we, us
you
In a word
你好
nǐ hǎo
hello
hǎo
good
In a word
很好
hěn hǎo
very good
shì
to be
In a word
我是
wǒ shì
I am
rén
person
In a word
中国人
Zhōngguórén
Chinese person
big
In a word
大人
dàrén
adult
xiǎo
small
In a word
大小
dàxiǎo
size
shuǐ
water
In a word
喝水
hē shuǐ
to drink water
one
In a word
一个
yí gè
one (thing)
èr
two
In a word
二十
èrshí
twenty
sān
three
In a word
三个
sān gè
three (things)
zhōng
middle
In a word
中国
Zhōngguó
China

You're already reading Chinese

Look at this sentence — you know every character in it:

我是中国人wǒ shì Zhōngguórén

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You've read your first characters. Take the free 3-minute test to find your exact level, and start reading full texts with pinyin, translation and audio.

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