The 5,000 most common Chinese (traditional) words
Ranked by how often they actually turn up in spoken dialogue, not by how useful somebody guessed they would be.
Every number below is counted from a corpus, and the corpus is named at the bottom.
What each step buys you
Learn the first 100 words of Chinese (traditional) and you follow 45.2% of everyday speech. The first 1000 take you to 71.0%. After that every thousand words buys less than the thousand before it, which is exactly why the order matters.
| Words known | Speech followed | |
|---|---|---|
| 10 | 21.1% | |
| 50 | 37.2% | |
| 100 | 45.2% | |
| 250 | 56.1% | |
| 500 | 63.7% | |
| 1,000 | 71.0% | |
| 2,000 | 78.0% | |
| 3,000 | 81.9% | |
| 5,000 | 86.4% | |
| 8,000 | 90.1% | |
| 10,000 | 91.7% | |
| 15,000 | 94.4% | |
| 20,000 | 96.0% |
Comfortable reading starts around 98%. Everything before that is still worth doing, but the first hundred words buy you a foothold, not comprehension.
The first 100 words of Chinese (traditional)
In order. The percentage is the share of ordinary speech you cover once you know that word and every word above it.
- 1的4.39%
- 2我8.31%
- 3你11.93%
- 4了14.44%
- 5是16.25%
- 6在17.43%
- 7我們18.45%
- 8他19.44%
- 9嗎20.32%
- 10不21.1%
- 11и21.83%
- 12有22.52%
- 13說23.2%
- 14好23.87%
- 15就24.46%
- 16吧25.04%
- 17她25.6%
- 18來26.16%
- 19知道26.64%
- 20都27.13%
- 21什麼27.6%
- 22對28.05%
- 23去28.49%
- 24也28.9%
- 25很29.31%
- 26啊29.71%
- 27要30.12%
- 28他們30.52%
- 29琌30.9%
- 30那31.28%
- 31人31.65%
- 32沒32.01%
- 33為32.37%
- 34會32.71%
- 35和33.05%
- 36想33.39%
- 37ぃ33.71%
- 38讓34.02%
- 39把34.32%
- 40不是34.62%
- 41到34.91%
- 42做35.19%
- 43一個35.46%
- 44這35.73%
- 45什么35.99%
- 46得36.25%
- 47l36.49%
- 48跟36.73%
- 49可以36.96%
- 50上37.2%
- 51但37.42%
- 52硂37.64%
- 53呢37.86%
- 54這個38.08%
- 55個38.29%
- 56走38.51%
- 57就是38.72%
- 58τ38.92%
- 59看39.13%
- 60能39.33%
- 61這是39.53%
- 62這樣39.72%
- 63怎麼39.9%
- 64如果40.09%
- 65們40.27%
- 66被40.45%
- 67你們40.62%
- 68或40.79%
- 69事40.95%
- 70聽41.11%
- 71誰41.26%
- 72自己41.42%
- 73現在41.57%
- 74從41.72%
- 75不會41.86%
- 76真的42.01%
- 77它42.15%
- 78因為42.3%
- 79沒有42.44%
- 80ㄓ42.58%
- 81話42.72%
- 82璶42.86%
- 83著43.0%
- 84死43.14%
- 85不能43.28%
- 86謝謝43.41%
- 87再43.54%
- 88先生43.67%
- 89告訴43.8%
- 90you43.93%
- 91不要44.06%
- 92妳44.18%
- 93後44.31%
- 94別44.43%
- 95the44.55%
- 96只是44.68%
- 97需要44.8%
- 98快44.92%
- 99那個45.04%
- 100m45.16%
Chinese (traditional) does not separate words with spaces, so what is counted here are the segments the corpus splits on, not whole words. The order is still right and the coverage is still real, but read the list as building blocks rather than dictionary entries.
Open all 5,000 words in the codex →
In the codex you tap the ones you already know and the number moves. It stays in your browser, no account.
Where Chinese (traditional) comes from
Sino-Tibetan › Chinese
Tone does the work that endings do in Indo-European.
Same job, opposite tool.
Words Chinese (traditional) has that English never built
- 缘分 yuen-FENThe pull that brings two people together, or does not
Where the numbers come from
Frequencies counted over the OpenSubtitles 2018 dialogue corpus, 31,871,997 tokens of Chinese (traditional) in total. Lists compiled by Hermit Dave, released under CC BY-SA 3.0. Subtitles skew towards conversation, which is the point: this is the language people speak, not the language people publish.