Chinese how many characters

Error message Unable to send e-mail. Contact the site administrator if the problem persists. How many Chinese characters are there? The answer to this question might be more complicated than you think -- maybe even more complicated than the characters themselves! And if this is not enough, check out these interesting facts: With 2, characters you can read Chinese Calligraphy: The art of writing. Only a culture as rich and dynamic as China's could develop a written language both beautiful in its content and in its form.

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TutorMing Blog. Want To Learn Chinese? Join TutorMing to learn more! Subscribe to Email Updates. Recent Popular. But are you worried by the sheer quantity of words that exist in Chinese? All you have to do is master the characters and terms which are commonly used today in the Chinese language. Many people are afraid of learning Chinese because of the 80, characters that make up the Chinese language.

It seems like a lot to learn. Did you really believe that Chinese natives all know 80, characters? Not at all. In elementary school, Chinese pupils are expected to learn about 2, characters which are the most used.

Then they assimilate about 1, more specific ones during middle school and high school. In the end, Chinese students that have finished high school know about 4, characters. For reference, the Chinese government puts literacy at characters. Well-educated Chinese people know anywhere from 8, characters and upwards. Only specialized linguists and scholars get closer to those 80, So how many Chinese characters do YOU need to know to be considered fluent?

The number of Chinese characters and words you need to know depends on many things such as your learning goal, your current fluency level or even the frequency of use of these characters. What are you looking to do? If you want to live in China, and simply interact in your everyday life in Chinese, a working vocabulary of words might be enough to start with.

Having a Chinese learning goal is essential to progress, but knowing what level you are is also very important to know what Chinese characters and terms to learn.

Then you belong to the HSK 1 level which requires learning about words. Check your level and see how many words you have to learn according to the HSK. Simplified or traditional?

Chinese culture Around the world. How many characters are there? Altogether there are over 50, characters, though a comprehensive modern dictionary will rarely list over 20, in use. An educated Chinese person will know about 8, characters, but you will only need about , to be able to read a newspaper. In our interactive character game you can learn how to write 60 commonly used characters. Settings Sign out.