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Chinese Character Tutorial
If you're interested in reading and writing Chinese characters, there's no better place to get started than with the numbers 1-10. They are quite simple to write, useful to know, and are exactly the same in both the traditional and simplified writing systems.
So grab a piece of paper and a pencil, give a click on the links below, and try to write the characters with proper stroke order as demonstrated:
One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten |
一 | 二 | 三 | 四 | 五 | 六 | 七 | 八 | 九 | 十 |
Now that you know these characters, you actually know how to read and write all the numbers through 100. That's because Chinese follows a very simple pattern for counting:
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Ready for a challenge? Let's try something a little more interesting:
English: | Love | Beauty | Courage | Dragon | Fire |
Simplified: | 爱 | 美 | 勇气 | 龙 | 火 |
Traditional: | 愛 | same | 勇氣 | 龍 | same |
Because the Chinese simplified system is based on the traditional one, many characters are exactly the same, as we saw with the the numbers 1-10. Even for characters that aren't the same, you will often be able to see similarities. For example, have a look at the character for "love" in the simplified and traditional systems. Almost the same, right?
To get a bit more practical, here are the 25 most frequently
used characters in the Chinese language:
Source: http://technology.chtsai.org/charfreq/
(a possessive particle) |
is, are, yes |
not, no |
I, me, my |
one | have, has |
big | located, at |
person, people |
past tense particle |
middle | until, arrive |
|
Simp | 的 | 是 | 不 | 我 | 一 | 有 | 大 | 在 | 人 | 了 | 中 | 到 |
Trad | same | same | same | same | same | same | same | same | same | same | same | same |
money, supply |
to want, need |
can | can | this | (common measure word) |
you | will, meet |
good | do something for someone |
up, above, get on |
to come |
|
Simp | 资 | 要 | 以 | 可 | 這 | 个 | 你 | 会 | 好 | 为 | 上 | 来 |
Trad | 資 | same | same | same | same | 個 | same | 會 | same | 為 | same | 來 |
Want to keep going?
Continue learning Traditional Chinese characters
Continue learning Simplified Chinese characters
Not sure which style to choose?