100 Most Common Chinese Characters

Why start with the most common characters?

Chinese has thousands of characters, but a small group of them does most of the work. The hundred on this page make up a large share of the characters in a typical book or news article. A child who can read and write them will recognise something in almost every sentence they see, which is a big boost for confidence.

The list is ordered by how often each character appears in modern written Chinese. The quick-pick buttons above split it into five sets of twenty, so you can print one set at a time instead of facing all hundred at once.

What is in each set

1–20: the glue of the language, such as 的 de (possessive), 是 shì (to be), 不 bù (not), 我 wǒ (I) and 你 nǐ (you).
21–40: more everyday words, including 大 dà (big), 来 lái (come), 说 shuō (speak) and 时 shí (time).
41–60: verbs and helpers like 能 néng (can), 生 shēng (be born, life), 下 xià (down) and 年 nián (year).
61–80: 家 jiā (home), 学 xué (study), 多 duō (many) and 事 shì (thing, matter).
81–100: 天 tiān (day, sky), 好 hǎo (good), 小 xiǎo (small), 心 xīn (heart) and 日 rì (sun).

A realistic pace

For a child aged six to nine, three to five new characters a day is plenty. One set of twenty therefore takes about a week. Print the set on Monday, cut the sheet into strips if it helps, and work through a few characters each day. On Friday, print the same set again with tracing set to 0 and see how many your child can write from memory.

Older children and adult learners can go faster: print with small boxes and two tracing boxes, and aim for a set every two or three days.

Frequency is not the same as easy

Some very common characters are abstract. 的, 了 and 么 have no picture behind them and are hard to explain to a five-year-old. If your child is just starting, the kindergarten worksheets use simple picture-like characters such as 人, 山 and 日, and they are a gentler first step. Come back to this list once your child has written twenty or thirty characters and is ready for the words they will meet in real books.

Making the characters stick

Read before you write. Point out each character in a picture book before practising it on paper.
Build words. Pair characters from the same set: 大人 (adult), 中国 (China), 我们 (we), 上学 (go to school).
Say the strokes. Turn on stroke order and have your child say “horizontal, vertical, left-falling” as they write. Naming strokes slows them down and improves neatness.
Review the old sets. When you start a new set, add three characters from the previous one to the box above.

Questions parents ask

Which frequency list is this based on?

It follows widely used character frequency counts of modern Chinese text. Different lists disagree slightly on the order after the first few dozen, but the same characters appear in all of them.

Is this the same as HSK?

No. HSK lists are built around words a beginner needs to talk about daily life. There is a lot of overlap, but if your child is preparing for a test, use the HSK 1 worksheet instead.

Can I print traditional characters?

Many traditional forms have stroke data too. Type them into the box and any character without data is listed below the controls.

How to print this worksheet

Pick a set with the buttons above, or type your own characters into the box.
Choose A4 or US Letter to match your printer paper.
Press Print or save as PDF. In the print window choose your printer, or “Save as PDF” to keep a copy.

Your settings are saved in the page address, so you can bookmark it or send the link to another parent or teacher and they will see the same worksheet.