200 Essential Chinese Words for Beginners (Free List + Download)

Starting Mandarin? These 200 words are a practical first target — not because they top a frequency chart, but because they unlock basic conversation: greetings, questions, core verbs, family, food, colors, and everyday nouns. Each word has a simple English meaning and pinyin meant for beginners, not a dictionary essay.

You don't need to drill these in a flashcard app to get started — see below for how to learn them by speaking.

Learn these words in conversation, not as flashcards

Downloading a list and drilling flashcards works for some people — but it's slow, easy to burn out on, and a card rarely tells you when or how to use a word in a real exchange.

Talk To Your Flashcards takes a different path. You talk with Koko — an AI conversation partner who leads short, story-based Mandarin dialogues. He introduces words from this list naturally as you go: one new word at a time, in context. You don't maintain a separate flashcard deck; conversation is the study.

Already studying with Anki? You can import your deck so Koko uses your vocabulary instead. For how conversation fits into a broader routine, see our beginner Chinese routine.

200 Chinese words for beginners

Words you can use in a first conversation. Browse the list below.