Chapter 4 of 7 · Weeks 3–8
Your first words
A free 180-word starter deck, then on through HSK 3.0 level 1.
Every Chinese word on this page is tappable. Try .
Start with the words you will see most. The first 180 cover the verbs, connectors and everyday basics that turn up in almost every sentence. After them, you carry on through the rest of HSK 3.0 level 1.
The free starter deck
We built it from the same frequency data and dictionary the Dengdeng app runs on: the 150 most frequent words of real Chinese, plus 30 basics for numbers, time, family and daily routine. Every word has diacritical pinyin and a meaning written for beginners. Grammar words say what they do, not what a dictionary lists first.
Pick the format for the flashcard app you use:
Or practice right here
All 180 words are on this site too, with audio. Browse with the pinyin or the meaning hidden, or run a quick quiz. No setup.
Open the 180 wordsThen: the rest of HSK 3.0 level 1
HSK 3.0 level 1 is about 500 words, and the starter deck already covers a good share of them. Once you finish the 180, keep going at the same pace. By week eight, ten new words a day takes you through most of level 1.
Prefer another tool? HSK word lists are also available in Pleco and as shared Anki decks, and you can quiz yourself on any level in the Dengdeng dictionary. Pick one tool and stay with it; switching costs more than any difference between them.
Fifteen minutes a day
Short sessions on most days beat one long session a week, because spaced repetition works on gaps between reviews. At about ten new words a day, the starter deck takes three weeks. Miss a day? Just do the next session. Don’t double up.
How to run a card
Look at the characters and try to recall both the sound and the meaning. Then reveal the answer and say the word out loud, tones and all. Mark it right only if you had both. When you keep forgetting a word, look at two example sentences for it; a word in a sentence is easier to remember than a word alone on a card.
Words teach characters
Most Mandarin words have two characters, so learning words also teaches you characters. Once you have from (student) and (university), it is already familiar in a new word such as (to study).
Today’s assignment · 20–30 min
Set up your flashcards: add the HSK 1 deck in Dengdeng, or import the starter deck into Anki or Pleco. Then do your first fifteen-minute session with ten new words, saying each one out loud with its tones. Tomorrow, do it again.
