Vocabulary · HSK 3.0 levels 1 to 4
1,971 words, 45 themes.
The whole HSK 3.0 word list for levels 1 to 4, grouped so you can learn it in useful chunks rather than alphabetically. Every word has its pinyin in tone colours, its English meaning and a button to hear it, and each theme can be studied on its own with spaced repetition.
Greetings and courtesy
22 words
Hello, thank you, sorry and the other words you use in the first minute of every conversation.
Keeping a conversation going
25 words
The small words that buy you time, agree, push back and keep a conversation moving.
People and family
70 words
Family members, ages and the words for the people around you.
Friends and social life
33 words
Friends, parties, invitations, dates and getting on with people.
Pronouns and question words
49 words
I, you and they, this and that, and every question word: who, what, where, how and why.
Numbers and money
67 words
Counting, prices, weights and measures, and how much of something there is.
Measure words
36 words
Chinese puts a measure word between a number and a noun. These are the ones you will meet first.
Time and days
61 words
Clock times, days of the week, months, years and the parts of the day.
When things happen
47 words
Already, just now, later, at last: the words that place an event in time.
Position and direction
60 words
Left and right, in front and behind, north and south, near and far.
Places in town
41 words
Streets, buildings, parks, hotels and the other places you go.
Home and housework
55 words
Rooms, furniture, things around the house and the jobs that keep it running.
Food and drink
48 words
Fruit, meat, dumplings, tea and everything else on the table.
Meals, tastes and cooking
37 words
Breakfast, lunch and dinner, how food tastes, and the words for cooking and eating.
Shopping and paying
39 words
Shops, prices, discounts, cards and cash.
Body and health
60 words
Parts of the body, feeling ill, the doctor and the hospital.
Clothes and colours
30 words
What you wear, what you carry and the colours of it all.
Weather and seasons
39 words
Sun, rain, snow, temperature and the four seasons.
Nature and animals
41 words
Mountains, rivers, plants, animals and the environment.
Getting around
70 words
Trains, planes, taxis, tickets and finding your way.
School life
67 words
Schools and universities, teachers and classmates, terms, exams and holidays.
Reading, writing and study
43 words
Books, characters, words and sentences, and the verbs for studying them.
Work and jobs
63 words
Jobs, offices, colleagues, meetings and pay.
Society and the economy
28 words
Law, the police, business, markets and the wider world of work.
Phones, internet and media
42 words
Phones, computers, the internet, television and the news.
Sport and free time
39 words
Ball games, swimming, running, hobbies and keeping fit.
Arts, culture and festivals
44 words
Music, films, books, painting, Peking opera and the festivals of the year.
Countries and languages
19 words
China, the world, nationalities and the languages people speak.
Feelings
58 words
Happy, worried, angry, disappointed and everything in between.
Personality and behaviour
30 words
The words for describing what someone is like.
Thinking and knowing
38 words
To know, to understand, to remember, to decide and to guess.
Speaking and communicating
47 words
To say, to tell, to explain, to discuss and to reply.
Everyday actions
22 words
Getting up, sleeping, waiting, looking and listening: the verbs of an ordinary day.
Getting things done
57 words
To help, to use, to try, to get, to solve and to give up.
Handling things
29 words
Verbs for what your hands do: take, put, open, push, pull, lift and throw.
Movement and change
71 words
Coming and going, in and out, up and down, and things that start, stop and change.
Helping verbs
17 words
Can, should, must, need to and may: the verbs that go in front of other verbs.
Size, speed and looks
38 words
Big and small, fast and slow, heavy and light, clean and dirty, pretty and plain.
Good, bad, easy and hard
46 words
The adjectives for judging things: good, important, difficult, interesting, dangerous.
Same, different, right and wrong
31 words
The same, different, true, false, normal, simple and complicated.
Very, too and a little
25 words
The degree words: very, too, most, quite, especially and a little.
Also, only, still and again
60 words
The small adverbs that change a whole sentence: also, only, still, again, often, maybe.
Connecting words
48 words
And, but, because, so, if and although: the words that join ideas together.
Particles and prepositions
35 words
The small grammar words, from 的, 了 and 吗 to 在, 从 and 把.
Ideas and abstract words
44 words
Problem, reason, result, method, chance: the nouns for talking about ideas.
The level of each word follows the HSK 3.0 syllabus Chinese Testing International published in November 2025, the one used from 13 December 2026. The list of words and their levels comes from the open complete-hsk-vocabulary dataset (MIT licence); the English meanings and the themes are our own. See HSK levels explained for what each level means.