30 Simplest Chinese Characters - Learn Your First Hanzi!

Get started writing Chinese characters (Hanzi) with 30 of the simplest characters out there! Let's take a look and see if we find anything interesting😊
When Should You Learn Characters: • When should you learn ...
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#Hanzi #LearnChinese #ChineseCharacters

[@MrCurlz]

Can't wait for 30 most DIFFICULT :D

[@ABChinese]

I don’t think anyone would watch that video 😂😂 Maybe I’ll write them out just for fun

[@PsychedelicDef]

@@ABChinese you would need the word I for at least writing wise

[@teerich2011]

I've seen one that would take me 5-10 mins to write. Don't remember the character or amt of strokes but it was intimidating! 😳

[@wangxiao3952]

又双叒叕 火炎焱燚 龘靐齉齾龗麤鱻爩龖吁 灪麣鸾鹂鲡驫饢籱癵爨 滟厵麷鸜郁骊钃讟虋纞 龞齽齼鼺黸麢鹳鹦鸙鸘 Don't ask me, I can't read them neither.

[@omeiga]

@@ABChinese i would lol

[@fluffypickle8218]

It's nice that you pointed out the difference between 木 and 树. Far too many beginner materials say "木 means tree because it looks like a tree".

[@chengyanslc]

In Japanese or ancient Chinese

[@guangyang547]

It was created to means tree but another one created to means tree. There are many characters that have the meaning change。

[@user-vb5vp8lw8z]

Interesting, that 川 and 入 are very common in Japanese (same meaning)

[@BQD_Central]

most of the hanzi here are the same as the japanese kanji, because well the japanese copied it.

[@fordnash7449]

Japanese kanji is a carbon copy of hanzi

[@as2s3hf7gff]

@@BQD_Central AnD MoDiFYInG iT....

[@Venik75]

Maybe because kanji means Chinese characters

[@keithle_]

Well "river" and "enter" are very common in every country, despite the different language

[@MrTVx99]

Something you didn't mention. You can look at the symbols as opposite meanings. Chinese are focused on yin and yang 阴阳 to describe opposites to achieve balance. Also notice 日 for sun and 月 for moon included showing the opposites. You can see something similar in the depictions. Fire is 火 and water is 水. Big is 大 and looks very similar to fire while small is 小 and looks more similar to water. I'm learning Chinese as well so sorry for incorrect information, I just started noticing these things and it looks very cool.

[@quach8quach907]

9:02 Traditional characters are better. 門, more symmetric, more visual. Looks like a door of a saloon in the Old West.

[@ba_vinci9220]

大(da4) is 人(ren2) with 一(横 heng2 - horizontal line) across to symbolize person with spread arms showing something big(size of something) and 天(tian1) is 大 with 横(heng2) on the top of character which symbolizes both something big and something what is above a person. :)

[@gohitosun6859]

卜/bǔ means divination at first. E.g. 占卜/zhān bǔ means divination. It has two extended meanings “to choose” and “to predicrt”. You can think divination as a behavior of prediction in a sense. And also, Imagine that a person in ancient China will “choose” a house after divination. But we seldom use 卜 to mean “to choose” and “to predict” in modern Chinese. Only 占卜 is sometimes used.

[@ABChinese]

wow, thanks!

[@KuanCGM]

You still can use卜 as a single verb, for example卜一卦：make one (mythical) prediction, just that you probably only use it in temple, suspicious fortune telling, novels…etc.

[@gohitosun6859]

@@KuanCGM 第一次见到这种说法呢，你是哪里人呀

[@jzheng7324]

@@gohitosun6859 占星卜卦，“占“和“卜”都是动词。

[@Mariah203]

I think the character for wang is simple too. It was the first one I was able to memorize and recognize without any effort.

[@juliar111]

Wang Peng moment 😭

[@petrokemp1567]

Your English is so good and you are really friendly and relaxed. I love it!

[@dottieshields5918]

You have a great command of your subject, and you present it simply so it makes a lot of sense. Thenk you!

[@AdrynJohanna]

Radish in my language(Malay) is Lobak and in Chinese it's Luo Ba. 😂 Also Carrot in Malay is Lobak Merah. (Literal meaning is Radish Red)

[@KinLee919]

Carrot in chinese is huluobo (barbarian radish), but in some part of china people use hongluobo (red radish)

[@tymanung6382]

Malay, etc..Asian languages mostly borrowed older Chinese national words or still existing SE Chinese dialects words. For example Lobak is Cantonese at least) pronunciation---most such dialects keep old N China pronunciations like syllable end consonants like --k. --p, --t, (sometimes, --glottal stop.)

[@tymanung6382]

On other hand. Ho kkien (+ etc.? other SE.Chinese dialects borrow many Malay + English words. Tagalog, Philippine national language at least, also.borrows Hokkien (+ other SE Chinese dialects words?)

[@jonathoneng4552]

When I was learning Japanese years ago. The way I remembered left and right was that in the character 右 the 口 radical reminded me of the Korean consonant of the same shape which is similar to the “m” sound. Using Japanese I just always thought of みぎ (migi) and the m sound to help me remember 右

[@jsprite123]

As a right-handed person, doing things with the left hand demands more work (the I-beam), that's how I can tell them apart.

[@bluebaum2.7.16]

​@@jsprite123This is Genius

[@quach8quach907]

15:04卜 it means to divine as in "thầy bói" (Vietnamese) 卜師 = fortune teller, psychic, palm reader, shaman. 卜 is a glyph of of the lines on a turtle's shell, which is where the trigrams of the I-Ching came from. I'm Vietnamese and I'm teaching Chinese Chinese.

[@khai96x]

What's the difference between Chinese Chinese and regular Chinese?

[@quach8quach907]

@@khai96x I'm teaching Chinese people Chinese language.

[@khai96x]

@@quach8quach907 Are you teaching Mandarin Chinese to the people of Hoa ethnicity? Otherwise, it doesn't make sense.

[@quach8quach907]

@@khai96x I am teaching the written Chinese which is independent of the spoken Chinese to any Chinese motherfuckers who want lo learn. Now do I make sense?

[@cobax10]

Muy buen video, gracias 🙏

[@pla-pixelsliteraturaearte3860]

Another great video! Congratulations, you help a lot! That idea of the Romans getting inspired in the Amazing [adjective with "b"] Chinese is really cool. Are there studies about that? I'll take a look.

[@successfulpeople9745]

Think you so much 💝❤

[@PaulfrmTXtoCO]

Da (big) looks like a man with his arms spread wide. "It was this big!"

[@VoidloniXaarii]

thank you!

[@oldsachem]

Excellent!

[@awequayzngs1780]

Thanks !.

[@dara_1989]

zhung menas middle in ladakh n tibetan as well

[@kha0s616]

The subtle voice change when he switched languages and said "kôu" 💀

[@NB-me]

Thank you a lot! Love your videos , your attitude and how simple it is when you explain things!

[@quach8quach907]

14:48 入, enter. It is a glyph of an opening of a tent.

[@g0801215]

I always remember left and right as you eat with your right hand and if you are left handed, you need to work hard to use your left hand.

[@ABChinese]

Oh, that’s a good one!

[@kiponkipon3234]

Can you, please, film a video about Chinese seafood vocabulary?

[@kevilarz]

(1:43) In Filipino it's the same "Araw" has two meanings sun and day.

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

太羨慕你的英文了（我知道英文是你母語哈哈，但還是很羨慕😂）

[@ABChinese]

哈哈谢谢了，只不过是我运气好，小时候有这样的环境。不过我以后有孩子了也会要求他们从小都学中文的。

[@quach8quach907]

2:19 moon is also the root word of month in English..

[@Zhirager]

谢谢你

[@quach8quach907]

15:36 That's because it has been simplified beyond any ***** recognition. 廠 is the original word.

[@dougjstl1]

To start off with the basics Chinese you really need a a personalized tutor so you can start to get the concept up the pronunciation of the words in the language because you can imagine once you learn about a hundred words or thousand words and you you're starting a language. Starting to get a grip on the language.

[@waimelibertypayabe-es6zh]

Could u pls do cloud, rain, and fish pls

[@iamkomorebi]

8:19 Is literally the Japanese Katakana for “ka”

[@pazuzufraney1]

But seems to mean to deduce, estimate guess as in divide and determine

[@habibinuncateolvidare4526]

thanks a lot! its a big help for me.

[@magicl2807]

I saw your duo post, tried this. I am native but are more accustomed to English mostly because I was born in America (correct me if I have wrong grammar) Chinese is good but still need to learn might watch some of your harder videos :) this is very helpful if I ever forget any of this

[@adrosant7326]

about the zuí ba characters, I'm glad I'm not a dental doc, so after learning Chinese i'll never gonna need to write a paper whit those charactes, like, how you write these zuí simbol? it would take me at least an hour just to write this simbol jaja chinese is amazing

[@tymanung6382]

Can you also research.pinyins stranger spellings- zh--..--i (3 different, like ri sun,.shi 10, q-- in Qu to go. etc.

[@quach8quach907]

6:32 小 small, is a glyph of a baby in a bundle with 2 little arms sticking out. Learn the etymologies if the glyph, just like in English.

[@michaeldengg]

Thanks a lot. Helped

[@rudyberkvens-be]

In HSK1 i thought the tu character meant earth, but you call it dirt. Now I understand it does not mean the earth globe, but soil, sand, or … dirt indeed.

[@morejoy5188]

Good show. Even better though if you include Trad. Chinese INNIT

[@anacatarinaalves1791]

You are funny . 😂😂

[@lodhi6666]

When you say there are two terms that can describe something, like the example of 口 and 嘴巴, could an English speaker think of it like the scientific name for something and then the actual name we use when speaking? For example, in English we wouldn't say Gluteal, we would just say butt, but in written documents it may be described using the former so it sounds more serious or official.

[@ABChinese]

No, it's a bit complicated to explain, but usually the one syllable word is more vague than the 2 syllable version. For example, 口 would be much more likely used in poetry, where vagueness is embraced. A common phrase would be 说出口 which means "speak out loud." So you can see that 口 is used a bit more figuratively here. 嘴巴 is almost never used figuratively.

[@Eleora1997Msia]

how i learned Madarin and words based on my life; related to food (survival instinct) and bad words (protect myself from backbitting) the other words are learned by accident (means i come across to detect the same symbol again and again showing up)

[@oldsachem]

Politically, Left aligns with Labor (gong); Right stands for free speech (kou, mouth).

[@chengyanslc]

LOL Greetings from 四川 Sichuan

[@ramenboi4379]

yay

[@numburger]

厂 looks so weird alone. I'm more used to Japan's kanji which can be the same but you can also have stuff like 气 which in Japanese equivalent is 気. It looks so bare without the メ in it lol Same with radicals like 辶,氵,宀, and刂 (which is funny since Japan has the katakana リ which is literally derived from 刂)

[@menemy4700]

Traditional Chinese character of 厂 is 廠, it just got simplified

[@weichungliao9611]

Fun fact:The simplified character "气" is taken from Xiaozhuan (an ancient Chinese character font)

[@mathiaslist6705]

1:17 a good example for Chinese Simplification "zuîba" ... at least there's the kôu character in the zuî character .... should I ever be in charge of doing simplifying the chinese writing system then probably I take kôu and make it read zuî (... and then waiting for the sh* storm)

[@FunnyMemes-dr3se]

At least I remember most of these characters from Chinese.

[@leezhieng]

Actually another less commonly used character for 4 is indeed 4 strokes: 亖 (also read as si) It's the older variant of 四 but not common these days. p/s. No, number 5 is not five strokes.

[@KinLee919]

well u said that but look at 五，3 一 and 2 丨, 5 strokes.

[@friendsheeep]

@@KinLee919 the 3rd stroke counts - and | as one stroke, so 五 has indeed 4 strokes

[@alekseev1986]

15:15 萝 can be easily mistaken as yume 夢🇯🇵 梦🇨🇳

[@chx1618]

Once I asked one of my friends who doesn't read Chinese at all which of "大" and "小" meant "small" or "big" and he was able to guess correctly. He wasn't able to guess the words. I imagine that most non-readers could guess the characters.

[@dexorne9753]

Well the "small" kind of looks like a flaccid version of "big" so it kind of makes sense

[@josephpanes3430]

Zhe ge laoshi hen shuai.

[@princessesoftheking7411]

at 4:08 did any one else think farmer ?

[@quach8quach907]

15:12卜 to "divine" and Not "divide". That is a mistyping because most people do not know what "divine" means. they go together: divine, forecast, or estimate.

[@maxtichauer6117]

handsome ...piaoliang

[@jakubbriza7274]

So what does Sichuan mean? Four rivers? :D (meaning a country where there are four big/famous rivers?) or is there a hidden poetic meaning?

[@k.c1126]

The Yangtze and several of its major tributaries water the Sichuan plateau. So yes, it was named for the rivers ...

[@alekseev1986]

10:33 You should have ended this video with the 了 to achieve perfection.

[@ric4397]

Add 丫 to the list

[@sultansa1733]

What is the difference between 尺寸 and 尺码 and 大小 ?

[@mathiaslist6705]

3.43 the Romance chose X because it's two V but over each other ... (btw V is five)

[@samplesample7178]

i never put a lot of thought into it but now i wanna know. Why is V 5. and the others as well

[@quach8quach907]

0:39 Wrong idea using print font. Use brushstroke font to define the original glyph and accentuate the difference. 囗 surround 囗 mouth in brush stroke font, 囗 mouth, is more trapezoidal.

[@konradmoien4734]

乙 was the most confusing character during my childhood Why doesn’t it just be the same word with 一 as if they mean the same thing for half of the time I met 乙 And the more confusing thing is, in the other half time I met 乙, it means *the second* Me when I was a child: good, a word for *1* and *the 2nd* Me now: maybe it’s a *deuce* from German playing card (which was a paint of 2 point and actually means *Ace*)

[@kgillen3202]

Radical

[@mathiaslist6705]

☀rì 🌔yuè .... and Chinese goes emoji

[@awkqua]

What's the different between 再and又

[@RenacinisTheonerebornfromashes]

再 is used for actions that will happen again in the future while 又 is for actions that happened again in the past if I am not mistaken

[@jeffsvlog203]

123

[@Adam-vv9co]

我在学中文

[@johnsonloh9601]

I had not seen"yi3".

[@alekseev1986]

12:18 18

[@tigretanguero]

Shuai ge, wo hen xihuan Shang ni de ke....... Xiexie ni de bangzhu..... 👍👍👍

[@joecostner1246]

Funky

[@karmathescouragiousdragon1652]

Same in Japanese just pronounce different

[@dklimenok]

The chapters' names are really weird: Ko, Sun, Moon, Gen, Move and so on.

[@ABChinese]

sorry, automatic chapters... I just turned it off lol

[@k.c1126]

Can't believe you didn't include bu, as in no, not ..... LOL

[@justiceokams]

我要学汉语😫😭

[@quach8quach907]

天, yes, it can mean "sky", A better translation is "heaven". heaven is something that is 一 above 大 man.

[@antipneumonic3563]

Fun fact: 小 originated from 3 small dots

[@quach8quach907]

It's a glyph of a baby in a bundle.

[@ferminsalaberri]

who else counting the triangles?

[@hzlceviri4543]

Thank youuu

[@flaminghealer9286]

mhfjy 0:11

[@user-rb7us2qm7c]

you missed one important meaning of 日, which can act as a verb😈

[@omeiga]

僕/仆=亻+菐/亻+卜 㒒=亻+業 業=业 业=丷+character not found 丷=丶+丿 whaaaaaat?

[@DennisSullivan-om3oo]

I thought two people in the dirt would be peasants

[@quach8quach907]

0:43 There you go, showing off your ignorance of Chinese history. This is why I, Vietnamese, learn Chinese, to know history. Glyphs start off as circles, as in 日 sun. ⊙ This is the original glyph, a circle with a dot in the center. Circles become stylized into squares, as a circle is harder to draw than a square.

[@quach8quach907]

8:18 力, strength, is a glyph of a plow. It has nothing to do with Bruce Lee, or Bruce Li, Again, learn the etymologies.

[@quach8quach907]

3:49 Again. You need precision. A better definition is "earth". And it has nothing to do with 十 ten. 土 is a gyph of a lump of clay on a potter's wheel. ala earthenware.

[@zexuanliu8094]

How do Gen Z in China write 1 2 3 4 on the internet? 一二三亖 😅

[@Adam-vv9co]

我们在2023年

[@quach8quach907]

8:31 中 is better translated as "central". 中國 The Central Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom doesn't mean anything. The Central Kingdom means something, it's the center of the world. And it is a glyph of arrow hitting the center of a target. Again circles becomes squares. I'm Vietnamese and I'm telling a Chinese what 中國 means! I"m more Chinese than Chinese.

[@fabrizziodelgadotrigo1008]

me enamora jsdflkasdlfhakdsjf

[@bigoldye]

川凸凹

[@deryugituberschlechthingh6911]

水 makes no sense！like

[@Machodave2020]

Characters 20 and 21 make absolutely no sense. Because both of the characters by themselves mean son, but it looks like you'll hardly use them by themselves, but when you put them together they also means son? Why wouldn't you just use one or the other? I'm not trying to sound ignorant or anything, I just need answers.

[@caturion5453]

日 → sun 日 → day 日日 → sunday✕ 日日 → everyday✓ 大 → big 太 → too 太大 → too big 太太 → wife?? 奶 → milk 子 → son 奶奶 → granny 奶子 → b00bs?? Chinese is hard

[@sirenastyles5948]

Ni hao tian tian xiexie ni -XIla ai nimen!! plz help my friend bec how can i memorize and how do you do it and remember so many charachters??