Learn How to Read and Write Chinese Characters

Chinese Character Tutorial

If you're interested in reading and writing Chinese characters, there's no better place to get started than with the numbers 1-10. They are quite simple to write, useful to know, and are exactly the same in both the traditional and simplified writing systems.

So grab a piece of paper and a pencil, give a click on the links below, and try to write the characters with proper stroke order as demonstrated:

One	Two	Three	Four	Five	Six	Seven	Eight	Nine	Ten
一	二	三	四	五	六	七	八	九	十

Now that you know these characters, you actually know how to read and write all the numbers through 100. That's because Chinese follows a very simple pattern for counting:

11 = 10 + 1 = 十一 12 = 10 + 2 = 十二 20 = 2 + 10 = 二十 21 = 2 + 10 + 1 = 二十一 28 = 2 + 10 + 8 = 二十八 82 = 8 + 10 + 2 = 八十二 99 = 9 + 10 + 9 = 九十九

Ready for a challenge? Let's try something a little more interesting:

English:	Love	Beauty	Courage	Dragon	Fire
Simplified:	爱	美	勇气	龙	火
Traditional:	愛	same	勇氣	龍	same

Because the Chinese simplified system is based on the traditional one, many characters are exactly the same in both systems, as we saw with the the numbers 1-10. Even for characters that aren't the same, you will often be able to see similarities. For example, have a look at the character for "love" in the simplified and traditional systems. Almost the same, right?

To get a bit more practical, here are the 25 most frequently used characters in the Chinese language:
Source: http://technology.chtsai.org/charfreq/

(a possessive particle)

is, are, yes

not, no

I, me, my

one

have, has

big

located, at

person, people

past tense particle

middle

until, arrive

Simp

的

是

不

我

一

有

大

在

人

了

中

到

Trad

same

same

same

same

same

same

same

same

same

same

same

same

money, supply

to want, need

can

can

this

(common measure word)

you

will, meet

good

do something for someone

up, above, get on

to come

Simp

资

要

以

可

這

个

你

会

好

为

上

来

Trad

資

same

same

same

same

個

same

會

same

為

same

來

Want to keep going?

I've tested a lot of programs for learning Chinese characters, and after a long and disappointing search I finally decided to create my own system. It's still a work in process, but probably better than most programs you'll find out there. And it's completely free to use:

Resource:learnchineseez.com