Here are Chinese words for greetings & basics to start with: 家人 (jiā rén, family), 朋友 (péng yǒu, friend), 再见 (zài jiàn, goodbye), 你好 (nǐ hǎo, hello). Below are 24 words (A1–C2) with their English translations, part of speech and a romanization to help you say them, across 3 themed lists.
| English | Chinese | Type | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| family | 家人jiā rén | noun | A1 |
| friend | 朋友péng yǒu | noun | A1 |
| goodbye | 再见zài jiàn | interj | A1 |
| hello | 你好nǐ hǎo | interj | A1 |
| here | 这里zhè lǐ | adv | A1 |
| house | 房子fáng zi | noun | A1 |
| no | 不bù | interj | A1 |
| please | 请qǐng | interj | A1 |
| English | Chinese | Type | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| age | 年龄nián líng | noun | A1 |
| and | 和hé | conj | A1 |
| answer | 答案dá àn | noun | A1 |
| birthday | 生日shēng rì | noun | A1 |
| but | 但dàn | conj | A1 |
| name | 名字míng zì | noun | A1 |
| or | 或者huò zhě | conj | A1 |
| phone | 电话diàn huà | noun | A1 |
| English | Chinese | Type | Level |
|---|---|---|---|
| camaraderie | 同伴情谊tóng bàn qíng yì | noun | C1 |
| cordial | 友好yǒu hǎo | adj | C1 |
| gist | 要点yào diǎn | noun | C1 |
| rapport | 融洽关系róng qià guān xì | noun | C1 |
| salutation | 问候wèn hòu | noun | C1 |
| small talk | 闲聊xián liáo | noun | C1 |
| tact | 分寸fēn cùn | noun | C1 |
| valediction | 告别gào bié | noun | C2 |
Emoji: Twemoji, CC-BY 4.0
Watch Your LanguageVocabulary widgets for iPhone & Apple Watch
These lists show a sample of the A1–C2 words for greetings & basics. The packs in Watch Your Language hold more and reach the advanced levels, along with every other topic.
The app shows them to you a few at a time, in a widget on your iPhone Lock Screen and on your Apple Watch face, and brings back the ones you keep forgetting.
You could start with words like 家人 (jiā rén, family), 朋友 (péng yǒu, friend), 再见 (zài jiàn, goodbye), 你好 (nǐ hǎo, hello). This page lists 24 Chinese words for greetings & basics (A1–C2), each with its English translation and part of speech.
Reading a list once is rarely enough. Watch Your Language shows Chinese words like these in a widget on your iPhone Lock Screen and on your Apple Watch face, and schedules repeats so the words you keep forgetting come back more often.
Yes. The lists on this page are free to read, with no sign-up. The app holds more words for each topic.