The 100 Most Common Chinese Characters (With Stroke Order)

By the HanziWise team · Published 2026-09-25 · 5 min read

Frequency is the closest thing Chinese has to a cheat code. The characters below are ranked roughly by how often they appear in real text, and the distribution is wildly top-heavy: 的 alone is about 4% of written Chinese, and this list of 100 covers around 40–45% of everything you will ever read. Learning these first is the highest-leverage week-and-a-half in your entire study plan.

Every character links to its own page: animated stroke order, a step-by-step breakdown, stroke count, pinyin, and a printable tracing worksheet.

#	Character	Pinyin	Strokes	Core meaning
1	的	de	8	possessive particle
2	一	yī	1	one
3	是	shì	9	to be
4	不	bù	4	not, no
5	了	liǎo	2	completed-action particle
6	人	rén	2	person
7	我	wǒ	7	I, me
8	在	zài	6	at, in
9	有	yǒu	6	to have
10	他	tā	5	he, him
11	这	zhè	7	this
12	中	zhōng	4	middle; China
13	大	dà	3	big
14	来	lái	7	to come
15	上	shàng	3	up, on
16	国	guó	8	country
17	个	gè	3	general measure word
18	到	dào	8	to arrive
19	说	shuō	9	to speak
20	们	men	5	plural suffix
21	为	wèi	4	for, because
22	子	zǐ	3	child
23	和	hé	8	and, with
24	你	nǐ	7	you
25	地	dì	6	ground; adverb particle
26	出	chū	5	to go out
27	道	dào	12	road, way
28	也	yě	3	also
29	时	shí	7	time
30	年	nián	6	year
31	得	dé	11	to get; complement particle
32	就	jiù	12	then, at once
33	那	nà	6	that
34	要	yào	9	to want
35	下	xià	3	down, below
36	以	yǐ	4	with, by
37	生	shēng	5	to be born; life
38	会	huì	6	can; meeting
39	自	zì	6	self
40	着	zhe	11	continuous-action particle
41	去	qù	5	to go
42	之	zhī	3	literary "of"
43	过	guò	6	to pass; experiential particle
44	家	jiā	10	home, family
45	学	xué	8	to study
46	对	duì	5	correct; toward
47	可	kě	5	can, may
48	她	tā	6	she, her
49	里	lǐ	7	inside
50	后	hòu	6	after, behind
51	小	xiǎo	3	small
52	么	me	3	question suffix
53	心	xīn	4	heart
54	多	duō	6	many
55	天	tiān	4	sky, day
56	而	ér	6	and, yet
57	能	néng	10	can, be able
58	好	hǎo	6	good
59	都	dōu	10	all
60	然	rán	12	so; "-like" suffix
61	没	méi	7	not have
62	日	rì	4	sun, day
63	于	yú	3	at, in (formal)
64	起	qǐ	10	to rise
65	还	hái	7	still, also
66	发	fā	5	to send out
67	成	chéng	6	to become
68	事	shì	8	matter, affair
69	只	zhī	5	only
70	作	zuò	7	to do, work
71	当	dāng	6	to serve as
72	想	xiǎng	13	to think, want
73	看	kàn	9	to look, watch
74	文	wén	4	writing, language
75	无	wú	4	without
76	开	kāi	4	to open
77	手	shǒu	4	hand
78	十	shí	2	ten
79	用	yòng	5	to use
80	主	zhǔ	5	main, master
81	行	xíng	6	to go; OK
82	方	fāng	4	square, direction
83	又	yòu	2	again
84	如	rú	6	as, like
85	前	qián	9	front, before
86	所	suǒ	8	place; passive particle
87	本	běn	5	root, origin
88	见	jiàn	4	to see
89	经	jīng	8	to pass through; classic
90	头	tóu	5	head
91	面	miàn	9	face, surface
92	公	gōng	4	public
93	同	tóng	6	same
94	三	sān	3	three
95	已	yǐ	3	already
96	老	lǎo	6	old
97	从	cóng	4	from
98	动	dòng	6	to move
99	两	liǎng	7	two (with measure words)
100	长	cháng	4	long

How to actually learn this list (10-day plan)

Days 1–10, ten characters daily: open each character's page, watch the animation twice, then write it three times on a printed sheet from the Worksheet Generator (progressive stroke mode on).
Each morning: two-minute recall of yesterday's ten before starting the new batch — write them from memory, check, re-trace any failures.
Day 11: full self-test. Write all 100 from the pinyin/meaning alone. Expect 70–80%; re-trace the misses and they are yours by day 14.

What to notice while you learn them

Components recycle immediately. 你 contains 亻(the person radical); so do 他, 们, 住. By the end of the list you have met most of the high-frequency radicals without trying.
The same strokes, over and over. Nearly every character here is built from the eight basic strokes — if they still feel foreign, spend one session on 永 (it contains almost all of them) in the Stroke Order Viewer.
Grammar words dominate. 的, 了, 在, 是, 不 are function words you will see in every sentence — learning them by writing anchors grammar and characters in one pass.

When you finish, the natural question is "how far does 100 get me, and what next?" — the honest numbers are in how many Chinese characters you need to know.

Printing this list as a study pack

The fastest way to turn this page into paper: copy the characters from the table (or any subset), paste them into the Worksheet Generator, and print with progressive stroke reveal on. Ten characters fit comfortably on one A4 sheet with a blank practice row each, so the whole list is a ten-page pack — one page per study day. If you want pinyin above every cell for morning recall drills, keep the pinyin toggle on; switch it off for the day-11 self-test so the sheet itself cannot prompt you.

Frequently asked questions

What is the most common Chinese character?

的 (de), the possessive/descriptive particle. It alone accounts for roughly 4% of all characters in typical Chinese text — about one character in every 25. The top ten (的, 一, 是, 不, 了, 人, 我, 在, 有, 他) together cover around 15% of everyday text.

How should I study this list?

Ten characters a day for ten days works well: watch each character's animation, write it three times in a grid, and review yesterday's batch from memory. Frequency order means every session is spent on characters you will actually see constantly.

Are these characters the same in traditional Chinese?

Most of the top 100 are identical in both systems (的, 一, 是, 不, 人…). The exceptions are marked by systematic differences — 這→这, 們→们, 說→说 — and they are among the easiest traditional forms to recognize later.

What should I learn after the top 100?

Characters 100–500 by frequency, driven by whatever you are reading. Our character library links each page to its neighbours in the frequency list, so you can simply keep walking forward through the rankings.