Learning Mandarin Chinese Characters – Vocabulary Flashcards (HSK Level 1)

Vocabulary flashcards covering key terms from the Mandarin Chinese character notes, including writing systems, stroke rules, radicals, and the history of Chinese script.

HSK Level 1 Proficiency Exam

A standardized test of basic Mandarin for non-native speakers; this book covers the characters and vocabulary needed to pass it.

Mandarin Chinese

The standard spoken form of Chinese used in education, media, and everyday communication; the focus of this course.

Chinese characters

Logographic symbols used to write Chinese; typically represent a syllable and a word or part of a word.

Simplified Chinese

A version of Chinese characters with fewer strokes; used widely in Mainland China and in this book.

Traditional Chinese

The older, more complex set of Chinese characters still used in places like Taiwan and Hong Kong.

Radical (偏旁部首)

A component of a Chinese character that helps categorize, suggests meaning, or gives a clue to pronunciation; used as a dictionary index.

Compound characters

Characters formed by combining two or more components; can create a new character with a new meaning or a new word.

Pictograms

Characters that originated as pictures of objects and evolved into stylized symbols.

One-syllable and independent characters

Most Chinese characters have a single syllable and began as pictures before becoming symbols.

Form, Sound, Meaning (Three Basic Elements)

The three core aspects of a Chinese character: its shape (form), its pronunciation (sound), and its meaning.

Eight Basic Strokes

The core stroke types used to write characters: horizontal (横), vertical (竖), downward-left (撇), downward-right (捺), dot (点), upward (提), hook (勾), turning (折).

Stroke Order Rules

Guidelines for writing Chinese characters: top to bottom; left to right; horizontal before vertical; enclosing strokes first; middle before sides; etc.

Balance (in writing)

A principle of writing characters where strokes are evenly distributed to create a visually stable character.

Evolution of Chinese writing

Chinese script evolved from ancient forms to modern forms, including Oracle-bone script, Bronze inscriptions, Seal script, Clerical script, Regular script, and Simplified characters.

Oracle-bone script

The earliest known form of Chinese writing inscribed on oracle bones.

Bronze inscriptions

Early Chinese writing found on bronze vessels, a transitional stage in script evolution.

Seal script

An ancient, decorative script used historically for seals; more rounded than later scripts.

Clerical script

A script from the Han era with more rectilinear, simplified strokes for easier writing.

Regular script

The modern, standard form of Chinese writing used in most print today.

Simplified script

A reduced-stroke form of Chinese characters adopted for ease of writing and learning; used widely today.

Sumerian cuneiform

One of the world’s ancient writing systems; wedge-shaped marks used in Mesopotamia.

Egyptian hieroglyphs

An ancient picture-based writing system used in Egypt; one of the earliest writing systems.

Semantic vs. phonetic components in radicals

In many characters, semantic parts (top/left) hint meaning while phonetic parts (bottom/right) hint pronunciation.

Horizontal writing (left to right)

Today, Chinese is written horizontally from left to right in most contexts, similar to English.

Strokes count (~30)

Chinese writing uses about thirty different stroke types in total.

Dictionary indexing by radicals

A method of organizing and searching Chinese characters by their radical components.