Top 500 Chinese Characters (and How to Write Them)

I created this because a) I’m sick of memorising Chinese characters the old-fashioned way; and b) I’m obsessed with collecting Chinese radicals and components.

If you’re looking for a systematic way to learn how to memorise all of the common Chinese characters, you’re in the right place.

Nothing like this collection exists anywhere else – trust me, I’ve looked. It’s been one of the biggest projects I’ve worked on for a very long time.

It’s 4am now, and I’m exhausted. Good night.

Top 500 Chinese Characters (Please note: the examples listed on the right include both characters which can be found listed under the respective radical in the dictionary and characters which just happen to look like the radical. For example, 木 includes 校 and 來, the latter of which can be found under 人R9 in the dictionary, while the former can be found under the 木R75 radical. This is the technical difference between a 部首 and a 偏旁, but for memorisation purposes this is not very important.)

Top 500 Chinese Characters (Pinyin Version) (Use this one if you want to test yourself by reading the pinyin and writing out the characters as a kind of silent dictation exercise.)

Enjoy.

Carl

傅君愷

6 Comments to "Top 500 Chinese Characters (and How to Write Them)"

  1. 23/04/2015 - 5:44 pm | Permalink

    Hi Carlgene,

    This would be helpful for newbie learners who are eager to learn & write the Chinese language. i would be share this resource on my other pages sothat anyone can take advantages of it.

  2. GoPlayerJuggler's Gravatar GoPlayerJuggler
    20/08/2015 - 2:00 am | Permalink

    I had a look at the document and I think it could be very handy. However, I have very little knowledge of traditional characters as I’ve been concentrating on learning simplified ones. So maybe I would be even better off with something similar that just uses simplified characters.
    Still, it’s also one further reason to get stuck in and start learning traditional characters too…
    Thanks for sharing this!

  3. Nike's Gravatar Nike
    09/11/2019 - 11:23 am | Permalink

    thanks a lot..I love Chinese…know nothing about though…before I watched a lot of anime, that helped with Japanese talking..now I wanted to learn the characters and chinese talking ^_^

  4. Le La's Gravatar Le La
    17/01/2020 - 4:42 am | Permalink

    Thanks for all your hard works. Like the radicals and components approach to learning and remembering Chinese . Xiexie

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