A few months ago, I wrote about the 100 most common Chinese characters. While that post is certainly useful, I decided it might be more beneficial for new Chinese learners to follow along on this list with videos. This way, you can focus more on the pronunciation of these characters and learn them in groups. At the end of this five part video series, we’ll take a closer look at how to use these characters. Being able to confidently use these top 100 Chinese characters will help you out immensely in your quest to speak Chinese. For now, here are #s 1-20 in a short, easy to follow video:

的 – de
possessive particle

一 – yī
one

是 – shì
to be

不 – bù
no; not

了 – le
past tense marker

在 – zài
in; at

人 – rén
people; person

有 – yǒu
have

我 – wǒ
I; me

他 – tā
he; him

这 – zhè
this

中 – zhōng
middle

大 – dà
big; large

来 – lái
come

上 – shàng
on; above; up

国 – guó
country

个 – gè
general measure word

到 – dào
arrive

说 – shuō
speak

们 – men
plural marker