How much real Chinese does each HSK level cover?
Eight kinds of native Chinese, counted word by word against the 2025 HSK list.
We make Mandarin The Wild.
The numbers
We counted eight kinds of native Chinese, from podcasts to the news, and checked every word against the 2025 HSK list.1 Each row links to the guide with the full count.
| What you watch or read | HSK 1–3 | HSK 1–4 | HSK 1–6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Podcasts | 73% | 81% | 92% |
| YouTube videos | 72% | 80% | 90% |
| TV shows and films | 72% | 79% | 89% |
| Social media posts and comments | 65% | 75% | 88% |
| Songs | 60% | 72% | 86% |
| Web novels | 58% | 68% | 82% |
| Web pages | 47% | 60% | 79% |
| News articles | 36% | 52% | 82% |
Speech is easier than writing
What people say uses fewer, commoner words than what they write. Podcasts, YouTube and TV all sit at about 80% HSK 1–4 words; novels, web pages and the news sit far lower. A learner at HSK 4 meets about one new word in five in a TV show, and one in two in a news article.
HSK 5 and 6 matter most for reading
Going from HSK 4 to HSK 6 adds 10 points to a TV show and 30 to a news article. News is built from the formal words HSK 5 and 6 teach, so those levels are where the news opens up.
我买了很多东西。
thing; stuff
Also written 東西
Why no kind reaches 95%
Readers need about 95% of a text's words to follow it on their own, and 98% to read it comfortably.2 No kind of native Chinese reaches 95% with HSK 1–6. The words left over are everyday spoken words the list skips, names, and each show's or story's own topic words. Real Chinese is readable at HSK 4 only with help: graded stories for practice, or every unknown word explained where you meet it.
How we counted
Each guide cut its text into words with the engine behind our word cards and checked each word against the 2025 HSK list. For podcasts, YouTube, TV, songs, novels and the news, a share is the median text: the middle podcast, show, song or article, so one hard title doesn't move it. Posts are too short to count one by one, so social media and web pages are counted over all their words together.3 What each guide read, and when, is in the guide linked from its row:
- Podcasts: 204 stretches of podcast talk, 455,000 words.
- YouTube videos: 304 stretches of YouTube videos, most of them drama.
- TV shows and films: 292 films and shows, 1.7 million words.
- Social media posts and comments: 23,737 posts and comments from Weibo, Bilibili, NetEase Cloud Music and YouTube.
- Songs: 300 songs, 89,000 words.
- Web novels: the opening chapters of 297 web novels.
- Web pages: Chinese web text (FineWeb-2).
- News articles: 300 news articles.
Use the chart
The chart is free to use on your own site or in a class, with a link back to this page.
Questions
How much Chinese can you understand at HSK 4?
HSK 1–4 words are about 79% of the words in a Chinese TV show and 81% of a podcast, but 52% of a news article. That is roughly one unknown word in five on TV and one in two in the news.
Is HSK 6 enough to read Chinese?
HSK 1–6 words are 82% of a news article and 89% of a TV show. Readers need about 95% to follow a text alone, so even at HSK 6 most native Chinese still has unknown words in every few lines.
Sources
Checked on 26 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.