How to learn Chinese from the news

Learn the HSK 5 words the news is built from, read with every word explained, and follow one story so its words come back.

By Mandarin The WildUpdated 18 October 20264 min read

We make Mandarin The Wild.

What the studies found

Newspapers ask for a big vocabulary. To know 98% of the words in English newspapers and novels, the share readers need to follow a text on their own, takes the 8,000 to 9,000 commonest word families plus names.¹².

Chinese news is no smaller. A study of 27,000 Chinese news texts, 20 million characters, found 80,000 to 90,000 different words of two to four characters, and put the first goal for a learner who wants to read the news for information at about 20,000 of the commonest.³

Meanings beside the text help: learners of Chinese who read with new words explained in the margin learned more of them, in more ways, than learners who read the same texts without, including words they met only once.⁴

这篇新闻报道我看懂了一半。

bàodào: “I understood half of this news report.”

报bào道dào

Verb

news report; to report (news)

Also written 報道

How much of a Chinese news article do HSK words cover?

We read 300 news articles in October 2026, the newest 100 from each of three sites: China News Service, the Mainland's wire service; People's Daily; and BBC News Chinese, written outside the Mainland.⁵⁶.⁷. That is 217,000 words, about 590 an article. We checked each article's words against the 2025 HSK list.⁸

HSK words you know	Share of an article's words (median)	Middle half of articles
HSK 1	22%	17–27%
HSK 1–2	27%	21–33%
HSK 1–3	36%	30–42%
HSK 1–4	52%	45–59%
HSK 1–5	73%	67–78%
HSK 1–6	82%	78–86%
HSK 1–9	92%	89–94%

At HSK 4, news is the hardest Chinese we have counted: HSK 1–4 words are 68% of a web novel's opening, 72% of a song, 79% of a film or show and 81% of a podcast, against 52% of a news article. One article holds about 184 different words above HSK 4. But news is written in the words exams teach: HSK 5 is the biggest single step on the list, and with all of HSK, 18% of articles reach 95% of their words, against 1% of novels.

The three sites differ. BBC News Chinese is the easiest: HSK 1–4 words are 58% of its articles and all of HSK 94%, so a third of them reach 95%. China News Service and People's Daily sit at 49–50% and 90–92%.

The words news is built from

A few HSK 5 words carry most news. 持续 (to continue) is in half of the articles, 以及 (as well as) in 41%, 推动 (to push forward) in 40%, 相关 (related) in 38%, 显示 (to show) in 35%, 合作 (cooperation) and 企业 (a business) in 33%, and 地区 (region), 领域 (field), 提升 (to raise) and 项目 (a project) in about 30%. Mainland reports add 建设 (to build), 推进 (to advance) and 创新 (innovation); the BBC adds 包括 (including), 透过 (through) and 人士 (people in a field).

News also writes in the written language's own small words. 与 (and), 为 (to be, for), 等 (and so on), 将 (will), 以 (by means of), 及 (and), 于 (at, in), 其 (its) and 则 (then) together are 32 of every 1,000 words, about one word in 31. Each is the written twin of a word learned early, such as 和, 是, 会 and 在, and most sit at HSK 4 to 6.

Follow one story

Within one article, about a quarter of the unknown words come back. A story that runs for days, a policy or a trial or a launch, brings its words back each day, so reading the same story as it unfolds gives the repetition the studies say learning needs.

A plan that fits the evidence

Get to HSK 4 first, then learn HSK 5. HSK 5 alone takes a news article from about half its words to almost three quarters.
Learn the news words. 持续, 以及, 推动, 相关 and 显示 are in a third to a half of all articles.
Learn the written twins. 与, 将, 于 and 其 are 和, 会, 在 and 它的 in writing.
Read news with help. Open any Chinese news site and point at any word with Mandarin The Wild to see its pinyin and its meaning in that sentence, or paste an article into the Reader.
Start with explaining sites, then the wire. BBC News Chinese's longer, explaining articles were the easiest of the three we read.
Follow one story for a week and save the words that keep coming back to your Backpack.

How we counted

The text is each article's body: its paragraphs, without the site's menus, related headlines, photo credits, editors' names or notices. China News Service's articles came from its feeds and scrolling news pages, People's Daily's from its channel pages (dated in the last 30 days), and BBC News Chinese's from its simplified feed and section pages, read in October 2026.⁵⁶.⁷. An article needs at least 200 Chinese words. Words are cut by our engine and levelled on the 2025 HSK list the way the Library levels a story; HSK 1–9 includes the advanced band 7–9, and names the dictionary only knows as names are left out. "Middle half" is the 25th to 75th percentile of articles.

Questions

Can you learn Chinese from the news?

Yes, once you know HSK 4 and with help. News is the hardest Chinese a learner at HSK 4 can pick up, but it is built from HSK 5 words: they take a typical article from 52% of its words to 73%. Read with every word explained, and follow one story so its words come back.

What level do you need to read Chinese news?

In 300 news articles we counted, HSK 1–4 words are 52% of a typical article, HSK 1–6 82%, and all of HSK 92%. Even with all of HSK, only 18% of articles reach 95% of their words, so most readers still need help with some words.

Which words come up most in Chinese news?

HSK 5 words: 持续 is in half of all articles, 以及 in 41%, 推动 in 40%, 相关 in 38% and 显示 in 35%. The written words 与, 为, 等 and 将 are about one word in 31.

Sources

Checked on 18 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.