Is spoken Chinese easier than written Chinese?
We counted the words in 6,000 films and TV episodes and in Chinese web text. Speech needs far fewer words.
We make Mandarin The Wild.
What we counted
For speech, we used SUBTLEX-CH: the words in the subtitles of 6,243 films and TV episodes, 33.5 million words in all, put together by researchers who found these counts predict how fast native speakers recognize words better than counts from books and newspapers. Cai and Brysbaert (2010), SUBTLEX-CH: Chinese word and character frequencies based on film subtitles, PLoS ONE 5(6). For writing, we used the same web text as our article on how many words you need to read Chinese. FineWeb-2, the web text we counted (its Mandarin part, cmn_Hani).
The same words cover far more of speech
Each row says how much of each you could follow if you knew that many of its most common words.
| The most common words you know | Film and TV speech | Web text |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 56% | 30% |
| 1,000 | 82% | 57% |
| 2,000 | 87% | 67% |
| 5,000 | 93% | 80% |
Reaching 95% of the words takes about 6,900 words in speech and about 24,000 on the web. Research on English found the same pattern, with spoken text needing fewer words than written text for the same coverage. Nation (2006), How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening?, Canadian Modern Language Review 63(1).
What HSK covers
The HSK lists, from the 2025 syllabus, cover speech far better than web text. HSK: the official site of the Chinese Proficiency Test.
| HSK words you know | Film and TV speech | Web text |
|---|---|---|
| Level 1 (300 words) | 55% | 30% |
| Levels 1–2 | 65% | 36% |
| Levels 1–3 (1,000 words) | 72% | 44% |
| Levels 1–4 | 79% | 56% |
| Levels 1–6 | 87% | 73% |
Of the 100 most common words in film and TV speech, 69 are HSK 1 words, and 98 are in HSK 1 to 3. The two left are 哦 "oh" (HSK 5) and 一个 "one, a", which the HSK lists as 一 and 个.
Words you hear but rarely read
Speech is full of apologies, thanks, small sounds and the people in front of you. 对不起 "sorry" is the 200th most common word in film and TV speech, and only the 3,743rd on the web.
对不起，我来晚了。
sorry; excuse me
Also written 對不起
Others: 抱歉 "sorry" (192nd in speech, 4,665th on the web), 嗯 "mm, yeah" (128th and 2,134th) and 这儿 "here" (173rd and 3,395th).
Words you read but rarely hear
Web text is full of news, business and the internet. 企业 "company" is the 122nd most common word on the web, and the 4,511th in speech.
这家企业有三千名员工。
company; enterprise
Also written 企業
Others: 平台 "platform" (192nd on the web, 7,400th in speech), 用户 "user" (326th and 7,589th) and 发展 "develop" (110th and 1,646th). Written Chinese also keeps old words that speech has replaced: 与 "and" is the 29th most common word on the web.
Why listening still feels harder
Knowing the words is not the same as catching them. Speech doesn't wait for you, you can't look a word up mid-sentence, and tones change next to each other, so words don't sound like they do in the dictionary. Our article on why tones are hard has the numbers. The good news is that the words of speech are the ones you meet first, so practice pays off quickly.
What to do with this
- Start with speech. HSK 1 alone covers more than half the words said in films and TV. Shows and videos are within reach long before the news is.
- Watch with Chinese subtitles. You hear the words and see them at the same time. Point at a subtitle word, and Mandarin The Wild shows its meaning in that line. See the extension, or read our guide to learning Chinese from YouTube.
- Read and listen together. The Library has graded stories from HSK 1, each with a recording in two voices.
- Learn the written words separately. If you want to read the news, words like 企业, 发展 and 与 are worth learning on purpose. You won't pick them up from shows.
How we counted
SUBTLEX-CH comes from subtitles in simplified Chinese from two large subtitle sites; many of the films and shows are American or European and were translated, so words like 伙计 "buddy" and 长官 "officer" are more common than in everyday Chinese speech. Its words were cut by a different program from ours, so a word that one program splits in two counts differently; the shares above can move by a point or two. Web words written in traditional characters are counted as their simplified form, so the web figures here are a little higher than in our first article, which counted them apart. Shares are of Chinese words only, leaving out numbers and Latin letters. The SUBTLEX-CH counts are free for research; we publish only totals computed from them.
Questions
Is it easier to understand spoken Chinese or written Chinese?
Spoken, for the words. The 1,000 most common words cover 82% of the words in Chinese films and TV but only 57% of web text. Speed and tones make listening hard in other ways.
How much of Chinese TV can I understand with HSK 3?
The 1,000 words of HSK 1–3 cover about 72% of the words said in Chinese films and TV, so you will follow a lot with subtitles and a quick lookup.
How many words do I need to understand Chinese films?
About 6,900 of the most common words cover 95% of the words in film and TV speech. On the web the same coverage takes about 24,000.
Sources
Checked on 13 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.
- Cai and Brysbaert (2010), SUBTLEX-CH: Chinese word and character frequencies based on film subtitles, PLoS ONE 5(6)
- Nation (2006), How large a vocabulary is needed for reading and listening?, Canadian Modern Language Review 63(1)
- HSK: the official site of the Chinese Proficiency Test
- FineWeb-2, the web text we counted (its Mandarin part, cmn_Hani)