On this page
  1. Two lists: characters to read and characters to write
  2. Words are built from characters you already know
  3. How many characters do Chinese readers use?
  4. How to learn characters without drowning
  5. How Hanzi By Heart helps with characters
  6. Questions and answers
  7. Sources

Short answer The new HSK (HSK 3.0) has two lists of characters. To read, you need 246 characters at level 1, 371 by level 2, 655 by level 3, 1,096 by level 4, 1,527 by level 5 and 1,940 by level 6; levels 7–9 add 1,148 more, for 3,088 in total. To write by hand, the list is shorter: 100 characters for levels 1 and 2, then 150 more per level, up to 700 at level 6 and 868 at levels 7–9.

Two lists: characters to read and characters to write

The official HSK syllabus has a character part with two lists. The characters to recognise (认读字) are the ones you must read. The characters to write (书写字) are the ones you must be able to write from memory. Every character on the writing list of a level is also on the reading list up to that level, so writing is always a smaller task inside reading.

LevelNew to readTo read in totalTo write in total
1246246–
2125371100
3284655250
44411,096400
54311,527550
64131,940700
7–91,1483,088868

Levels 1 and 2 share one writing list of 100 characters. The reading list follows the word list: every character on it appears in the words of the same levels. At level 6 you read 1,940 characters but write only 700 of them from memory.

01,0002,0003,0002461371100265525031,09640041,52755051,94070063,0888687–9Levelcharacters to readcharacters to write

Words are built from characters you already know

The 5,400 words of levels 1–6 are written with 1,940 different characters. Most words have two characters: 4,101 of the 5,400 words, about three in four. 1,083 words are a single character, 190 have three and 26 have four.

That makes characters a good investment. Some characters return in dozens of words: 子 appears in 74 of the 5,400 words (包子, 孩子, 椅子), 人 in 64 (家人, 客人, 病人), 不 in 59, 大 in 53 and 一 in 46.

And it gets easier as you go. Level 1 brings 300 words and 246 new characters. Level 6 brings 1,800 words but only 413 new characters. More and more new words consist only of characters you already know:

LevelNew wordsNew charactersOnly known characters
220012529%
350028430%
41,00044134%
51,60043159%
61,80041368%

At level 6, two of three new words are combinations of characters from lower levels. 高手 (gāoshǒu, expert) and 国歌 (guógē, national anthem) are level 6 words, but 高, 手, 国 and 歌 are all level 1 characters. Your task shifts from learning new shapes to learning new combinations.

How many characters do Chinese readers use?

China's list of common characters from 1988 (现代汉语常用字表) has 3,500 characters: 2,500 common ones and 1,000 less common ones. Tested on a large sample of texts, the 2,500 common characters covered 97.97% of all characters, and all 3,500 together 99.48%. In 2013 it was replaced by the current official standard list (通用规范汉字表). That list has 8,105 characters, and its first level, the characters in common use, has 3,500 of them.

In numbers: HSK level 6 asks for 1,940 characters, and levels 7–9 bring the total to 3,088, close to the 3,500 characters of these lists of common characters.

How to learn characters without drowning

  • Learn characters inside words. You meet 汉 in 汉字 and 汉语, and the word gives the character a meaning and a sound.
  • Use the components. Characters are built from a small set of recurring parts, and a part you know makes the next character faster. Our guide on learning characters by handwriting shows how.
  • Write what you must write, read the rest. Handwriting takes time, so give it to the characters on the writing list of your level first.
  • Review on a schedule. Characters fade like words do, so bring them back just before you would forget them, as described in our guide on spaced repetition.

How Hanzi By Heart helps with characters

Hanzi By Heart has all 5,400 words of HSK 3.0 levels 1–6, and with them all 1,940 characters of the reading list. You learn every word three ways: reading, listening and writing, each on its own review schedule. In writing mode you write each character of the word from memory, stroke by stroke, and the app checks every stroke.

Questions and answers

How many characters do I need for HSK 4? To read: 1,096. To write by hand: 400.

How many characters do I need for HSK 1? To read: 246. Writing starts with a list of 100 characters for levels 1 and 2 together.

Do I need to write every character I can read? No. At level 6 you read 1,940 characters and write 700 of them.

Characters or words: what should I count? The exam tests words, and the words are built from characters. Learn the words of your level, and you learn the characters with them.

Sources