Basic Chinese Phrases: 30 Essentials You'll Actually Use

Courtesy Phrases: Please, Thank You, Sorry

Politeness carries you further than vocabulary in China, and four phrases handle almost all of it. 谢谢 (xièxie), "thank you," is the single most useful thing you can say, and it works everywhere from a taxi to a formal dinner. Pair it with the three below and you sound gracious in any interaction.

A note on 请 (qǐng): it goes in front of a request, the way "please" leads a sentence in English. 请坐 is "please sit," 请问 is "excuse me, may I ask." That one character politens almost any request you attach it to.

Meeting People: Names and Introductions

Introductions in Chinese follow a fixed, forgiving script, so you can memorize the frame and just swap your name in. Start with a greeting, give your name, and close with "nice to meet you." Since greetings are their own topic, the essentials here are the name exchange.

If you want the full set of ways to open a conversation, from formal to slangy, that lives in the how to say hello in Chinese guide. For introductions, the three phrases above are all you need to trade names and move on.

Getting By: Survival Phrases for Any Situation

These are the phrases that rescue you when something goes sideways, and they are the ones most beginners wish they had learned first. The two workhorses are 多少钱 (duōshao qián), "how much money," and 在哪里 (zài nǎlǐ), "where is," which you can attach to almost anything you are looking for.

The most underrated phrase on this list is 请再说一遍. Real conversations move faster than textbook audio, and being able to politely ask someone to repeat themselves keeps a conversation alive instead of collapsing into an awkward smile. Learn it early.

At a Restaurant: Ordering and Eating

Food is where you will use Chinese most as a beginner, and a few phrases turn a stressful menu into an easy order. The key one is 我要… (wǒ yào…), "I want…," which you point-and-attach to anything on the menu. Add "the bill" and "delicious" and you have covered a full meal.

好吃 (hǎochī) literally combines 好 (good) and 吃 (eat), so it means "good to eat." Say it to anyone who cooked for you and you have made a friend. That character 好 keeps showing up, which is the whole point of learning to recognize the pieces rather than each phrase from scratch.

Emergencies and Asking for Help

You hope never to use these, but knowing them costs almost nothing and the payoff in a crisis is enormous. 救命 (jiùmìng) is the emergency shout for "help," distinct from the everyday 帮帮我 (bāng bang wǒ), "help me," you would use for a stuck suitcase.

Feelings and Encouragement: The Fun Ones

A few expressive phrases give your Chinese personality, and they are the ones people love hearing a learner use. 加油 (jiāyóu) literally means "add oil" and is the all-purpose "you've got this," shouted at athletes, students, and friends alike. And yes, 我爱你 (wǒ ài nǐ) is "I love you," three characters worth knowing.

Numbers deserve their own mention, because you will need them for prices and phone numbers constantly. Rather than repeat them here, the full 0-to-100 system with pronunciation lives in the Chinese numbers guide.

How to Actually Remember These Phrases

The trick is to stop treating phrases as separate items and start seeing the characters they share. Look back through the tables: 好 appears in 你好, 好吃, and 太好了; 我 opens 我要, 我不知道, and 我爱你. Learn to recognize those recurring building blocks and each new phrase is mostly pieces you already know, which is far faster than drilling 30 unrelated sound-strings.

That recognition-first approach is what Chinese Challenger is built for. It drills the characters inside these phrases as quick-fire rounds, so 好 and 我 and 谢 become instant on sight. Note that the app trains reading and recognition rather than listening or pronunciation, so pair it with speaking practice for the spoken side. The free starter pack covers the everyday characters these phrases are made of.