Chinese in Chinese

How to write 中文

Animated stroke order. Tap a character to replay its stroke order.

中文 is listed in the official HSK vocabulary at HSK 1. The beginner band covers the first, most essential words every learner needs.

中文 in a sentence

• 我wǒ在zài学xué中zhōng文wén。

  I am learning Chinese.

• 你nǐ会huì说shuō中zhōng文wén吗ma？

  Can you speak Chinese?

• 中zhōng文wén很hěn有yǒu意yì思sī。

  Chinese is interesting.

• 他tā的de中zhōng文wén说shuō得dé很hěn好hǎo。

  He speaks Chinese very well.

中文 vs 汉语 vs 汉字 vs 普通话

Similar and easily confused words, and how they differ.

• 汉语 hàn yǔ Chinese (Mandarin) language

  Near-synonym: 中文 is the everyday word for the language; 汉语 is the academic name — 汉语水平考试 'the HSK test'.

• 汉字 hàn zì Chinese character

  汉字 = the characters themselves; 中文 = the language. You write 汉字 but speak 中文.

• 普通话 pǔ tōng huà Mandarin (Putonghua)

  The spoken standard promoted in mainland China. 中文 includes all written Chinese.