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Looking for Spoken Word Frequency List
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LaoZhang –

I just read an article by Tim Ferriss (author of Four Hour Work Week) who claims that you can
become fluent in Chinese in 3 months. In his article, he makes a good point; written and spoken
word frequencies are often very different. You have to be a purchaser of the book or ebook to know
the secret password to access his articles (bonus material). So buy the book “first” got it?

Has anyone found any resources that have this? I have done quite a bit of searching for word
frequency lists for Chinese and there’s a lot out there, but they all are based on written
materials.

A Google search comes up with a flashcard product with this in the description:

Quote:

LIST OF MAJOR SOURCES CONSULTED

The following sources were consulted to compile this set of Chinese vocabulary cards:

TEXTBOOKS:

Beginning Chinese, John DeFrancis, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., Second Revised
Edition. 1984. Intermediate Chinese, John DeFrancis, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn.,
1973. Speak Chinese, Gardner M. Tewksbury, Far Eastern Publications, Yale University, New Haven,
Conn., 1973. Spoken Standard Chinese, Volumes One and Two, Parker Po-fei Huang and Hugh M.
Stimson, Far Eastern Publica?tions, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 1978. Speak Mandarin, Henry
C. Fenn and Gardner M. Tewksbury, Yale University Press, New Haven, Conn., 1967. Chinese
Dialogues, Fred Fangyu Wang, Far Eastern Publications, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 1981.

WORD FREQUENCY STUDIES

Frequency Dictionary of Chinese Words, Eric Liu, Mouton, The Hague, 1973. IFEL Vocabulary of
Spoken Chinese, Po-fei Huang, Far Eastern Publications, Yale University, New Haven, Conn., 1973.
WAIGUO REN SHIYONG HANYU CHANGYONG CIBIAO [A Listing of Common Words in Chinese Used by
Foreigners], Beijing Yuyan Xueyuan, Beijing, 1981. XIAN_DAI HANYU PINLU CID_IAN [A Frequency
Dictionary of Modern Chinese], Beijing Language Institute Publishing, 1986. CHANGYONGZI HE
CHANGYONGCI [Most Com?mon Characters and Most Common Words] Beijing Language Institute Publishing,
Beijing, 1985. Y_INGYU CHANGYONG CIHUI [A Vocabulary of Common English Words (in Chinese)],
Shangwu Yin?shuguan, Beijing, 1972.

I’ll do a search on each of these later on, but I just wanted to see if anyone has seen anything
(ideally online) floating around.

Thanks!

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roddy –

I’ve read the book, didn’t notice any secret password. I have the ebook version though. I’m
generally wary of anyone who tells you you can learn Chinese in a fixed amount of time though.
After all, they don’t know how dense we are

Anyway, to answer your question, I don’t recall ever seeing a frequency list of Chinese words that
wasn’t based on a written corpus – and usually a written news / formal corpus at that. I also note
that all sources you quote are from the 1970s or at best 1980s – bet you ‘comrade’ and
‘revolution’ feature highly.

imron –

Quote:

I’m generally wary of anyone who tells you you can learn Chinese in a fixed amount of time though

And I’m even more wary when that time ends in “months” instead of “years” However nice it would
be, I’m yet to see some sort of magical shortcut to learning Chinese, and the best method seems to
be consistent effort over a number of years. Granted that doesn’t sound nearly as sexy as “fluent
in 3 months”, however it’s probably more in line with reality.

LaoZhang –

I agree with you both. I don’t think fluency can come in just a few months, but I do believe that
people can become highly conversant in a couple of months. You just have to be creative in your
application of language and not be hung up when you don’t know exactly how to say what you want to
say.

Regardless of his position on how long it takes to learn a language, a spoken word frequency would
be a great tool for beginners, tutors, teachers, and developers of curriculum. I found some for
English, but the Chinese one remains elusive…

Regarding the password, if you go to his website and then click on book-only resources, you’ll see
where you need to put in the magic word. Then you can read how you can learn Japanese in 6 months,
Chinese in 3 months, and Italian in 1 month. as well as some other articles. The book IS pretty
good, btw.

Xiao Kui –

Quote:

Japanese in 6 months, Chinese in 3 months

I’ve been studying Chinese for 10 yrs now, and recently began tackling Japanese. My first
impression (please correct me if I’m wrong – I do have a head start with the kanji) is that
Japanese is easier than Chinese – so why does it take twice as long to become “fluent” (looking
for the coughing emoticon) in Japanese?!!

atitarev –

I totally agree with you, Xiao Kui but some people don’t – because of the more difficult grammar,
politeness levels or styles and multiple Kanji readings. 3 – 6 months – still ridiculously short
for either language.

renzhe –

Quote:

I just read an article by Tim Ferriss (author of Four Hour Work Week) who claims that you can
become fluent in Chinese in 3 months.

Lol.

He must have a different definition than the rest of us.

To qualify as “fluent”, you’d need to have internalised thousands of commonly used words, even if
those words are different for spoken and written language. I cannot fathom any definition of
“fluent” which isn’t based on natural use of at least several thousand words.

And good luck learning that in 3 months.

I do have to admit that all this self-defeating talk of how Chinese is too difficult, takes 25
years, and all that, can be very counter-productive. It’s just a language, even if it is a
relatively difficult one, and it can be learned if you put in the required effort and have a good
positive outlook. But this talk of three months is either a misunderstanding or a very dishonest
marketing strategy.

dermur –

Xiao Kui, perhaps you find it easier to learn Japanese becuase you already have learned Chinese
and so already know quite a lot of Japanese characters since they were borrowed from Chinese?

Maybe they’re assuming that someone who knows neither languages will take 3 months to learn
Chinese and 6 months for Japanese?

Anyway, I’d definately agree, consistant effort is the key to learning any new language, Chinese
included.

Here’s a link to a list of frequency of Chinese characters…
http://www.zein.se/patrick/3000en.html

roddy –

I guess you can make anyone fluent in anything within any time limits – the trick is to redefine
fluent. Which happens every few months on here, when someone asks ‘how long will it take me to be
fluent if I do X, Y and Z’.

I’d like to see a course entitled “Fluency in Chinese in Just 17 Long, Difficult Years. Or Your
Money Back!” I’d buy it.

renzhe –

Coming back to frequency of words, the HSK corpus is supposedly selected by a statistical analysis
of Chinese language. I think it includes both written and spoken sources, but I’m not sure.

If you’re interested in the most commonly used words, the 10,000 HSK words (searchable here on the
site at www. /vocabulary/), are a good place to start. You can export it, and
there are plenty of flashcard databases built on top of it.

I have found that I find all those words appearing very often in spoken language (TV shows,
movies), especially at lower levels.

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  > Extras > Other cultures and language
What other language you would like to learn?
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floatingmoon –

This forum is about learning Chinese. I am curious that, other than Chinese, what language would
you like to learn?

I’d like to learn Spanish, because some of the music are interesting and so is the dance.
It’s much easier to pronounce than French. Also, Spanish is useful in South America and Europe!

And also, I’d like to learn Japanese, this is just all for doing crafts, since many nice craft
books are in Japanese. Sometimes I see some funny advertisement in Japanese, and I am curious to
know what are they talking about.

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HNHSoft Dictionary Learn Chinese on Smartphone and PDA with real person’s voice.
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muyongshi –

Out of the “frequency” that I will pass through those countries I would like to learn Thai and
Korean (In one time in korea my korean was 10x better than my Thai after 2 times…) and maybe a
bit of cantonese too but I think mandarin can suffice in HK too…And if I just wanted to pick a
random one it would be french, because so many different countries use it.

DrWatson –

I’d really like to get my French back up to par this year. It is great for making me not feel so
dumb since my ability to progress in French is much faster than my ability to progress in Chinese.

If I had a lot of spare time I’d love to learn Arabic or Russian. But Russian grammar tends to
keep me away, and I keep my hands too full fighting with Chinese and working too much to give
Arabic a serious attempt.

wushijiao –

I’ve started to (finally) try to make the effort to learn Cantonese.

Senzhi –

I already speak 4 languages fluently … so I guess I have only a 156 more to go.

Seriously, I’d consider Spanish as my next option, once I get my 普通话 up to standard. But of
course, there’s also Cantonese, Shaoshanhua, Japanese … it’s sometimes difficult to choose.

renzhe –

The languages I would really love to learn are Arabic and Japanese.

I’m also interested in Korean, but that’s not a priority. Russian might also be interesting.

However, both Arabic and Japanese are considered extremely difficult, so I’m not starting either
until I’ve really covered Chinese to the point where I’m fluent and unlikely to forget it. Hanzi
will be a good basis for both Japanese and Korean, so that makes sense.

In the meantime, I’ll probably tackle French. Since I speak Spanish and English, and have studied
Latin for a long time, it should be comparatively easy.

Senzhi –

Coming to think of it: isn’t Chinese a lifetime piece of work? Will we really have the chance or
time to study another language?

opper567 –

Are there any good languages to study for Historical Linguistic reasons relating to Chinese?

atitarev –

Quote:

Renzhe wrote: The languages I would really love to learn are Arabic and Japanese.

I’m also interested in Korean, but that’s not a priority. Russian might also be interesting.

However, both Arabic and Japanese are considered extremely difficult, so I’m not starting either
until I’ve really covered Chinese to the point where I’m fluent and unlikely to forget it. Hanzi
will be a good basis for both Japanese and Korean, so that makes sense.

In the meantime, I’ll probably tackle French. Since I speak Spanish and English, and have studied
Latin for a long time, it should be comparatively easy.

Renzhe, hmm, we seem to have similar interests.

I mastered German and English long time ago, my native language is Russian. I did some self-study
and 2 semesters at Uni of French – enough to know a school program as in Australian or European
schools where French is taught as a foreign language. I learned some Polish long ago, which is
very close to Russian and I had a period when I practiced it a lot.

I didn’t learn Korean but I familiarised myself well with it and wrote a conversion program -
Hangul to Roman letters (in C#.Net). It would take less effort to learn Korean – Hanja (=Hanzi)
are not used anymore.

I switched to Asian languages – Japanese, Chinese Mandarinand a couple of years ago I started
modern standard Arabic. Yes, learning more than language at the same time, especially if they are
hard is very tough, I must be crazy but I don’t have any deadlines, besides, I am enjoying the
process of learning and talking to people from different parts of the world in their language.

Making a cross-reference between Japanese Kanji and Chinese Hanzi is actually time-consuming and
sometimes confusing, although I am doing that rather consistently.

Chinese and Japanese will remain my long–term goals. Learning Chinese formally too and with
friends and colleagues. I read Japanese short articles and stories, have penpals. As for Arabic, I
am fascinated by it but I can’t use it much, besides, the Arabic diglossia is a very de-motivating
factor. Well, I’ve mastered the alphabet and the basics of grammar and vocab, this will stay with
me. I have to yet find an Arabian person with similar interests.

fireball9261 –

Japanese — I am learning it now.
Mongolian — It looks interesting.
Russian — It also looks interesting.

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  > Wikis > Guide to Chinese
Useful Wordlists – Endearment, 好, 可, Onomatopoeias
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  #1 

Useful Wordlists – Endearment, 好, 可, Onomatopoeias

Hopefully someone might find these useful. Edit, add to, and correct as necessary. . Or split into
seperate articles. They’re all originally from the zhongwen LJ community, but that’s not
necessarily accessible in China. Either way, I’ve cited the post where I found them all.

Terms of Endearment
哥们 gē men – Friend, dude, buddy, man, boys
伙计 huǒ ji – Dude, buddy, man
老兄 lǎo xiōng – Dude, buddy, man
兄弟 xiōng dì – Brother, man, boys
弟兄们 dì xiōng men – Guys, dude, buddy
花花公子 huā huā gōng zǐ / 纨绔子弟 wán kù zǐdì – Dude, player, playboy, fop
(Rich, younger man who doesn’t focus on work or study, just spends money on alcohol and
prostitutes)

好 in prefix and suffix
好 as prefix (both as adjectival or otherwise)
(Where 好 functions as a verb – “to be fond of” – it is pronounced “hào”)

好笑 Really funny
好奇 hàoqí – Curious; inquisitive
好饿 Really hungry
好累 Really tired
好听 Good to hear
好闻 Smells good
好办 Easy to handle
好感动 Very touched
好可怜 So sad/that sucks
好兴致 Really happy
好可怕 Terrible, fearful
好奇怪 How strange
好想法 Good idea
好兴致 Really happy
好痛 It really hurts
好记 Easy to remember
好聪明 So smart
好比 Can be compared to; may be likened to; be just like
好久 A long time
好看 Attractive; good; proud; embarrassed
好处 Benefit; advantage; profit
好客 hàokè -To enjoy having guests; hospitable; friendly
好氧 Aerobic
好骑 Easy to ride
好战 hàozhàn – War-like; war-mongering
好事 hǎoshì – Good deed; hàoshì – Nosy
好恶 Likes and dislikes; taste
好歹 Right and wrong; the unthinkable; anyhow, at any rate; disaster
好多 Many
好感 Attraction
好汉 Brave man; real man
好评 High praise
好手 Expert
好手 Comfortable
好说 Be fine
好像 Apparently; seems like; as if
好学 hǎoxué – Easy to learn; hàoxué – Studious
好意 Kindness
好意思 Dare
好在 Luckily
好转 Improve
好强 Ambitious
好生 Exceedingly; properly; quite
好胜 hàoshèng – Competitive; emulative

好 as suffix
爱好 àihào – Hobby, interest
搞好 Make a good job of it; do well
办好 Get straight; make a fine job of
脾气好 Good-natured
心情好 In a good humour
处境好 Well-off
运气好 In luck
身体好 Be in good shape
良好 Good, well, strong
嗜好 shìhào – Fondness; hobby; indulgence
学好 Emulate well
正好 Just, just right; just enough; to happen to; by chance; it just so happens that
要好 Be on close terms; be close friends

Love the 可s
Negative
可鄙 kě bĭ – despicable
可怖 kě bù – horrible
可恨 kě hèn – detestable
可怜 kě lián – pitiful
可恼 kě năo – irritable
可怕 kě pà – terrible / terrifying / fearful / formidable
可欺 kě qī – gullible
可恶 kě wù – hateful / abominable
可惜 kě xī – it’s a pity / what a pity
可耻 kě chǐ – shameful / disgraceful
可恨 kě hèn – hateful / detestable
可疑 kě yí – suspicious
可悲 kě bēi – lamentable

Positive
可贵 kě guì – praiseworthy
可嘉 kě jiā – commendable
可敬 kě jìng – respectable
可靠 kě kào – reliable
可口 kě kŏu – good to eat / palatable
可吃 kě chī – edible
可食 kě shí – edible
可念 kě niàn – memorable
可亲 kě qīn – amiable
可取 kě qŭ – desirable
可笑 kě xiào – laughable / ridiculous
可行 kě xíng – feasible
可取kě qǔ – desirable
可喜 kě xǐ– makes one happy / gratifying
可意kě yì – gratifying
可身 kě shēn – fits nicely (clothes)

Neutral
可变 kě biàn – variable
可拆 kě chāi – removable / detachable
可分 kě fēn – separable
可观 kě guān – considerable
可见 kě jiàn – visible
可逆 kě nì – reversible
可燃 kě rán – flammable
可着火的 – ignitable / flammable
可调 kě tiáo – adjustable
可信 kě xìn – believable
可用 kě yòng – usable
可知 kě zhī – knowable
可兑换 – convertible
可转让 – negotiable

Ones I’m Unsure About
不可逆转 – irreversible change
可理解 – understandable
可了解 – comprehensible
可杀 – deserves to die ??? –cidal ???
可忍 – endurable ???

Exclamations / Human Sounds
啊 ā á ă à Ah, Ah!
哎āi Hey; lookout; why
哎呀āiyā Damn; Ah; My God
嗯 ēn A groaning sound
噢 ò enlightenment Oh!
哦 ó Disbelief
呃 è Hiccough
咄 duō Noise of rage, cry out in anger
呸 pēi To spit, in contempt, bah! dammit!, (very ordinary, rural slang – don’t use it around
people you don’t know well)
嗯 ēn Expresses unexpected situation, or frustration, or disapproval e.g.
嗯!钢笔怎么不出水啦?
嗯嗯 OK, All right, Yeah, well, something is for certain 嗯,就这么办吧!
恩~~~ En – hmm… or expresses affection
奧 Ao OK, All right, Yeah
唉an interjection, to express realization or agreement (yes, oh, right, etc.), ‘sigh’ esp.
when sad
哼 hēng Humph! / Huh?! – Use when you have a differing opinion to someone else
嘻嘻 xīxī hehe, giggle
哎 āi pleasant surprise
唉 ái disappointment
嗳 ǎi disagreement
嗳 ài regret
哟 yōu expressing unexpectedness
咦 yí bewilderment
喂 wèi calling attention (hello)
嘿 hēi ‘hey’ calling attention
唏 xī expressing contempt
咳 hāi aaaah! Expressing sorrow or surprise
嗨 hāi Heave ho!
嗬 hē Oh, ah Can be said with any tone, depending on the meaning
哦呀！ òya Oh my!
哎哟 āiyōu Ouch!
嗷嗷 áoáo Ouch, ow
嘘嘘 xūxū Shhhh!
嘁嘁喳喳 / 叽里咕噜 qīqīchācha/jīlīgūlū jabber, chatter
呱唧 guāji clap (hands)
吧嗒 bādā click (of the tongue)
呃 è yuck!
嘿嘿 hēihēi heheh
咕噜 gūlū mumble
喃喃 nánnán mutter, murmur
曝 pū puff
阿嚏 ātì Ahhh chooo!
呼噜 hūlū Sound of snoring
喀 kā Sound of vomiting

====================================================================================================

Contributors: YangDizi, ipsi(), jonaspony
Created by ipsi(), 17th January 2008 at 04:24 PM
Last edited by YangDizi, 18th January 2008 at 11:51 AM
2 Comments , 1179 Views

Discussion

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