Verbs describe movement or action. You’ll need them whenever you want to talk about what you, somebody or something else does, did or wants to do. Essential stuff. Memorize the verbs below and you’ll be well equipped for most basic Chinese conversations.

This lesson is part of the chapter “Learning Chinese (Mandarin)“.

Basic Words & Phrases: Verbs

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Important verbs

EnglishChineseChinese
(Romanization)		Pronunciation
(Audio)
(to) be是shì
(to) have有yǒu
(to) do / (to) make做zuò
can / (to) know how to可以kě yǐ
(to) know (how)认识rèn shí
(to) know / (to) be acquainted with知道（怎样）zhī dào （zěn yàng ）
(to) understand理解lǐ jiě
(to) speak / (to) talk讲jiǎng
(to) listen to听tīng
(to) hear听到tīng dào
(to) see看kàn
(to) feel觉得jiào dé
(to) live活着huó zhe
(to) want要yào
(to) need需要xū yào
(to) like喜欢xǐ huān
(to) love爱ài
(to) give给gěi
(to) take拿ná
(to) play玩wán
(to) laugh笑xiào
(to) come来lái
(to) go去qù
(to) go by […] (e.g. by car)坐[…]去zuò […] qù
(to) write写xiě
(to) read读dú
(to) count计数jì shù
(to) pronounce发音fā yīn
(to) spell拼pīn
(to) conjugate共轭gòng è
(to) remember记住jì zhù
(to) forget忘记wàng jì
(to) eat吃chī
(to) try试shì
(to) use用yòng
(to) open打开dǎ kāi
(to) close关闭guān bì
(to) greet / (to) welcome欢迎huān yíng
(to) begin开始kāi shǐ
(to) end结束jié shù

Vocabulary trainer: Basic Verbs in Chinese

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(to) write
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