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

Important verbs

EnglishChineseChinese
(Romanization)
Pronunciation
(Audio)
(to) beshì
(to) haveyǒu
(to) do / (to) makezuò
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) talkjiǎng
(to) listen totīng
(to) hear听到tīng dào
(to) seekàn
(to) feel觉得jiào dé
(to) live活着huó zhe
(to) wantyào
(to) need需要xū yào
(to) like喜欢xǐ huān
(to) loveài
(to) givegěi
(to) take
(to) playwán
(to) laughxiào
(to) comelái
(to) go
(to) go by […] (e.g. by car)坐[…]去zuò […] qù
(to) writexiě
(to) read
(to) count计数jì shù
(to) pronounce发音fā yīn
(to) spellpīn
(to) conjugate共轭gòng è
(to) remember记住jì zhù
(to) forget忘记wàng jì
(to) eatchī
(to) tryshì
(to) useyòng
(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

How do you say
(to) write
in Chinese?

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