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shìzh-sing_to-be
(to) have有yǒuzh-sing_to-have
(to) do / (to) make做zuòzh-sing_to-doto-make
can / (to) know how to可以kě yǐzh-sing_canto-know-how-to
(to) know (how)认识rèn shízh-sing_to-know-how
(to) know / (to) be acquainted with知道（怎样）zhī dào （zěn yàng ）zh-sing_to-knowto-be-acquainted-with
(to) understand理解lǐ jiězh-sing_to-understand
(to) speak / (to) talk讲jiǎngzh-sing_to-speakto-talk
(to) listen to听tīngzh-sing_to-listen-to
(to) hear听到tīng dàozh-sing_to-hear
(to) see看kànzh-sing_to-see
(to) feel觉得jiào dézh-sing_to-feel
(to) live活着huó zhezh-sing_to-live
(to) want要yàozh-sing_to-want
(to) need需要xū yàozh-sing_to-need
(to) like喜欢xǐ huānzh-sing_to-like
(to) love爱àizh-sing_to-love
(to) give给gěizh-sing_to-give
(to) take拿názh-sing_to-take
(to) play玩wánzh-sing_to-play
(to) laugh笑xiàozh-sing_to-laugh
(to) come来láizh-sing_to-come
(to) go去qùzh-sing_to-go
(to) go by […]坐[…]去zuò […] qùzh-sing_to-go-by
(to) write写xiězh-sing_to-write
(to) read读dúzh-sing_to-read
(to) count计数jì shùzh-sing_to-count
(to) pronounce发音fā yīnzh-sing_to-pronounce
(to) spell拼pīnzh-sing_to-spell
(to) conjugate共轭gòng èzh-sing_to-conjugate
(to) remember记住jì zhùzh-sing_to-remember
(to) forget忘记wàng jìzh-sing_to-forget
(to) eat吃chīzh-sing_to-eat
(to) try试shìzh-sing_to-try
(to) use用yòngzh-sing_to-use
(to) open打开dǎ kāizh-sing_to-open
(to) close关闭guān bìzh-sing_to-close
(to) greet / (to) welcome欢迎huān yíngzh-sing_to-greetto-welcome
(to) begin开始kāi shǐzh-sing_to-begin
(to) end结束jié shùzh-sing_to-end

Vocabulary trainer: Basic Verbs in Chinese

How do you say
(to) take
in Chinese?

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