HSK 1 Vocabulary List with Audio: The 150 Words That Open Mandarin

There is a moment in every Mandarin learner’s journey when the language stops being a list of words and starts being a language. For most people, that moment arrives around word 150. That is the size of the HSK 1 vocabulary list: a carefully chosen set of 150 words that, when combined with a thin layer of grammar, lets you greet people, order food, count to a hundred, tell the time, and understand short spoken sentences.

This guide gives you that 150-word list, grouped by theme so you can learn it in a sensible order. It also explains why audio matters more than flashcards at this stage, gives you a 30-day study plan built around spaced repetition, and walks you through ten of the words used in the public-domain folk tale 守株待兔 (Waiting for a Hare), the first story ReadDeck ships with.

If you are starting from zero, this is the only list you need for the first month.

What HSK 1 actually tests

HSK 1 is the entry-level test of the Hanyu Shuiping Kaoshi, the standard Mandarin proficiency exam. At the HSK 1 level you are expected to:

• recognise around 150 words in print and in audio
• produce around 150 words in speech and writing
• handle short, very simple interactions about daily life
• understand slow, clearly pronounced spoken Chinese on familiar topics

The test itself is short: a listening section with 20 items and a reading section with 20 items, both around 15 minutes. The pass mark is 120 out of 200. Most learners who can recognise the 150-word list comfortably in both print and audio pass on the first try.

What changed in the new HSK 3.0 standard

In 2021 the Chinese Ministry of Education announced a new HSK standard, often called HSK 3.0 (or New HSK). The new standard restructures the old six-level exam into a nine-level scale and roughly doubles the total vocabulary tested.

For HSK 1 specifically, the new standard has two competing interpretations in the wild:

• the strict official syllabus lists around 300 words for HSK 1
• many schools and apps still teach the classic 150-word list that built the HSK 1 reputation

If you are a complete beginner targeting an exam, double-check which list your test centre uses. If you are learning Mandarin for real-life use - travel, study, work, reading - the 150-word classic list is the better starting point. It is small enough to learn in a month, dense enough to be useful, and it overlaps almost entirely with the HSK 3.0 Level 1 core.

That is the list this guide covers. ReadDeck is built around the 150-word core plus a curated extension into HSK 2 and 3, which is why the folk tales in its library feel readable from week one.

The 150 HSK 1 words grouped by theme

Below is the full 150-word list, grouped by theme so you can learn in a sensible order. Greetings and pronouns first, because they appear in every conversation. Numbers, time, and family next, because they let you say concrete things. Verbs and adjectives after, because they let you say anything at all. Abstract nouns last, because they are the hardest to remember without context.

Greetings and pronouns (about 20 words)

Greetings and common phrases (about 15 words)

Numbers (about 25 words)

Time and date (about 20 words)

Family and people (about 15 words)

Verbs (about 30 words)

Adjectives and adverbs (about 15 words)

Nouns and concrete things (about 20 words)

Abstract and connector words (about 10 words)

That is the full 150-word HSK 1 core. Notice how heavy the pronouns, time words, and basic verbs are. That is by design: the HSK 1 list is engineered to give you maximum conversational reach with minimum memorisation.

How to learn them in order

A common beginner mistake is to start with the most “interesting” nouns - animals, food, family members - and only later realise you cannot form a sentence without verbs, particles, and measure words. Reverse the order:

1. Week 1: Pronouns, greetings, particles (about 35 words). Every sentence you ever speak starts with one of these. They are also the most repeated, so spaced repetition will fix them fast.
2. Week 2: Numbers and time (about 45 words). These are concrete, countable, and easy to drill. You will also use them every day in real life.
3. Week 3: Family, people, concrete nouns (about 35 words). Now you can name the people and things in your life.
4. Week 4: Verbs, adjectives, connectors (about 35 words). The hardest, but the most powerful. By the end of week four you can form your own sentences instead of memorising set phrases.

Why audio matters more than flashcards for HSK 1

Mandarin is a tonal language. The four tones are not optional decoration: mā (mother), má (hemp), mǎ (horse), and mà (to scold) are four completely different words. A flashcard that shows you the character and the pinyin without the sound will teach you the wrong reflexes. You will type “ma” into a chat and accidentally call your teacher a horse.

Audio also trains the ear in the other direction. HSK 1 listening items are spoken at a slow, deliberate pace. Listening to the same 150 words pronounced by a native speaker, in random order, at random intervals, is the single highest-leverage study activity for the first month.

ReadDeck bakes audio into the reading experience. Every word in every folk tale is tappable: tap once to see the meaning, tap the speaker icon to hear it pronounced in isolation by a native voice. This means you can read 守株待兔 and hear every HSK 1 word it contains in its natural sentence, then tap the word to hear it on its own. The combination of sentence context plus isolated pronunciation is what builds the right reflexes.

The companion Audio Deck product is built for the pure-listening side of the same problem: short audio lessons, synchronised transcripts, and the same tap-to-translate UX, but optimised for people whose study time is the bus ride rather than the evening reading session.

Sample words from 守株待兔 (Waiting for a Hare)

The first folk tale in ReadDeck’s library is 守株待兔, a classical parable about a farmer who gives up work after a free rabbit falls into his lap, then waits in vain for the next one. It is the perfect HSK 1 reading: short, repetitive, and full of the most common 150 words.

Here are ten words from the story, each with its pinyin, meaning, and the sentence it appears in. Tap any of them in the app to hear the audio and add it to your review deck.

1. 在 - zài (at, in, to be located)

Sentence: 他每天在田里辛苦地工作。

Pinyin: tā měi tiān zài tián lǐ xīn kǔ de gōng zuò.

Meaning: Every day he worked hard in his fields.

In context: 在 is one of the first verbs you learn because almost every location sentence uses it. ReadDeck highlights it blue if you have not marked it yet.

2. 每天 - měi tiān (every day)

Sentence: 他每天在田里辛苦地工作。

Pinyin: tā měi tiān zài tián lǐ xīn kǔ de gōng zuò.

Meaning: Every day he worked hard in his fields.

In context: 每天 is the most common time-frequency phrase in beginner Chinese. Tap it in ReadDeck to hear the second tone on 每 clearly, which is the tone most learners mispronounce.

3. 一天 - yī tiān (one day)

Sentence: 有一天, 一只兔子跑得很快。

Pinyin: yǒu yī tiān, yī zhī tù zi pǎo de hěn kuài.

Meaning: One day, a rabbit came running very fast.

In context: 一天 is the classic “once upon a time” opener. It is also the building block for the rest of the time vocabulary: 两天 (two days), 三天 (three days), and so on.

4. 跑 - pǎo (to run)

Sentence: 一只兔子跑得很快。

Pinyin: yī zhī tù zi pǎo de hěn kuài.

Meaning: A rabbit came running very fast.

In context: 跑 is one of the action verbs that opens up storytelling. The grammar pattern A 跑得 + adjective (“runs + adverbially + adj”) is also worth memorising as a chunk.

5. 看见 - kàn jiàn (to see, to catch sight of)

Sentence: 农夫看见了, 很高兴。

Pinyin: nóng fū kàn jiàn le, hěn gāo xìng.

Meaning: The farmer saw it and was overjoyed.

In context: 看见 is a resultative compound: 看 (to look) plus 见 (to catch sight of). Tap to see the breakdown in ReadDeck’s word tile, which shows how the two characters combine to form the meaning.

6. 高兴 - gāo xìng (happy, glad)

Sentence: 农夫看见了, 很高兴。

Pinyin: nóng fū kàn jiàn le, hěn gāo xìng.

Meaning: The farmer saw it and was overjoyed.

In context: Note the very common pattern 很 + adjective. In Chinese 很 does not always mean “very” - in front of adjectives it is often just a grammatical filler.

7. 不 - bù (not)

Sentence: 可是, 兔子再也不来了。

Pinyin: kě shì, tù zi zài yě bù lái le.

Meaning: But the rabbit never came again.

In context: 不 is everywhere. Note the tone change: 不 is normally bù (fourth tone), but it becomes bú (second tone) when followed by another fourth-tone character, as in 不来 (bù lái -> bú lái). This is one of the most common tone sandhi rules.

8. 工作 - gōng zuò (to work, work, job)

Sentence: 他每天在田里辛苦地工作。

Pinyin: tā měi tiān zài tián lǐ xīn kǔ de gōng zuò.

Meaning: Every day he worked hard in his fields.

In context: 工作 is both a noun (“work, job”) and a verb (“to work”). ReadDeck’s tap-to-translate shows the part of speech in context.

9. 坐 - zuò (to sit)

Sentence: 他每天坐在树桩旁边, 等兔子再来。

Pinyin: tā měi tiān zuò zài shù zhuāng páng biān, děng tù zi zài lái.

Meaning: Every day he sat by the tree stump, waiting for the rabbit to come again.

In context: 坐 doubles as “to sit” and “to ride (a vehicle)”. The story uses the sitting sense, which is the most common beginner usage.

10. 等 - děng (to wait)

Sentence: 他每天坐在树桩旁边, 等兔子再来。

Pinyin: tā měi tiān zuò zài shù zhuāng páng biān, děng tù zi zài lái.

Meaning: Every day he sat by the tree stump, waiting for the rabbit to come again.

In context: 等 also means “etc., and so on” in formal lists (苹果, 香蕉, 等). In this sentence it is the everyday “to wait” sense.

If you read the full story in ReadDeck, you will meet more than 20 of the HSK 1 words above, plus a small number of HSK 2 and 3 extensions that ReadDeck pre-highlights with a yellow tile so you can choose to learn them or skip them on first read.

The 30-day HSK 1 study plan

The plan below assumes 25 minutes a day. It is built around spaced repetition: every new word you learn is added to a review queue, and you see each word again at the moment your memory is about to drop it. The algorithm behind this is described in detail in our FSRS guide.

By the end of day 30 you will have learned all 150 words, reviewed each one at least three times, and produced over 200 listening reps through audio lessons. That is more than enough to pass HSK 1 and to start reading simple folk tales in context.

If you have less time, drop to 15 minutes a day and stretch the plan to 45 days. If you have more, add a 10-minute speaking-out-loud session after each new-word block.

How to use ReadDeck’s HSK 1 folk tales

ReadDeck ships with three public-domain folk tales, all under 200 words long and all using mostly HSK 1-3 vocabulary. 守株待兔 (Waiting for a Hare) is the HSK 1 anchor; 拔苗助长 (Pulling Up Seedlings) and 乌鸦喝水 (The Crow Drinks Water) follow.

The recommended loop for each story is:

1. Listen first. Play the audio for the whole story without looking at the text. Get the rhythm of the language in your ear.
2. Read with audio. Read the text while listening in sync. Tap any word you do not recognise.
3. Mark what is new. Long-press to mark words you want to learn. They turn blue in ReadDeck’s status colors.
4. Read once more without audio. Prove to yourself that you can read it.
5. Review tomorrow. The words you marked feed into the FSRS review deck, which will surface them at the right interval.

Each cycle takes about 12 minutes. Three stories a week is a sustainable beginner habit that pairs naturally with the 30-day HSK 1 plan above.

If you want a quick quiz on the same 150 words before you commit, the HSK Quiz app uses the same vocabulary list and gives you a fast 5-minute diagnostic. It is the natural sibling product to ReadDeck and the best way to find out which of the 150 words you actually have and which still need work.

Frequently asked questions

Is 150 HSK 1 words enough to hold a basic conversation?

Yes, for survival conversations. With 150 words plus the basic grammar covered in HSK 1 (的, 了, 吗, 很 + adjective, A 是 B, A 有 B, A 在 B, basic measure words, basic time phrases) you can greet, introduce yourself, order food, ask the time, count, talk about family, and tell a very short story. You will not be fluent, but you will be functional.

Should I learn the new HSK 3.0 list or the old 150-word list?

For exam preparation, learn whichever list your test centre uses. For real-life Mandarin and for apps like ReadDeck, the 150-word classic list is the better starting point because it overlaps almost entirely with the HSK 3.0 Level 1 core and can be learned in a month rather than two.

How long does it really take?

A focused 30 days at 25 minutes a day will get you to functional HSK 1. A casual 60 days at 15 minutes a day will also work. Longer than 90 days and the cost-per-day of any approach goes up, because you start forgetting words you added in week one before you finish week twelve.

Do I need to learn the characters?

Yes, but you do not need to write them by hand. Recognising 150 characters is part of the HSK 1 reading test. ReadDeck’s tap-to-translate system lets you build character recognition passively: every time you tap a word, you see the character and the meaning together, so the visual and the semantic link in one motion.

What comes after HSK 1?

HSK 2 doubles the list to about 300 words and adds the past tense marker 了, the progressive 在, and basic comparisons with 比. ReadDeck’s HSK 2 pack and the next two folk tales in the library are tuned to that jump. Plan another 60 days at 25 minutes a day, and you are ready for HSK 3.

A note on study tools

There is no single right tool. Anki, Pleco, Hack Chinese, and the built-in flashcard deck in HSK Quiz all work. The variable that matters is whether you use the tool every day, whether the cards include native audio, and whether you are reading real sentences in parallel. The 150 words above, learned in context, beat the 150 words learned in isolation every time.

If you are looking for a single app that combines reading practice, tap-to-translate, audio, and a spaced-repetition deck tuned to the same 150 words, ReadDeck is the one we built for exactly this case. It is free, offline-first, Mandarin-only, and ships with the HSK 1 folk tales ready to read.

Further reading

• The HSK prep hub - the full hub of HSK guides, vocabulary lists, and study plans
• How FSRS scheduling beats traditional flashcards
• Chinese reading practice for beginners
• What are Chinese graded readers?