As the new HSK standards were released in March 2021, we’ve spent this time analyzing the new HSK 1 vocabulary word list to provide you with a detailed analysis of the new HSK vocabulary – so you can know what’s coming, and begin preparing for the new exam.
In this post, we look at the New HSK 1 Vocabulary List for Level 1 in 2021 in detail.
For a PDF download, scroll down to the bottom👇
New HSK 1 Word List Infographic
New HSK 1 Word List: Vocabulary Analysis
The new HSK1 has 500 words.
The old HSK1 only had 150 words.
Good news: out of those 150 words, 138 still appear in the new HSK!
Bad news: there are 362 other new words coming in from old HSK2, 3, 4, as well as some completely new.
| NEW HSK WORDS | OLD HSK WORDS | |
| TOTAL | 500 | 150 |
| COMING FROM THE OLD HSK | 138 | |
| COMPLETELY NEW | 362 |
Example: New HSK 1 Verbs of Movement
Take, for example, Verbs of Movement.
The old HSK list used to have only 3 basic verbs – 去 (qù, “to go”) and 来 (lái, “to come”) and 回 (huí, “to return”), but the new HSK 1 list was extended to include new verbs such as 进 (jìn, “to enter”), 出 (chū, “to go out”), 到 (dào, “to reach”), 走 (zǒu, “to leave”) from the old HSK2, as well as all possible combinations of them:
| CHINESE | PINYIN | ENGLISH | PART OF SPEECH | NEW? |
| 去 | qù | to go | (verb) | |
| 来 | lái | to come | (verb) | |
| 到 | dào | to reach; to | (verb) | NEW |
| 来到 | láidào | to come to | (verb) | NEW |
| 出 | chū | to go out | (verb) | NEW |
| 出来 | chūlái | to come out | (verb) | NEW |
| 出去 | chūqù | to go out | (verb) | NEW |
| 回 | huí | to go back | (verb) | |
| 回到 | huídào | to go back to | (verb) | NEW |
| 回来 | huílái | to come back | (verb) | NEW |
| 回去 | huíqù | to go back | (verb) | NEW |
| 进 | jìn | to enter | (verb) | NEW |
| 进来 | jìnlái | to come in | (verb) | NEW |
| 进去 | jìnqù | to go in | (verb) | NEW |
| 走 | zǒu | to leave; to walk | (verb) |
NEW |
Example: New HSK 1 Food-Related Nouns
Another example is the topic of food. See how many new food-related words have been added to the new HSK1:
| FOOD | ||||
| CHINESE | PINYIN | ENGLISH | PART OF SPEECH | NEW? |
| 包子 | bāozi | steamed bun(s) | (noun) | NEW |
| 菜 | cài | dish | (noun) | |
| 吃 | chī | to eat | (verb) | |
| 饿 | è | hungry | (adj) | NEW |
| 饭 | fàn | rice | (noun) | NEW |
| 好吃 | hǎochī | good; delicious (of food) | (adj) | NEW |
| 鸡蛋 | jīdàn | egg(s) | (noun) | NEW |
| 面包 | miànbāo | bread | (noun) | NEW |
| 面条儿 | miàntiáor | noodles | (noun) | NEW |
| 米饭 | mǐfàn | (cooked) rice | (noun) | |
| 肉 | ròu | meat | (noun) | NEW |
| 水果 | shuǐguǒ | fruit | (noun) |
| MEALS | ||||
| CHINESE | PINYIN | ENGLISH | PART OF SPEECH | NEW? |
| 晚饭 | wǎnfàn | dinner | (noun) | NEW |
| 午饭 | wǔfàn | lunch | (noun) | NEW |
| 早饭 | zǎofàn | breakfast | (noun) | NEW |
Example: New HSK 1 Drinks-Related Nouns
The same goes for drinks. A lot of new drink-related words from other levels were added:
| DRINKS | ||||
| CHINESE | PINYIN | ENGLISH | PART OF SPEECH | NEW? |
| 杯子 | bēizi | cup; glass | (noun) | |
| 茶 | chá | tea | (noun) | |
| 喝 | hē | to drink | (verb) | |
| 渴 | kě | thirsty | (adj) | NEW |
| 奶 | nǎi | milk | (noun) | NEW |
| 牛奶 | niúnǎi | cow’s milk | (noun) | NEW |
| 水 | shuǐ | water | (noun) |
New HSK 1 Word List: PDF Download
Note: This list is an extremely valuable piece of content and we want to protect it. Too many schools have been copying our content and pretending they wrote/made it themselves. So we are asking for your email for security measures. Thanks for understanding!
Further Reading
For more news about the new HSK, make sure to check these articles:
New HSK Levels Revealed 2021: All You Need to Know
New HSK 3-6 Changes: Written & Spoken Exams Combined (Update 2022)
To learn more about the new HSK levels and download free PDF word lists, read these posts:
New HSK 2: Word List PDF, Analysis & Infographics
New HSK 3: Word List PDF, Analysis & Infographics
For more information on the HSK, from the different levels, the benefits and the time it takes to complete, have a read here!
this is amazing
Thank you Yany! Hope this post helped
I want the category wise list. Like words in food, meals etc.
Wow why the removed 怎么样? Or cat and dog? And taxi ?! Doesn’t make sense at all 😅
Yes! The changes are a bit strange. But those words didn’t disappear completely, they were just moved to HSK2… Looks like the list developers thought that “cat” and “dog” aren’t necessary for survival 😄
Thanks for the list, this is very informative!
Thanks for the list, very helpful. If you don’t mind please list for the HSK 2 and 3 too, I’m sure many self-learner need this
Hi Maria! Sorry, this is a bit late, but we’ve published the HSK 2 and 3 list analysis as well. Hope it helps.
HSK2: https://www.thatsmandarin.com/blog/new-hsk-2-word-list-pdf-infographic-2021/
HSK3: https://www.thatsmandarin.com/blog/new-hsk-3-2021-complete-analysis-word-list-pdf/
Nín hao! I registered to get the pdf of new vocabulary but not getting email please help
Hi Rohan, it should open by itself on the browser, it is not sent through email. Hope it works!
So when will the student textbooks and workbooks for HSK 1 – HSK 9 be available to the market?
Hi Dan, anywhere from 1-4 years.
Thank you for sharing!💝
Bù kèqi – you’re welcome! 🤓
Hi, updated comment.
It let me download the list when I hit the back botton on my phone, when I left the website, hope it helps you too. ^ ^
I’m not able to download this new Chinese- English list
Hi Shreyash! We’ve just tested the form and it seems to be working fine, try following these steps:
1. Fill in the name & email fields, make sure the email is valid;
2. Click ‘GET PDF’ button once;
3. Wait a few seconds for the page to load, it might take a bit longer depending on your connection
If the steps above fail, let us know, we’ll send the PDF to you in an email 🙂
Please send me the list on shreyashnarade@gmail
please send me New words HSK 1-3,,thanks
Hi Jason! You can download the PDFs we have made for each HSK from our articles on them. You’ll find them here:
HSK 1: https://www.thatsmandarin.com/blog/new-hsk-1-2021-complete-analysis-word-list-pdf/
HSK 2: https://www.thatsmandarin.com/blog/new-hsk-2-word-list-pdf-infographic-2021/
HSK 3: https://www.thatsmandarin.com/blog/new-hsk-3-2021-complete-analysis-word-list-pdf/
Hope this helps!
I can’t download this new list. Plz help me!
Hello. Want to ask, currently HSK 3.0 already implement 500 yet or still in process? Let say if I take HSK this year on December, will I find this 500 words in exam or still 150 words but added few new words?
Hi Eilya! The changes are unlikely to come into effect this year. So in December, you’ll most likely still have the old version with 150 words. The changes will be very gradual, and the HSK team will definitely make an official announcement before changing the official exam papers 🙂
Hi, does the list contains English word on it?