When I first started learning Chinese, I really liked setting numerical goals: 10 words today, which would become 100 words in ten days. But the problem usually showed up a few days later. When I looked back at the words I had studied, I had already forgotten many of them. That’s why I think the question “How many Chinese words should you learn a day?” is less important than asking how many of those words you will still remember a week later.
“Learning a word” and “knowing a word” are not exactly the same
When we say, “I learned 20 words today,” we may actually be talking about very different levels of learning.
For example, you come across:
安排 (ānpái) – arrange
You see the word, can read the pinyin, and know what it means. You could consider that the first time you have “learned” the word.
But a few days later, if you see 安排会议 (ānpái huìyì) and still recognize it as “arrange a meeting,” your level of retention is already different.
Then you continue to come across:
安排时间 (ānpái shíjiān) – arrange a time
安排工作 (ānpái gōngzuò) – arrange work
Eventually, you may even be able to say:
我们安排一下时间吧。
Wǒmen ānpái yíxià shíjiān ba.
Let’s arrange a time.
At this point, 安排 is no longer just another item on your vocabulary list. You have seen it in several phrases, understood how it works, and are able to use it yourself.
That’s why I would advise you not to focus too much on how many words you have “learned” in a day. One person might go through 30 new words in flashcards, while another studies only 8 but spends time reading sentences, listening to the pronunciation, finding common phrases, and making their own sentences. Both can say they studied new vocabulary, but how well they actually know those words can be very different.
I’d rather remember 5 words than learn 50 and forget them
Imagine two different ways of studying.
In the first, you learn 30 words on day one. Each word comes with Chinese characters, pinyin, and a short meaning. You go through the list a few times and complete your goal for the day. A week later, you may still recognize 10 of them, vaguely remember a few more, and have forgotten the rest.
In the second approach, you learn only 5 words. But for each one, you look at a common phrase, read two sentences in different contexts, and try to make your own sentence related to your life. A few days later, you see those words again during review.
If you still remember all 5 a week later, then your vocabulary has actually grown by 5 words. Of course, this doesn’t mean that 5 words are always better than 30. If you can learn 30 words and still retain most of them, there is no reason to force yourself down to 5.
The important point is that the number of new words only matters when it comes with retention.
A simple example is 堵车 (dǔchē).
You could learn:
堵车 (dǔchē) – to be stuck in traffic
But if you also learn:
路上堵车 (lùshang dǔchē) – traffic on the road
and a sentence:
今天路上堵车，我迟到了。
Jīntiān lùshang dǔchē, wǒ chídào le.
There was traffic on the way today, so I was late.
Then make your own sentence:
昨天回家的时候堵车堵了一个小时。
Zuótiān huí jiā de shíhou dǔchē dǔ le yí ge xiǎoshí.
I was stuck in traffic for an hour on my way home yesterday.
Now the word has much more for your memory to hold on to than a single line in a vocabulary list.
That’s also why I think one word you remember for a long time is more valuable than dozens of words you only glance at and then forget.
So how many words should you learn a day?
If you are just starting out, I don’t think you need to set a very high target right away. You could try 5–10 new words a day and see how many you actually retain.
After a week, instead of only looking at how many words you studied, go back and check: Can you recognize the word without looking at the meaning? Do you remember how to pronounce it? If you see it in a different sentence, can you understand it? For important words, can you make a simple sentence of your own?
If 5–10 words a day feels too easy and reviewing them is still very manageable, you can increase the number to 12, 15, or 20. If you are learning 20 words a day but your review list keeps growing, you constantly forget older words, and you almost have to relearn them every day, reducing the number of new words does not mean you are learning more slowly. It may actually help your vocabulary grow faster over the next few months.
I prefer to think of the number of words I learn each day as something flexible, not a fixed target. On some days, I come across easier words and most of the characters are already familiar, so I can learn more. On other days, the words are more difficult, or I want to spend more time reading and listening, so I learn fewer new words. That feels much more natural than forcing myself to hit exactly the same number every day.
In reality, the right number also depends on each person’s level and goals. I once looked at how many Chinese words other learners studied each day and found that the answers varied a lot.
In one discussion on r/ChineseLanguage, one person said they studied around 15–20 words a day and used Memrise for review. Another studied around 20–25 words a day with Skritter, but also said that the difficult part was not being exposed to new words, but keeping them in memory, so they spent a lot of time reviewing and relearning forgotten words.
Another person said they studied around 30–35 words a day, but the important detail was that their main goal was recognition to improve their reading. Meanwhile, one participant in an intensive fourth-year Chinese program described learning around 30 new Chinese characters and more than 120 vocabulary words a day. Even in that discussion, someone questioned whether, at a pace of 120 words a day, it was really possible to understand those words deeply, use them in speaking and writing, and retain them over the long term.
What stands out to me in these numbers is that not everyone who says they are “learning a word” is talking about the same goal. If you mainly want to read and recognize words when you see them again, you may be able to go through more new vocabulary. But if you want to pronounce words correctly, remember how they are used, know what words they commonly appear with, and use them yourself in speaking or writing, your pace will naturally be slower.
So don’t see someone learning 30 words a day and assume that you also need to learn 30. The right amount depends on your level, your goals, and how deeply you want to know each word.
In the end, the goal of learning vocabulary is not to create a long list of words you once studied. The goal is to build a growing number of words that you can recognize, understand in context, and use when you need them.
So if you ask me how many Chinese words you should learn a day, I wouldn’t choose one fixed number.
