Most Commonly Used Phrases resource book?

[jinjin]

Hi, I've browsed the forum and the internet and found a lot of helpful websites that give the most commonly used chinese characters, but is there one for commonly used phrases that someone has found helpful? Maybe like the 2000 most commonly used phrases?

After studying for just a bit, I'm able to read some things, but not always understand what it means b/c I learned the words individually and not the phrase. For example, I was sitting in class and the professor was lecturing in chinese and wrote: "fa qi ren" in chinese. i understood the words by themselves ('fa' from hair or distribute, "qi" from get up and "ren" as in person) but the phrase actually means "founder" (like of a company). So, now I'm running into problems with understanding phrases b/c there are words that almost lose their meaning when put with another word (like "guan xi"--close what? jk, actually I know what that means as it's very common, but I'm just using it as an example of how words don't mean what they do individually).

[HashiriKata]

From your post, it seems that you need to learn words, and not just characters ( "faqi", "faqiren", "guanxi" are all words).

Knowing phrases will be of great help in your learning but your more immediate step is to get to know more words. Look for "list of the most commoly used words" or something like that.

[jinjin]

What I meant by phrases was compound words (words made up of more than one character) but I didn't want to use the term "word" thinking people would think I meant "character". looks like I confused people anyway.

I'm more interested in learning words than individual characters for where I am and the problems I'm running into so I disagree with you about what I need to do right now. Several professors have also advised to find a ci dien and not a zi dien of most commonly used phrases/words of more than one character. I did buy a ci dien but I would like to find one that is organized by common use.

So, again, anyone have an answer for my original question and have website or resource book?

[gato]

Check these out:

• Hanyu Shuipin Kaoshi (HSK; Chinese Achievement Test) vocabulary list
  
• Lists of most frequently used words phrases in literature and news
  

[jinjin]

ah, thanks! again I messed up by searching the chinese forums for "phrases" instead of "words" so I didn't find that post. oops! sorry admins!

[HashiriKata]

I'm more interested in learning words than individual characters for where I am and the problems I'm running into so I disagree[/b'] with you about what I need to do right now.

You surely mean you agree with me about what you need to do ?? There seems to be some confusion there, so please look again at my original words:

it seems that you need to learn words' date=' and not just characters...

...your more immediate step is to get to know more words. Look for "list of the most commoly used words" or something like that.[/quote']

[roddy]

You do seem to have the right idea about learning words, but I'd query two things. First would be what kind of course are you on that doesn't teach you words? Second, do you really want to just sit down with a big list of words and try to learn them? You'll be much better off with a decent textbook which will introduce the words in context, in sentence patterns.

[jinjin]

I'm receiving my masters in chinese law, so I'm not in a chinese language program. I'm learning on my own and yes, a textbook would be helpful, but (and I mentioned this in another post) the problem is when I used a textbook, it is way way too slow b/c I already speak.

For example, I might only learn maybe 80 words in the whole book, but I need the 80 words to move onto book 2. Book 2 is way too slow b/c I already speak and don't need to do drills about how to pick out tones or pronouce certain sounds but I need the vocab. book 3 is too advanced in terms of the vocab it expects you to know for me to just jump straight to it. I had this problem in college. I placed well above the advanced chinese language class in terms of speaking but below the literacy level of the class so the profs had a hard time placing me. I think that a few other ABCs and CBCs posted that they had this same problem in another post.

I don't have a problem with learning words out of context because chances are, I already know the words and what they mean (and probably use them everyday). I don't use technical words much (hence I didn't know faqiren at first) but I'm okay with learning those words outside of a textbook example sentence. and I have many chinese law students who can clarify things like that for me anyway without having to refer to a textbook.

So, what I need is a list of commonly used words (I already found the list of commonly used characters). I think gato just posted a link so unless someone else has a list, I think I'm going to stick to my current method.

[gato]

Another option for you is to buy one of those readers for Chinese elementary school students with both pinyin and characters. You can find a number of these at the Zhongguancun Book Plaza (中关村图书大厦). Some of these readers are for teaching kids to memorize Chinese classics like the Analects of Confucius. You want those written in modern Chinese, like the book I have of Chinese idiom stories (chengyu).

Here are some examples. You can try to buy them from dangdang if you can't find them in the bookstore.

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