The World of Languages · Sino-Tibetan
Mandarin Chinese · 普通话 / 中文
The language with the most native speakers on Earth: a tonal language written in characters that carry meaning, not sounds.
- 988 million native speakers
- 1.18 billion speakers in total
- Chinese characters script
- FSI Category IV · 88 weeks
- Official in 5 countries
Where Mandarin Chinese is spoken
Tap or hover over a country. Colours show the language's status, based on Unicode CLDR territory data (population estimates mix sources and years).
Top countries by speakers
- China · 中国Official language · 1.3B (90%)
- Taiwan · 台湾Official language · 22M (95%)
- Hong Kong SAR China · 中国香港特别行政区Official language · 6.9M (95%)
- Malaysia · 马来西亚Widely spoken · 5.9M (17%)
- Singapore · 新加坡Official language · 4.6M (77%)
- Indonesia · 印度尼西亚Widely spoken · 2.6M (0.92%)
- United States · 美国Widely spoken · 2.4M (0.69%)
- Thailand · 泰国Widely spoken · 1.3M (1.8%)
- Vietnam · 越南Widely spoken · 1.2M (1.1%)
- Macao SAR China · 中国澳门特别行政区Official language · 632k (98%)
- Brunei · 文莱Widely spoken · 54k (11%)
- French Polynesia · 法属波利尼西亚Widely spoken · 24k (7.8%)
Key numbers
- Native (L1) speakers
- 988 million
- Second-language (L2) speakers
- 194 million
- Total speakers
- 1.18 billion
- Source
- Ethnologue (2026), via Wikipedia
Mandarin only: other Chinese varieties such as Cantonese and Wu are counted separately.
Mandarin Chinese at a glance
Mandarin ( MAN-dər-in) is the largest branch of the Sinitic languages. Mandarin varieties are natively spoken by 70 percent of all Chinese speakers, spread over a large geographical area that stretches from Yunnan in the southwest to Xinjiang in the northwest and Heilongjiang in the northeast. Its spread is generally attributed to the overall greater ease of travel in the North China Plain compared to the more mountainous south, combined with the relatively recent spread of northern varieties to frontier areas.
From the Wikipedia article Mandarin Chinese (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Name in Mandarin Chinese
- 普通话 / 中文
- Family
- Sino-TibetanSiniticClassical-Middle-Modern SiniticMiddle-Modern SiniticNorthern ChineseMandarinic
- Writing system
- Chinese characters (Simplified in mainland China and Singapore, Traditional in Taiwan); Pinyin romanisation
- Direction
- Left to right (traditionally top to bottom)
- Tones
- 4 tones plus a neutral tone
- Official in
- China, Taiwan, Hong Kong SAR China, Singapore, Macao SAR China
- Codes
- ISO 639-3
cmn· Glottologmand1415· Q9192 - Writing sample
人人生而自由,在尊严和权利上一律平等。他们赋有理性和良心,并应以兄弟关系的精神相对待。
Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights…”
Linguistic profile
How hard is Mandarin Chinese for English speakers?
The US Foreign Service Institute puts Mandarin Chinese in Category IV: about 88 weeks (2200 class hours) of full-time study to reach professional working proficiency.
Source: FSI language learning timelines. See all languages ranked: hardest · easiest.
Feature values from the World Atlas of Language Structures (WALS Online, CC BY 4.0).
The Mandarin Chinese script
Chinese characters (Simplified in mainland China and Singapore, Traditional in Taiwan); Pinyin romanisation. Tap a character to hear it.
A sample of everyday characters from the Unicode CLDR list of more than 2,500 common characters.
Useful Mandarin Chinese phrases with pronunciation
Numbers 1–10
- 一 yī
- 二 èr
- 三 sān
- 四 sì
- 五 wǔ
- 六 liù
- 七 qī
- 八 bā
- 九 jiǔ
- 十 shí
Days of the week
- Mon 星期一
- Tue 星期二
- Wed 星期三
- Thu 星期四
- Fri 星期五
- Sat 星期六
- Sun 星期日
Everyday words
- water 水 shuǐ
- cat 猫 māo
- dog 狗 gǒu
- coffee 咖啡 kāfēi
- beer 啤酒 píjiǔ
- bread 面包 miànbāo
- book 书 shū
Phrases and words checked against Wiktionary; days and months from Unicode CLDR. Audio uses your browser's built-in Mandarin Chinese voice when available.
Dialects and varieties
Standard Mandarin (Putonghua)
Mainland China
Based on the Beijing pronunciation; taught in schools nationwide.
Taiwanese Mandarin (Guoyu)
Taiwan
Written in Traditional characters; the “-r” ending of Beijing speech (e.g. 哪儿 nǎr) is rare — people say 哪裡 nǎlǐ.
Beijing dialect
Beijing
Famous for erhua, the r-colouring of syllables: 一点儿 yìdiǎnr (a little).
Sichuanese (Southwestern Mandarin)
Sichuan and Chongqing
Different tones from Standard Mandarin and no retroflex sounds; it is still classed as Mandarin.
Singaporean Mandarin
Singapore
Uses Simplified characters and shares vocabulary with Hokkien and Malay.
Hear the dialects
Fun words, untranslatables
加油
jiāyóu
Literally “add oil”: used to cheer someone on, like “come on!” or “you can do it!”
马马虎虎
mǎmǎhūhū
Literally “horse horse tiger tiger”; it means “so-so” or careless.
关系
guānxi
Your network of relationships and mutual favours.
撒娇
sājiāo
Acting cute or childish to get your way.
Curious facts
- Mandarin has four main tones: mā (mother), má (hemp), mǎ (horse) and mà (to scold) are four different words.
- Chinese characters are logograms: each one stands for a syllable with meaning, and many are built from a meaning part plus a sound hint.
- Simplified characters were introduced in mainland China from the 1950s; Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau still use Traditional characters.
- Hanyu Pinyin, the official romanisation, was adopted in 1958. It is also how most people type Chinese on phones and computers.
- Verbs never conjugate and nouns usually have no plural form; time and number come from context and small particles such as 了 le.
Famous Mandarin Chinese-speaking voices
Singers & musicians
Writers & poets
Film & TV
Other famous figures
Descriptions from Wikidata; photos from Wikimedia Commons under the licences shown.
Mandarin Chinese culture now
Ne Zha 2
2025 animated fantasy action adventure film by Jiaozi
The Wandering Earth
2019 Chinese science fiction film directed by Frant Gwo
Black Myth: Wukong
2024 video game
Journey to the West
16th-century novel by Wu Cheng'en
Chinese Internet slang
Mandopop
Mandarin popular music
Learn Mandarin Chinese on YouTube
Free lessons from teachers and channels with Mandarin Chinese courses. Videos load only when you press play.
The story of the language
Quick quiz: how well do you know Mandarin Chinese?
Where to learn Mandarin Chinese
Learn Chinese
LangMagic's guide to learning Chinese.
LangMagicMandarin Chinese Content Portal
Mandarin Chinese videos, with smooth progress from teachers' channels to native content.
LangMagicThe Endless Book
Read text you can understand, in the style of your favourite author and genre. About 30 languages.
LangMagicLangMagic Speak
Speaking lessons built around your topics, from materials you choose.
LangMagicLangMagic Meet
A virtual meeting platform built for language lessons, with follow-up exercises.
FreeWikivoyage Chinese phrasebook
Free travel phrasebook with pronunciation guide
FreeWikibooks: Chinese (Mandarin)
Free, open textbook
FreeOmniglot: Mandarin Chinese
Script, pronunciation and useful phrases
FreeWiktionary: Chinese dictionary
Free multilingual dictionary
Sources
- Speaker numbers: Ethnologue (2026), via Wikipedia.
- Countries, populations, alphabets, days and months: Unicode CLDR 46.
- Classification: Glottolog 5.3. Grammar features: WALS Online.
- Introduction: Wikipedia, Mandarin Chinese (CC BY-SA 4.0). People and culture: Wikipedia and Wikidata. Images: Wikimedia Commons.
- Writing sample: Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1, from the Unicode UDHR collection. Phrases and words: Wiktionary. Difficulty: US Foreign Service Institute.
- Map: Natural Earth via world-atlas (public domain).