75 Useful Academic Vocabulary 🎓 Let's Go back to School in Chinese

School Vocabulary in Chinese – 75 Must Know Words

Thinking of coming to LTL to learn Chinese? Good for you!

As a present, we are getting you ahead of the rest with our hugely useful set of Chinese school vocabulary.

Differentiate your pens from your pencils, students from your schoolbags and your chairs from your chalk!

To get started, let’s nail down the key stationery in Chinese with this useful video!

Chinese School Vocabulary – Key Words

Chinese School Vocabulary – Things We Need

Chinese School Vocabulary – Inside The Classroom

Chinese School Vocabulary – Grammar

Chinese School Vocabulary – Other Subjects

Chinese School Vocabulary – Going to University

FREE VOCAB BONUS – Vocab Quiz

Challenging yourself and your ability to learn Chinese is a great decision, but if you have never attended a Chinese-only class, our ultimate vocabulary for Chinese courses in China will help you to avoid getting lost during the first few days of class in China.

First of all, let’s learn some school objects and other school-related vocabulary words with examples to increase your school vocabulary in Chinese!

Chinese School Vocabulary: Key Words

So when we arrive at LTL, we head to the classroom – 在教室里

In the classroom we’ll no doubt come across the following.

• School – 学校 (n) – xuéxiào
• Classroom – 教室 (n) – jiàoshì
• Class – 课 (n) – kè
• Student – 学生 (n) – xuéshēng
• Teacher – 老师 (n) – lǎoshī
• Book – 书 (n) – shū
• Schoolbag – 书包 (n) – shūbāo

Time to start class (上课), so your teacher may well say…

“请把你的书从书包里拿出来.” Qǐng bǎ nǐ de shū cóng shūbāo lǐ ná chūlái.

Please take your book out of your schoolbag.

• Textbook – 课本 (n) – kèběn
• Page – 页 (n) – yè

请打开书，看第十页。
Qǐng dǎkāi shū, kàn dì-shí yè.

Please open your textbook to page ten.

Chinese School Vocabulary: Things we need

So, we are mid-class and taking in all the Mandarin our brain can handle, what do we need though?

• Paper – 纸 (n) – zhǐ
• School desk – 课桌 (n) – kèzhuō
• Chair – 椅子 (n) – yǐzi
• Pencil – 铅笔 (n) – qiānbǐ
• Blackboard – 黑板 (n) – hēibǎn
• Chalk – 粉笔 (n) – fénbǐ
• Whiteboard – 白板 (n) – báibǎn
• Pen – 笔 (n) – bǐ
• Notebook – 笔记本 (n) – bǐjìběn
• Pencil – 铅笔 (n) – qiānbǐ
• Eraser – 橡皮 (n) – xiàngpí
• Dictionary – 词典 (n) – cídiǎn

Maybe we’ll have to engage in one of the following!

• Composition / to write a composition – 作文 (n) / (v) – zuòwén
• Exercises – 练习 (v) liànxí

请到黑板前来做练习。
Qǐng dào hēibǎn qián lái zuò liànxí.

Please come to the blackboard to do the exercises.

• To prepare a lesson – 预习 – yùxí

下次来上课之前请预习课文。
Xià cì lái shàngkè zhīqián qǐng yùxí kèwén.

Please preview the lessons before your next class

Stationery in Chinese – What’s Inside your Pencil Case?

Coming to China to study? Or perhaps to start working at a Chinese company? You’re going to need to learn how to talk about basic stationery in Chinese!

And just in case that last bit didn’t quite go in, it’s time to review what we learnt.

To review – 复习 – fùxí
Shǒuxiān ràng wǒmen fùxí yīxià – 首先让我们复习一下

Let’s review it first

Chinese School Vocabulary: Inside the Classroom

Certain words pop up a lot in LTL classrooms so let’s pick some of our teachers favourites so you know what’s going on before you’ve even began!

• Homework – 作业 (n) – zuòyè
• Dictation – 听写 (n) – tīngxiě
• Shorthand dictation (n) – 速记 – sùjì
• Question // problem – 问题 (n) – wèntí

请回答我的问题
Qǐng huídá wǒ de wèntí

Please answer my question

• Quiz – 测验 (n) – cèyàn
• Exam – 考试 (n) kǎoshì
• Letter – 字母 (n) – zìmǔ

BONUS | Interested in other languages? Check out how to say School in Spanish and Vietnamese Classroom Phrases!

Chinese School Vocabulary: Grammar Terms in Chinese

During your Chinese courses in China, you might listen or read some grammar terms you never heard or saw before, this list provides a quick review of the basic Grammar terms in Chinese:

OK time to get formal, these are things we’ll be using every lesson without fail so it’s best we get them nailed down early because our teachers use these words A LOT!

Ready, set… go!

• Noun – 名词 – míngcí
• Verb – 动词 – dòngcí
• Adjective – 形容词 – xíngróngcí
• Adverb – 副词 – fùcí
• Numeral – 数词 – shùcí
• Measure word – 量词 – liàngcí
• Pronoun – 代词 – dàicí
• Preposition – 介词 – jiècí
• Conjunction – 连词 – liáncí
• Particle – 助词 – zhùcí
• Interjection – 叹词 – tàncí
• Onomatopoeia – 象声词 – xiàngshēngcí
• Prefix – 前缀 – qiánzhuì
• Suffix – 后缀 – hòuzhuì
• Construction –  构词 – gòucí

Chinese School Vocabulary: Other Subjects

Now of course when we go to school we’ve got to negotiate a number of subjects aside from Mandarin!

It wouldn’t be a comprehensive blog if we didn’t include these:

• Mathematics – 数学 shù xué
• Algebra – 代数学 dài shù xué
• Geometry – 几何学 jǐ hé xué
• Astronomy – 天文学 tiān wén xué
• Biology – 生物学 shēng wù xué
• Geography – 地理学 dì lǐ xué
• Geology – 地质学 dì zhì xué
• History – 历史学 lìshǐ xué
• Medicine – 医学 yī xué
• Law – 法学 fǎ xué
• Physics – 物理学 wù lǐ xué
• Chemistry – 化学 huà xué
• Philosophy – 哲学 zhé xué
• Psychology – 心理学 xīn lǐ xué

Complete Guide to Basic Chinese Grammar & Sentence Structures

Chinese grammar is NOT as hard as you think. In fact it’s a lot easier than many other languages. Here we introduce some key points and show you the way.

Chinese School Vocabulary: Going to Uni

Of course, when we leave school many of us decide to head to university.

Perhaps you are thinking of coming to university in China also?

If so you’ll find these useful:

• Academy – 学院 xué yuàn
• University – 大学 dà xué
• Faculty – 系 xì
• Student – 大学生 dà xué shēng
• Lecturer (teacher) – 讲师 jiǎng shī
• Lecture hall/room – 讲堂 jiǎng táng
• Graduate – 毕业生 bì yè shēng
• Diploma – 毕业证 bì yè zhèng
• Dissertation – 学位论文 xuéwèi lùnwén
• Study (report) – 研究报告 yán jiū bào gào
• Laboratory – 实验室 shí yàn shì
• Lecture – 讲课 jiǎng kè
• Course mate – 同学 tóng xué
• Scholarship – 奖学金 jiǎng xué jīn
• Academic degree – 学位 xué wèi

Not sure about where to attend a Chinese course in China? LTL offers Chinese classes in Beijing, Shanghai, Taipei, Beihai and now also in Xi’an, Chengdu, and even Singapore!

So, you’ve come to school before it’s even began, if you have come this far, well done, you’ll be one step ahead of the game before class has started!

Now one final lesson, we love a Chinese proverb at LTL, they are great ways to learn, so here is our very own Chinese Proverb of the Day! Save it, understand it, enjoy it!

Chinese School Vocabulary: Quiz

Let’s see how well you really know your Chinese School Vocab! Our test is super fast and results are immediate. Fancy it?

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Chinese School Vocabulary – FAQ’s

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