All 394 TOCFL Novice Words: Traditional Chinese List and Video

Imagine arriving at a bus stop in Taipei after weeks of beginner Mandarin lessons. You know gōngchē when someone says it, but 公車 on the timetable still takes a moment to recognize. That small pause is why a good Traditional Chinese word list is worth keeping nearby: you can connect the words you have heard to the characters you will actually see, then go back to the street and try reading them again.

This TOCFL Novice vocabulary list brings together every entry from the Novice 1 and Novice 2 reference sheets, in the same order as our complete video lesson, with pinyin and a short English meaning beside each Traditional Chinese headword. You may see the level described as “about 400 words” elsewhere, while the numbered list here ends at 394. There is a straightforward reason for that, which we will get to below; first, you can start hearing and reading the words themselves.

Watch all 394 TOCFL Novice words

We made the 92-minute lesson so that you could work through the full TOCFL Novice vocabulary list without having to guess at the sound of a character from its pinyin alone. Every entry appears in Traditional Chinese with its pronunciation and meaning; the word is spoken twice, then placed in an illustrated example sentence that you hear twice as well. If a word slips past you on the first reading, you get another chance to catch it before the lesson moves on.

You can certainly watch the whole thing in one sitting, but a twenty-word stretch is easier to use well. Listen once with your eyes on the characters, then pause occasionally and say a word before the second reading gives it away. When you return to that stretch another day, try listening to an example sentence while looking away from the screen; it is surprisingly revealing to discover which words you recognize only when you can see them. The numbered index on this page will take you back to a spelling quickly, and our pinyin chart and tone guide can help when the sound, rather than the meaning, is the part you cannot quite pin down.

Why 394 words when TOCFL says about 400?

TOCFL is Taiwan’s Test of Chinese as a Foreign Language, and Novice is its starting, Pre-A1 band. The names can take a minute to sort out: Novice has a first and second step, while the exam’s Level 1 belongs to the next band, Band A. In the official Traditional Chinese workbook updated in 2024, the Novice 1 sheet contains 160 entries and the Novice 2 sheet adds 234. Together they make the 394 entries in our video and index, while the exam guidance sensibly rounds its recommended vocabulary size to about 400.

There is another reason to say entries rather than simply words. A line such as 你／妳 gives two written forms for “you,” and the same slash appears where the list accepts 公共汽車／公車 for “bus” or 餐廳／飯館 for “restaurant.” Those alternatives share a number in the workbook, and we have kept them together here so that the page follows the video. You will occasionally see parentheses too; they indicate an optional part of the written form, rather than a new numbered item.

The level itself is about the first things you can pick out of everyday Mandarin, especially when you have some context to help. TOCFL’s Novice listening description speaks of clearly pronounced, slow speech that you can hear again, while its reading description allows you to reread short, familiar material. A learner at this stage might recognize a price, a time, or a simple question without being ready for an unplanned, fast conversation. That is a useful and realistic aim for these words, and it is why we put them into spoken sentences instead of leaving them as 394 translations in a column.

What Traditional Chinese changes for a beginner

The list begins with 我 (wǒ, I or me), a character that will already look familiar to many learners. Further in, a word you know perfectly well by sound may ask more of your eyes: 學校 (xuéxiào, school), 電話 (diànhuà, telephone), or 計程車 (jìchéngchē, taxi). If your earlier lessons used simplified characters, you have not lost the spoken Mandarin you learned; you are giving those familiar sounds another set of written shapes to attach to. Some will click immediately, and others will take a few sightings in the wild.

The everyday words make that process pleasant. You could read 公車 (gōngchē) at the stop, get off near a stall selling 小吃 (xiǎochī, snacks or street food), and later meet friends at a 餐廳 (cāntīng, restaurant). Each is a small part of an ordinary afternoon, which is easier to recall than three disconnected cards. The video’s example sentences give the words that kind of setting, and the numbered index lets you find their characters again when you want a closer look.

We have kept every headword in Traditional Chinese because that is the writing you came to this list to practise. Pinyin sits beside it as a pronunciation guide, so you can move between what you hear in the video and what you read on the page without letting the romanization take over the exercise. If you are still weighing which script to study, our guide to Traditional and Simplified Chinese walks through that choice in terms of where you expect to use the language.

The small patterns that make 394 feel manageable

The official Novice sheets are arranged around familiar areas of life, so you will often find related words near each other. Early on, 今天 (jīntiān, today), 明天 (míngtiān, tomorrow), and 昨天 (zuótiān, yesterday) give you a little calendar; they share 天, “day,” and each can sit at the front of a sentence about your plans. The video gives 今天我很忙。 (Jīntiān wǒ hěn máng., “I’m busy today.”) for 今天. Once you know that sentence, changing the time word lets you talk about tomorrow’s busy schedule or yesterday’s without rebuilding everything else.

At a shop counter, a different group of words begins to work together. 幾 (jǐ) asks for a small number, while 多少 (duōshǎo) is the broader “how much” or “how many”; add 錢 (qián, money) and the video’s 這個杯子多少錢？ becomes a question you could actually ask about a cup. An answer may contain 兩 (liǎng), the form of “two” commonly used before a measure word, or 塊 (kuài), which you will hear in everyday prices. Reading those four entries in different parts of the index is useful, but bringing them to one counter is what makes their jobs memorable.

Ability and permission have their own small set of verbs. 我會說中文。 (Wǒ huì shuō Zhōngwén., “I can speak Chinese.”) uses 會 (huì) for a learned ability, whereas 我可以坐這裡嗎？ (Wǒ kěyǐ zuò zhèlǐ ma?, “May I sit here?”) uses 可以 (kěyǐ) to ask whether something is allowed. 想 (xiǎng) and 要 (yào) will both help you express what you want, though the choice depends on the sentence and situation. When you hear these words doing something in an exchange, the differences become much easier to keep straight than they are in a row of one-word glosses.

You can browse the full index for coverage, then return to it with a particular scene in mind. A classroom, a bus ride, a meal, and a phone call all have words waiting here; following one of those threads at a time makes the long list feel like a collection of usable pieces of Mandarin.

The complete TOCFL Novice vocabulary list

Below are all 394 entries in video order. The first 160 belong to Novice 1, and entries 161–394 are Novice 2; the range links will get you back to a particular stretch without endless scrolling. We have kept the English meanings deliberately brief so you can scan the table, but use the example sentences in the video whenever a gloss feels too thin. Where the list shows a slash or parentheses, you are seeing alternatives within that numbered entry.

A practical way through the video and the list

Suppose you watch the stretch that includes 茶 (chá, tea). Rather than trying to carry every new entry from that stretch into tomorrow, take a sentence you might want to say: 我想喝茶。 (Wǒ xiǎng hē chá., “I’d like tea.”) It brings 我, 想, 喝, and 茶 together without asking you to invent new grammar, and later you can change the drink or add a time word from the list. If the sentence belongs to something you might actually do, you will have a reason to recall it when the video is closed.

The next day, return to the same stretch before adding more. Give yourself a moment with the Traditional characters while the English column is covered, then play the example sentence and see whether you hear the word you just read. Some words will be obvious on the page and disappear in speech; others will be easy to hear but slow to recognize in print. That is worth noticing, because the two problems call for different kinds of practice, and a second listen is often enough to tell you which one you have.

1. Watch a short stretch

   Start with about twenty entries, leaving time to repeat the words rather than rushing to the next chapter.

2. Give the words a place

   Choose a meal, bus ride, classroom, or other familiar setting and make one short sentence from what you heard.

3. Check what you remember

   Cover the English column for that stretch and try the Traditional characters before uncovering the meanings.

4. Listen again tomorrow

   Return to the example sentences and notice which words you can now hear without looking at the screen.

You can work through the whole list this way over time, returning to the entries that still need attention instead of starting at number one every evening. Keep a few ordinary situations in rotation: telling a friend where you are, asking a price, speaking about yesterday at school. TOCFL’s Novice descriptions explicitly allow the listener or reader the support of context, so give yourself that same advantage while practising. If the sentences still rush past you even when the written words look familiar, our Chinese listening practice plan takes that particular problem further.

TOCFL Novice and HSK 1 are different starting routes

If you have already used our complete HSK 1 list, a great deal of the spoken Mandarin here will be familiar. It is tempting to compare the numbers, since the newer HSK 1 syllabus has 300 entries and TOCFL Novice has 394 across two steps, but those totals do not make the levels interchangeable. The exams use different reference lists and describe their beginner stages differently; this page is the one to keep beside a TOCFL lesson or a Traditional Chinese text, while the HSK list remains the one to check for that exam’s coverage.

There is plenty of overlap to enjoy rather than reconcile in a spreadsheet. 我, 今天, and 茶 are words you can carry from one course to another, even when the characters around them look different. Stay with whichever list serves what you want to read next, and keep listening until the written words begin to meet you in ordinary places. One day 公車 on a timetable will simply look like the bus you are waiting for, and you will have forgotten that it was entry 123.