Vocabulary is the building material of a certain language. It is also the summation of all or certain words and fixed phrases in one language. Therefore, everyone who wants to study Chinese should first know more about vocabulary in Chinese language. The language is used to communicate by combing single word into sentences according to certain grammatical rules. The foreigners who study Chinese should realize that vocabulary is the total of all words, for some examples, Chinese words and English words, or we can say general words, basic words, words in dialects, etc.

During the process when you learn to speak Chinese in China, you may hear that vocabulary also means the summation of the words or fixed phrases used by certain person or in certain works. Since vocabulary is the combination of words and fixed phrases, the learners who study Chinese should know that the relationship between words and fixed phrases is the relationship of community and individual. We should also know that vocabulary reflects the situations of social development and language development, symbolizing people’s knowledge about the objective world. Then it forms the subject of researching vocabulary called “lexicology”.