Since some Chinese words are used by all people, we can see them as the high frequency words. But overseas students who learn Mandarin should realize high frequency word is different from the basic word because it is counted by the frequency that people use. If the words are very frequently used in society, they are the high frequency words, otherwise, the low frequency words. When you learn Mandarin in China, you should know the high frequency words may not necessarily have long history and the others are not surely having short history.

The so-called high frequency should be closely related to the condition that the words are frequently used in the society. When learning Chinese Mandarin, you should know If the words are only commonly used in certain groups of people or community or social circumstance, they are actually not frequently used. Therefore, when you learn Mandarin in Chinese school in China, teachers may tell you that the high frequency words have the nature of “commonly used by the public” of the basic words. Therefore, the high frequency words may be not basic words, but the basic ones should be high frequently used words.