Chinese Vocabulary · 中文词汇
Food and Color Words in Chinese
食物与颜色词汇 shíwù yǔ yánsè cíhuì
Before we get into the vocab, one word is worth explaining first: 饼干 (bǐnggān). It gets translated as “cookie,” “biscuit,” “cracker,” “wafer” — basically any small, dry, flour-based snack falls under this one word. 饼 (bǐng) means something shaped like a flat cake, usually made from flour or rice flour; 干 (gān) means dry. Put them together and you get “dry cake-shaped thing,” which covers a lot of ground. Potato chips are the one exception — nobody knows why, they just don’t count.
What’s on the menu
Food Words in Chinese
| Chinese | Pinyin | English | Korean | Japanese |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 米 | mǐ | Uncooked rice | 쌀 | 米 |
| 盐 | yán | Salt | 소금 | 塩 |
| 糖 | táng | Sugar | 설탕 | シュガー |
| 油 | yóu | Oil | 기름 | 油 |
| 牛排 | niúpái | Steak | 스테이크 | ステーキ |
| 青菜 | qīngcài | Green vegetable | 채소 | 青野菜 |
| 三明治 | sānmíngzhì | Sandwich | 샌드위치 | サンドイッチ |
| 汉堡包 | hànbǎobāo | Hamburger | 햄버거 | ハンバーガー |
| 西瓜 | xīguā | Watermelon | 수박 | 西瓜 |
| 方便面 | fāngbiànmiàn | Instant noodles | 라면 | インスタントラーメン |
| 点心 | diǎnxīn | Snack | 간식 | スナック |
| 冰激凌 | bīngjīlíng | Ice cream | 아이스크림 | アイスクリーム |
| 饼干 | bǐnggān | Cookie | 과자 | クッキー |
| 啤酒 | píjiǔ | Beer | 맥주 | ビール |
| 绿茶 | lǜchá | Green tea | 녹차 | 緑茶 |
| 红茶 | hóngchá | Black tea | 홍차 | 紅茶 |
💡 “Hamburger,” “instant noodles,” and “ice cream” aren’t just script differences — Taiwan says 漢堡 (hànbǎo), 泡麵 (pàomiàn), 冰淇淋 (bīngqílín); China says 汉堡包 (hànbǎobāo), 方便面 (fāngbiànmiàn), 冰激凌 (bīngjīlíng).
Putting it all together
Examples
牛排請幫我做成5分熟牛排请帮我做成5分熟 Steak, please make it medium rare for me.
夏天的晚上喝一罐啤酒最享受了夏天的晚上喝一罐啤酒最享受了 Drinking a can of beer on a summer evening is the most enjoyable thing.
Every color in the crayon box
Color Words in Chinese
| Chinese | Pinyin | English | Korean | Japanese |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 蓝色 | lánsè | Blue | 파란색 | 青 |
| 绿色 | lǜsè | Green | 초록색 | 緑 |
| 红色 | hóngsè | Red | 빨간색 | 赤 |
| 黑色 | hēisè | Black | 까만색 | 黒 |
| 黄色 | huángsè | Yellow | 노란색 | 黄色 |
| 白色 | báisè | White | 하얀색 | 白 |
| 粉红色 | fěnhóngsè | Pink | 분홍색 | ピンク |
A little extra
Little Pink: China’s Online Patriots
Ever come across the term 小粉红 (Little Pink)? It refers to Chinese internet nationalists — the crowd that shows up hard to defend China against anything they see as criticism. My first guess was that the name came from the color of China’s national flag, but according to Wikipedia the real origin is more specific: it traces back to a group of users on the literature site Jinjiang Literature City who aggressively pushed back on posts containing negative news about China.
Within the site, that group became known as the “Jinjiang Girl Group Concerned for the Country” — and since the site’s main color scheme was pink, “Little Pink” stuck.
Test yourself
Vocabulary Quiz
