Journal · China · N°12
A field guide to Chinese vocabulary
Words I keep collecting, and the ones that won't stick.
21 May 2026·Shenzhen·9 min read
One of the pain point when learning Mandarin is that most of the Anglicism we use in western languages are simply not used. For example in IT, 接口 refer to an API and 框架 to a framework. This was confusing for me at the beginning and I could hardly follow technical meetings.
Over the years, I put up a list of words and sentences collected from situations encountered at work. They are usually the quickest way of expressing something and are safe to use in a professional context. As a rule of thumb, if there is an acronym or a short Anglicism to designate something, it will be used instead of its Chinese counterpart (see remark column).
| English | Chinese Characters (汉字) | Example (例子句) |
|---|
| a program | 程序 (chéng xù) | |
| a framework | 框架 (kuàng jià) | 我们应该升级前段框架的版本 |
| a mini-program | 小程序 (xiǎo chéng xù) | |
| a string | 字符串 (zì fú chuàn) | 这个12位的字符串太长了 |
| a square bracket [ | ] | 方括号 (fāng guā hào) | |
| a curly bracket { | } | 花括号 (huā guā hào) | |
| an escaped chars | 跳脫字元 (tiào tuō zì yuán) | |
| a parenthesis | 圆括号 (yuán guā hào) | |
| a parameter | 参数 (cān shù) | |
| a loop | 迴圈 (huí quān) | |
| an exception | 异常 (yì cháng) | |
| to try / catch | 捕获 (bǔ huò) | |
| to throw an exception | 抛出 (pāo chū) | 会不会抛出异常？ |
| dependency injection | 依赖注入 (yī lài zhù rù) | |
| ORM | 对象关系映射程序 (duì xiàng guān xì yìng shè chéng xù) | |
| to migrate code | 迁移代码 (qiān yí dài mǎ) | 迁移代码在新项目 |
| asynchronous | 异步 (yì bù) | |
| API | 接口 (jiē kǒu) | |
| a bug | 漏洞 (lòu dòng) | |
| to debug | 调试 (tiáo shì) | 本地开发调试很方便 |
| to fix | 修复 (xiū fù) | |
| to build | 构建 (gòu jiàn) | |
| to compile | 编译 (biān yì) | 我去，编译又失败了 |
| Design Pattern | 设计模式 (shè jì mò shì) | |
| singleton design pattern | 单体模式 (dān yī mò shì) | |
| KISS principle (Keep It Simple, Stupid) | KISS原则 (KISS yuán zé) | |
| OOP | | |
| a class | 一类 (yi lèi) | |
| a class method | 类方法 (lèi fāng fǎ) | |
| a class variable | 类变量 (lèi biàn liàng) | |
| an object | 对象 (duì xiàng) | |
| to construct | 构造 (gòu zào) | |
| a constructor | 构造函数 (gòu zào hán shù) | |
| Primary Types | | |
| a char | 字元 (zì yuán) | |
| a float | 浮点数 (fú diǎn shù) | |
| Misc | 其他 | |
| open-source | 开源 (kāi yuán) | |
| refactoring | 重构 (chóng gòu) | 避免大量重构 |
| an algorithm | 算法 (suàn fǎ) | |
| Fixed configuration | 固定配置 (gù dìng pèi zhì) | |
| English | Chinese | Example (例子句) |
|---|
| to test | 测试 (cè shì) | |
| regression test | 回归测试 (huí guī cè shì) | 我们正在回归测试阶段 |
| integration test | 联调测试 (lián diào cè shì) | |
| unit test | 单元测试 (dān yuán cè shì) | Mockito单元测试的时候抛出异常 |
| to submit to test | 提试 (tí shì) | |
| English | Chinese | Example (例子句) |
|---|
| an environment | 环境 (huán jìng) | |
| daily environment | 日常环境 (rì cháng huán jìng) | |
| staging environment | 预发环境 (yù fā huán jìng) | |
| production environment | 正式 环境 (zhèng shì huán jìng) | |
| a version | 版本 (bǎn běn) | |
| to deploy | 发布 (fā bù) | |
| performance | 性能 (xìng néng) | |
| CPU | CPU | |
| RAM Memory | 内存 (nèi cún) | |
| a server | 一台服务器 (yī tái fú wù qì) | |
| English | Chinese | Example (例子句) |
|---|
| to undo | 撤销 (chè xiāo) | |
| to copy | 复制 (fù zhì) | |
| to paste | 粘贴 (zhān tiē) | |
| to edit | 编辑 (biān jí) | |
| to cancel | 取消 (qǔ xiāo) | |
| to refresh | 刷新 (shuā xīn) | |
| to save | 保存 (bǎo cún) | |
| to print | 打印 (dǎ yìn) | |
| to turn on | 打开 (dǎ kāi) | |
| to turn off | 关掉 (guān diào) | |
| a name | 名称 (míng chēng) | |
| an action | 行为 (xíng wéi) | |
| a description | 描述 (miáo shù) | |
| a menu | 菜单 (cài dān) | |
| properties | 属性 (shǔ xìng) | |
| an image | 图片 (tú piàn) | |
| a video | 视频 (shì pín) | |
| to connect | 链接 (liàn jiē) | |
| a network | 网络 (wǎng luò) | |
| wireless | 无线 (wú xiàn) | |
| an email | 电子邮件 (diàn zǐ yóu jiàn) | |
| inbox | 邮箱 (yóu xiāng) | |
| browser | 浏览器 (liú lǎn qì) | |
| URL | 网址 (wǎng zhǐ) | |
| to reply | 回复 (huí fù) | |
| to forward | 转发 (zhuǎn fā) | |
| to chat | 聊天 (liáo tiān) | |
| user interface (UI) | 用户界面 (yòng hù jiè miàn) | |
| a splash screen | 闪屏 (shǎn bīng) | |
| a feedback | 反馈 (fǎn kuì) | |
| full screen | 全屏 (quán píng) | |
| to download | 下载 (xià zǎi) | |
| to upload | 上载 (shàng zài) | |
| long-press | 长按 (zhǎng àn) | |
| screenshot | 截图 (jié tú) | |
| to search | 搜索 (sōu suǒ) | |
| English | Chinese | Example (例子句) |
|---|
| child (node) | 子 (zǐ) | |
| parent (node) | 父 (fù) | |
| root (node) | 顶级 (dǐng jí) | |
| category | 分类 (fēn lèi) | |
| array | 数组/陣列 (shù zǔ) | |
| database | 数据库 (shù jù kù) | |
| sort | 排序 (pái xù) | |
| filter | 筛选 (shāi xuǎn) | |
| pagination | 分页 (fēn yè) | |
| data | 数据 (shù jù) | |
| binary tree | 二叉树 (Èr chā shù) | |
| graph | 图形 (tú xíng) | |
| primary index | 主索引 (zhǔ suǒ yǐn) | |
| primary key | 主键 (zhǔ jiàn) | |
| foreign key | 外键 (wài jiàn) | |
| table join | 表连接 (biǎo lián jiē) | |
| query | 查询 (chá xún) | |
| row / column | 行 / 列 (xíng / liè) | |
| English | Chinese | Example (例子句) |
|---|
| domain name | 域名 (yù míng) | |
| hostname | 主机名 (zhǔ jī míng) | |
| show / hide | 显示 / 收起 (xiǎn shì / shōu qǐ) | |
| create | 新增 (xīn zēng) | |
| back | 返回 (fǎn huí) | |
| edit | 编辑 (biān jí) | |
| update | 更新 (gēng xīn) | |
| delete | 删除 (shān chú) | |
| permission | 权限 (quán xiàn) | |
| role | 角色 (jué sè) | |
| a page | 页面 (yè miàn) | 页面 can refer to a web page or the page of a paginated query to any data storage |
| a field | 字段 (zì duàn) | The field of a class or JSON response for example |
| English | Chinese | Example (例子句) |
|---|
| code repository | 代码库 (dài mǎ kù) | |
| to clone | 克隆 (kè lóng) | |
| to commit | 提交 (tí jiāo) | |
| to fetch | 抓取 (zhuā qǔ) | |
| to pull | 拉取 (lā qǔ) | |
| to push | 推送 (tuī sòng) | |
| a tag | 标签 (biāo qiān) | |
| to checkout | 检出 (jiǎn chū) | |
| a branch | 分支 (fēn zhī) | |
| to merge | 合并 (hé bìng) | |
| to stash | 储藏 (chǔ cáng) | |
| a conflict | 冲突 (chōng tū) | |
| English | Chinese | Example (例子句) |
|---|
| e-commerce | 电子商务 (diàn zǐ shāng wù) | |
| web page | 网页 (wǎng yè) | |
| payment | 付款 (fù kuǎn) | |
| credit card | 信用卡 (xìn yòng kǎ) | |
| enter account number | 输入账号 (shū rù zhàng hào) | |
| client | 顾客 (gù kè) | |
| profit | 利润 (lì rùn) | |
| cost | 成本 (chéng běn) | |
| inquiry | 询价 (xún jià) | |
| wholesale price | 批发价 (pī fā jià) | |
| retail price | 零售价 (líng shòu jià) | |
| English | Chinese |
|---|
| Are you sure? | 你确定吗? (nǐ quèdìng ma?) |
| Please help me print this document | 请帮我打印一下这份文件 (qǐnɡ bānɡ wǒ dǎ yìn yí xià zhè fèn wén jiàn) |
| You did a good job! | 你做得非常好！(nǐ zuò de fēichánɡ hǎo!) |
| How may I help you? | 有什么可以帮你？(yǒu shén me ké yǐ bānɡ ní) |
| Could you provide the client's address? | 可以提供下客户的地址吗？(kě yǐ tí gōng xià kè hù dì dì zhǐ ma?) |
