Working Hard Is a Lie? | comprehensible input Chinese | intermediate

YouTube · Xiaogua Chinese · Learner content · 2026/09/22
2026/09/22
Speech duration
25min 22s
Unique characters · 80 once
386
Word count
3,856
Average sentence length
7.5
Length
29:24
Unique words · 142 once
436
Syllables per minute
216
Script
Simplified 简
Sentences
731
Difficulty
Intermediatedifficulty

Difficulty is estimated from vocabulary: knowing common words through Level 25 covers about 95% of the words in this content — roughly 1 unfamiliar word in 20, the coverage research links to comfortable listening. Level 25 sits in the Intermediate range.

How difficulty works
Intermediate · 25

Difficulty is estimated from vocabulary: knowing common words through Level 25 covers about 95% of the words in this content — roughly 1 unfamiliar word in 20, the coverage research links to comfortable listening. Level 25 sits in the Intermediate range.

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Vocab coverage

The Level you need to know each share of this video’s words. The dark 95% step is its difficulty.

HSK 3.0 coverage

Which HSK 3.0 list each of this video’s words comes from.

  • HSK 1 63%
  • HSK 2 12%
  • HSK 3 11%
  • HSK 4 5%
  • HSK 5 2%
  • HSK 6 0%
  • HSK 7–9 0%
  • Not on HSK 6%

Cumulative: HSK 1–4 covers 91% of the words, HSK 1–6 covers 93%, HSK 1–9 covers 94%.

Words to learn first

Pick a level to see the words a learner there needs to understand 95% of this video’s words.

Starting from zero (Beginner), learn 269 words to reach 95% of this video’s words.

The 20 most-used of these 269 words.

WordPinyinMeaning (CC-CEDICT)In videoLevel
我wǒI; me; my313Lv 1
的deof; ~'s (possessive particle); (used after an attribute when it modifies a noun); (used at the end of a declarative sentence for emphasis); (used after a noun, verb or adjective to form a nominal expression, as in 皮革的[pi2 ge2 de5] "one made of leather" or 跑堂兒的|跑堂儿的[pao3 tang2 r5 de5] "a waiter (literally, one who runs back and forth in a restaurant)" or 新的[xin1 de5] "new one"); also pr. [di4] or [di5] in poetry and songs; really and truly; a taxi; a cab (abbr. for 的士[di1 shi4]); (bound form) bull's-eye; target206Lv 1
很hěnvery; quite; (also, often used before an adjective without intensifying its meaning, i.e. as a meaningless syntactic element)143Lv 1
是shìto be (followed by substantives only); correct; right; true; (respectful acknowledgement of a command) very well; (adverb for emphatic assertion); variant of 是[shi4]104Lv 1
不bùno; not so; (bound form) not; un-101Lv 1
对duìright; correct; towards; at; for; concerning; regarding; to treat (sb a certain way); to face; to match together; to adjust; to fit; to suit; to answer; to reply; to add; to pour in (a fluid); to check; to compare; classifier: couple; pair; (bound form) opposite; facing; matching100Lv 1
你nǐyou (informal, as opposed to courteous 您[nin2]); you (Note: In Taiwan, 妳 is used to address females, but in mainland China, it is not commonly used. Instead, 你 is used to address both males and females.)80Lv 1
好hǎogood; appropriate; proper; all right!; (before a verb) easy to; (before a verb) good to; (before an adjective for exclamatory effect) so; (verb complement indicating completion); (of two people) close; on intimate terms; (after a personal pronoun) hello; to be fond of; to have a tendency to; to be prone to79Lv 1
了le(completed action marker); (modal particle indicating change of state, situation now); (modal particle intensifying preceding clause); to finish; (used with 得[de2] or 不[bu4] after a verb to express (im)possibility, as in 忘不了[wang4 bu5 liao3] "cannot forget"); (literary) (usually followed by a negative such as 無|无[wu2] or 不[bu4]) completely (not); entirely (not); (not) in the least; (of eyes) bright; clear-sighted; to understand clearly; to understand clearly (variant of 瞭|了[liao3]); unofficial variant of 瞭[liao4]72Lv 1
觉得jué deto think that ...; to feel that ...; to feel (uncomfortable etc)72Lv 1

Is this video right for my Chinese?

A 29-minute video from Xiaogua Chinese with 25 minutes of speech at 216 syllables per minute. It's 3,856 words long, using 436 different words. Difficulty: Intermediate, Level 25 — it suits Intermediate learners: knowing the common words through Level 25 covers about 95% of its words, roughly 1 unfamiliar word in 20. Words to learn first include 我, 的, 很.