Easy Chinese story | The story of the Chinese Van Gogh | Comprehensible input | Beginner

YouTube · Lazy Chinese · Learner content · 2025/06/24
2025/06/24
Speech duration
9min 59s
Unique characters · 52 once
196
Word count
1,172
Average sentence length
7.3
Length
12:56
Unique words · 66 once
178
Syllables per minute
157
Script
Simplified 简
Sentences
215
Difficulty
Upper-Intermediatedifficulty

Difficulty is estimated from vocabulary: knowing common words through Level 52 covers about 95% of the words in this content — roughly 1 unfamiliar word in 20, the coverage research links to comfortable listening. Level 52 sits in the Upper-Intermediate range.

How difficulty works
Upper-Intermediate · 52

Difficulty is estimated from vocabulary: knowing common words through Level 52 covers about 95% of the words in this content — roughly 1 unfamiliar word in 20, the coverage research links to comfortable listening. Level 52 sits in the Upper-Intermediate range.

TAGSLearner contentVlogLanguage lesson

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 62%
  • HSK 2 12%
  • HSK 3 6%
  • HSK 4 5%
  • HSK 5 1%
  • HSK 6 0%
  • HSK 7–9 0%
  • Not on HSK 14%

Cumulative: HSK 1–4 covers 85% of the words, HSK 1–6 covers 86%, HSK 1–9 covers 86%.

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 115 words to reach 95% of this video’s words.

The 20 most-used of these 115 words.

WordPinyinMeaning (CC-CEDICT)In videoLevel
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; target86Lv 1
他tā(third-person singular) (since the early 20th century, usu. male) he; him; his; (bound form) other; another; some other (as in 他日[ta1 ri4] and 他人[ta1 ren2])81Lv 1
画huàto draw; to paint; picture; painting (CL:幅[fu2],張|张[zhang1]); to draw (a line) (variant of 劃|划[hua4]); stroke of a Chinese character (variant of 劃|划[hua4]); (calligraphy) horizontal stroke (variant of 劃|划[hua4])68Lv 16
很hěnvery; quite; (also, often used before an adjective without intensifying its meaning, i.e. as a meaningless syntactic element)45Lv 1
我wǒI; me; my34Lv 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.)28Lv 1
嗯ng(a groaning sound); (nonverbal grunt as interjection); OK, yeah; what?; interjection indicating approval, appreciation or agreement25Lv 2
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]24Lv 1
小xiǎosmall; tiny; few; young21Lv 2
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]21Lv 1

Is this video right for my Chinese?

A 13-minute video from Lazy Chinese with 10 minutes of speech at 157 syllables per minute. It's 1,172 words long, using 178 different words. Difficulty: Upper-Intermediate, Level 52 — it suits Upper-Intermediate learners: knowing the common words through Level 52 covers about 95% of its words, roughly 1 unfamiliar word in 20. Words to learn first include 的, 他, 画.