· 5 lists · 200 words

Home and daily life

The rooms, the chores, the daily round and the flat itself.

What holds these lists together

Chinese names the rooms of a home by what happens in them, and the parts are easy to see: 卧室(wòshì), the bedroom, is the room for lying down; 客厅(kètīng), the living room, is the hall for guests; 厨房(chúfáng) is the kitchen. Many daily actions are a verb with its own object, where English has one verb: 洗澡(xǐzǎo), to have a bath or a shower, is literally "wash bath", and 睡觉(shuìjiào), to sleep, "sleep a sleep". The two halves can separate — 洗(xǐ)了(le)个(ge)澡(zǎo), had a shower — which surprises anyone who learned them as a single word. Renting brings words a newcomer meets on the first contract and nowhere before it: 押金(yājīn), the deposit, 房租(fángzū), the rent, and 中介(zhōngjiè), the agent between landlord and tenant. The lists run from the rooms to the flat and the building it stands in.

The five lists

1Home and roomsThe rooms of a home, the things in them, and the words for where something is.40 words 2Daily routineGetting up, washing, meals, going out and coming home, in the order of a day.40 words 2Housework and choresCleaning, tidying and the things at home that need looking after.40 words 3Renting and living at homeRenting a flat, moving house, the furniture and the building around you.40 words 4Housing, property and buildingHow a home is bought, paid for, built, maintained and pulled down.40 words

Spread across the levels

The category runs across the levels — it is an area, not a difficulty. If you practise it, you can also choose a level at the top of the practice page and then get only the part that sits there.

Level	Words	Share
1	42	21 %
2	79	40 %
3	40	20 %
4	39	20 %

Practise this category

Multiple choice and gaps, across all five lists and all 200 words. Whatever you get wrong comes back tomorrow.