Learning Materials · 118 Elements
The Periodic Table in Chinese
huàxué yuánsù zhōuqībiǎo — "the periodic table of chemical elements"
Chinese element names are one system, not 118 separate words. Nearly every one is a phono-semantic compound: a radical telling you what kind of thing it is, and a phonetic component approximating the Western name. Read the radical and you already know whether it is a metal, a gas or a liquid — before you know the element.
Four radicals, four answers
The radical is a reliable signal here in a way the English names never are. Tap one to see only those elements. Where two characters are shown, the second is the shape the radical takes inside another character — 金 becomes 钅 when it is squeezed to the left, which is why you will not find 金 itself in most of the metal cells.
Scroll sideways to see the full table →
The ones you already meet
Most of the table is vocabulary a learner will never need. A handful are in words you will hear in a week.
- 氢qīng氢气 (qīngqì) hydrogen gas
- 氦hài氦气球 (hàiqìqiú) helium balloon
- 锂lǐ锂电池 (lǐdiànchí) lithium battery
- 硼péng硼砂 (péngshā) borax
- 碳tàn二氧化碳 (èryǎnghuàtàn) carbon dioxide
- 氮dàn氮气 (dànqì) nitrogen gas
- 氧yǎng氧气 (yǎngqì) oxygen
- 氟fú含氟牙膏 (hánfú yágāo) fluoride toothpaste
- 氖nǎi氖灯 (nǎidēng) neon lamp
- 钠nà低钠盐 (dīnàyán) low-sodium salt
- 镁měi镁光灯 (měiguāngdēng) magnesium flashlamp, figuratively the media spotlight
- 铝lǚ铝合金 (lǚhéjīn) aluminium alloy
Reviewed 2026-05-27