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140+ Technical Terms in Chinese to Sound Like a Tech-savvy Native Speaker

chinese-vocabulary-word-list-computer-internet

Do you know how to say “tweet,” “email” or “blogger” in Chinese? How about the Chinese counterparts of YouTube, Google and Facebook?

Once I reached a certain level of Chinese—enough to have general conversations with native speakers—I found myself unexpectedly searching for all kinds of social media and technology terms to get my point across.

Take a look at my list of over 140 technical terms in Chinese so you already have these words up your sleeve.

Types of Internet People

EnglishChinesePinyin
Blogger博主bó zhŭ
Male tech geek who stays home all the time宅男zhái nán
Female tech geek who stays home all the time宅女zhái nǚ
Internet friend网友wǎng yǒu
Netizen网络公民wăng luò gōng mín
Human flesh search engine (not a person but the phenomenon)人肉搜索rén ròu sōu suŏ
Hacker黑客hēi kè
Venture capital (not a person, but venture capital itself)风险投资fēng xiǎn tóu zī
User用户yòng hù
Administrator管理员guăn lĭ yuán
Moderator版主bǎn zhǔ
Programmer程序设计师chéng xù shè jì shī
Computer programming (the activity not the person)电脑编程diàn năo biān chéng
Developer开发人员kāi fā rén yuán

Famous Computer / Internet People

EnglishChinesePinyin
Alibaba founder马云mă yún
Baidu (China’s most populous search engine) founder李彦红lĭ yàn hóng
Former Microsoft and Google China CEO李开复lĭ kāi fù
Foxconn CEO郭台铭guō tái míng
Lenovo founder柳传志liŭ chuán zhì
Tencent CEO马化腾mǎ huà téng

Internet sites

EnglishChinesePinyin
The internet互联网hù lián wăng
Baidu (Chinese Google - most popular search engine)百度băi dù
Sina (Chinese Yahoo)新浪网xīn làng wǎng
Google谷歌gǔ gē
Kaixinwang (social networking site, mainly for professionals)开心网kāi xīn wăng
Renrenwang (social networking site, mainly for students)人人网rén rén wǎng
Weibo (means "microblogging" and is like Chinese Twitter)微博wēi bó
Youku (Chinese Youtube)优酷yōu kù
QQ (Chinese instant messaging program)QQ
Taobao (Chinese eBay - site for online shopping)淘宝táo băo
Search engine搜索引擎sōu suŏ yĭn qíng

Things to Do and Types of Sites

EnglishChinesePinyin
Social network社交网络shè jiāo wăng luò
E-commerce电子商务diàn zĭ shāng wù
Podcast播客bō kè
Blog博客bó kè
Webpage网页wăng yè
Chartroom聊天室liáo tiān shì
Internet cafe网吧wăng bā
BBS论坛lùn tán
Computer game电脑游戏diàn năo yóu xì
Video game电玩diàn wán
Internet game网游(网络游戏)wǎng yóu
Internet shopping网购(网上购物)wǎng gòu

Internet “Verbs”

EnglishChinesePinyin
Tweet (from Weibo, China's Twitter)发微博fā wēi bó
A post (on a blog)帖子tiě zi
Online上线shàng xiàn
Offline离线lí xiàn
Comment评论píng lùn
Reply回复huí fù
Accept接收jiē shōu
Decline拒绝jù jué
Register注册zhù cè
Login /sign in登录dēng lù
Download下载xià zăi
Upload上传shàng chuán
Click点击diăn jī
Double-click双击shuāng jī

Email

EnglishChinesePinyin
Inbox邮箱yóu xiāng
An email邮件yóu jiàn
To send an email发邮件fā yóu jiàn
To forward转发zhuǎn fā
To CC抄送chāo sòng
Spam垃圾邮件lā jī yóu jiàn
File文件wén jiàn
Document文件wén jiàn
Access接入jiē rù
Attachment附件fù jiàn
Chart表格biăo gé
Virus病毒bìng dú

Computer Hardware

EnglishChinesePinyin
Hardware硬件yìng jiàn
Computer电脑diàn năo
Screen屏幕píng mù
Keyboard键盘jiàn pán
Key (on a keyboard)jiàn
Desktop computer台式机tái shì jī
Mouse鼠标shŭ biāo
Monitor显示器xiǎn shì qì
CPUCPU
Design设计shè jì

Computer Hardware Accessories

EnglishChinesePinyin
Software软件ruăn jiàn
Speakers音响yīn xiăng
Microphone话筒huà tŏng
AC adapterAC适配器AC shì pèi qì
Discdié
Printer打印机dă yìn jī
Button按钮àn niǔ
Fax传真chuán zhēn
Scanner扫描仪săo miáo yí
External hard drive移动硬盘yí dòng yìng pán
USB driveU盘U pán

Mobile Computer Hardware

EnglishChinesePinyin
Laptop笔记本bǐ jì běn
Touchpad触摸板chù mō băn
USB InterfacesUSB接口USB jiē kǒu

Mobile Devices

EnglishChinesePinyin
Mobile device移动设备yí dòng shè bèi
Device设备shè bèi
Smartphone智能手机zhì néng shŏu jī
Touchscreen触摸屏chù mō píng
Camera摄像头shè xiàng tóu
Earphones耳机ěr jī
Headphones头戴式耳机tóu dài shì ěr jī
Battery电池diàn chí
Charger充电器chōng diàn qì
Data cable数据线shù jù xiàn
Memory card存储卡cún chŭ kă
Slots插槽chā cáo

Mobile Device Related

EnglishChinesePinyin
Text message短信duǎn xìn
To send a text message发短信fā duǎn xìn
Signal信号xìn hào
Power电源diàn yuán
Wireless无线wú xiàn
Data数据shù jù
WiFi无线局域网wú xiàn jú yù wăng
Bluetooth蓝牙lán yá

iPhone

EnglishChinesePinyin
Swipe (on a iphone)滑动huá dòng
iPhone appiPhone 应用程序iPhone yìng yòng chéng xù
iPhone app (another way to say it)iPhone 应用软件iPhone yìng yòng ruǎn jiàn
App store应用商店yìng yòng shāng diàn
Apple store苹果零售店píng guŏ líng shòu diàn
Case保护壳băo hù ké
Unlock解锁jiě suǒ

Browser Interface Terms

EnglishChinesePinyin
Desktop桌面zhuō miàn
Homepage主页zhŭ yè
Menu bar菜单栏cài dān lán
Link链接liàn jiē
Internet address网址wăng zhĭ
Address地址dì zhĭ
Bookmark书签shū qiān
Keyword关键字guān jiàn zì
Pixel像素xiàng sù
Bookmark收藏夹shōu cáng jiā
Backup备份bèi fèn
Image图片tú piàn
Video视频shì pín

Technical Internet Terms

EnglishChinesePinyin
System系统xì tŏng
Network网络wăng luò
Firewall防火墙fáng huŏ qiáng
Cloud computing云计算yún jì suàn
Digital数码的shù mă de
Broadband宽带kuān dài
Memory内存nèi cún
Meg (short for megabyte)兆 (short for 兆字节)zhào (short for zhào zì jié)
Gig (short for gigabyte)千 (short for 千兆字节)qiān (short for qiān zhào zì jié)

 

I hope you find these technical terms in Chinese helpful when you need vocabulary words for computers, the Internet, social media and the like!

Practice them on your own by creating sentences or journal entries, and immerse yourself in authentic Chinese media, like the videos on FluentU.

FluentU takes authentic videos—like music videos, movie trailers, news and inspiring talks—and turns them into personalized language learning lessons.

You can try FluentU for free for 2 weeks. Check out the website or download the iOS app or Android app.

P.S. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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The videos on FluentU let you hover over words in the subtitles you don’t know so you can learn them in context. This is especially helpful for learning Internet slang and other niche technology terms.

And One More Thing...

If you want to continue learning Chinese with interactive and authentic Chinese content, then you'll love FluentU.

FluentU naturally eases you into learning Chinese language. Native Chinese content comes within reach, and you'll learn Chinese as it's spoken in real life.

FluentU has a wide range of contemporary videos—like dramas, TV shows, commercials and music videos.

FluentU brings these native Chinese videos within reach via interactive captions. You can tap on any word to instantly look it up. All words have carefully written definitions and examples that will help you understand how a word is used. Tap to add words you'd like to review to a vocab list.

FluentU's Learn Mode turns every video into a language learning lesson. You can always swipe left or right to see more examples for the word you're learning.

The best part is that FluentU always keeps track of your vocabulary. It customizes quizzes to focus on areas that need attention and reminds you when it’s time to review what you’ve learned. You have a 100% personalized experience.

Start using the FluentU website on your computer or tablet or, better yet, download the FluentU app from the iTunes or Google Play store. Click here to take advantage of our current sale! (Expires at the end of this month.)

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