Chinese word for world

Country names are crucial to add to your vocabulary when you learn the Chinese language. Whether you want to introduce yourself to your new Chinese friends or colleagues, or are reading international news and want to understand the setting, you’ll need to know the countries in Chinese.

Mandarin Chinese has a different name for every country in the world. Although in some cases, the name which is used to refer to a certain country might sound familiar to you, most of the time there is a big difference from its native name which makes the country totally unrecognizable if you don’t know the translation already.

Luckily for you, we got this entire post dedicated to country names in Chinese!

We’ll cover the full list of 197 countries in the world – both their official Chinese names and the abbreviations, teach you how to write the names in characters and pronounce them in standard Mandarin. Besides, we’ll look at the logic behind the Chinese country names and show you how they’re translated from English or their native languages in the first place. And at the end of the post, we’ll help you learn a few useful phrases you can use when introducing your Chinese-speaking friends to your country.

But first and foremost, let’s learn how to say “country” in Chinese.

“Country” in Chinese

The word for “country” in Chinese is:

• 国家 (guójiā)

It’s a very quick and simple word for you to learn! If you take the characters literally, 国 (guó) stands for “country”, and 家 (jiā) means “home”. In Chinese traditional thought, China was one big family, and the country was ruled as such, with the emperor being the patriarch.

Another word for “country” in Chinese is:

• 国 (guó)

You may also use 国 (guó), which is essentially a shortening of the word 国家 (guójiā) to refer to a country sometimes. 

The difference between the two words is that 国家 (guójiā) can be used on its own to mean “country” while 国 (guó) generally only makes its appearance in country-related vocabulary words.  

For instance,

• 国外 (guówài) – abroad
  Literally, “country outside”

• 国民 (guómín) – citizen
  Literally, “country people”

Besides, a few country names in Chinese – including China itself – have the character 国 (guó) in it, so it’s a good word to add to your vocabulary as one of the first staple vocabulary words you learn.

List of Country Names in Chinese Containing 国 (guó)

• 中国 (Zhōng guó) – China
• 美国 (Měi guó) – Unites States
• 法国 (Fǎ guó) – France
• 德国 (Dé guó) – Germany
• 英国 (Yīng guó) – United Kingdom
• 韩国 (Hán guó) – Korea
• 泰国 (Tài guó) – Thailand
• 孟加拉国 (Mèng jiā lā guó) – Bangladesh

For countries other than the eight listed above, you have to learn each country’s name in Chinese separately, just like in many other languages, as the character 国 (guó) is not attached to any of them.

“China” in Chinese

The short Chinese name for the People’s Republic of China, of which 香港 (Xiāng gǎng) – Hong Kong is an alienable part, is 中国 (Zhōng guó).

The character 中 (zhōng) means “middle” or “central”, and 国 (guó), “country”. So the name 中国 (Zhōng guó) literally means “middle country”, or more precisely “central kingdom”.

Historically, the term 中国 (Zhōng guó) was used to refer to the states on the central Chinese plain in ancient China that were collectively related to each other through the same language and similar culture. They were labeled “central states” as opposed to the barbarian states and countries around them. By the late 19th century 中国 (Zhōng guó) had emerged as a common name for the whole country. 

How Country Names Are Translated into Chinese

If you’re not entirely new to the Chinese language, you probably already know that Chinese has no alphabet, rather, the writing system is made up of thousands of different characters.

So in Chinese, all countries’ names are written in characters – not letters. And there is a standard Chinese name for each and every one of the countries.

Country Name Transliteration

With a few exceptions, most of the country names are transliterated into Chinese directly from their original names. This is typically done by breaking the name into syllables or phonemes and replacing them with similar-sounding Chinese characters.

For certain countries, this is convenient because all you have to do is imagine how you would say their names in a strong Chinese accent, and you’ve got it.

Case in point:

• Italy → I-ta-ly → 意大利 (pronunciation: Yì dà lì)
• Norway → Nor-way → 挪威 (pronunciation: Nuó wēi)
• Kenya → Ken-ny-ya → 肯尼亚 (pronunciation: Kěn ní yà)

But since Chinese characters can only represent syllables as concrete blocks of sound but not as fluid combinations of letters, many country names, when transliterated into Chinese, don’t bear too much resemblance to the originals.

For example,

• Latvia → La-t-vi-a → 拉脱维亚 (pronunciation: Lā tuō wéi yà)
• Ecuador → E-cua-do-r → 厄瓜多尔 (pronunciation: È guā duō ěr)

Plus, the Chinese language has a much smaller stock of sounds compared with English (there are only about 400 syllables in Chinese), so very often, the Chinese transliterations are a very, very rough approximation.

For instance,

• Turkey → Tu-r-key → 土耳其 (pronunciation: Tǔ ěr qí)
  (There is no “key” sound in Chinese)
• Ukraine → U-k-raine → 乌克兰 (pronunciation: Wū kè lán)
  (There is no “raine” sound in Chinese)

Note as well that the Chinese transliteration of country names don’t always have to come from English, they could be based on countries’ native names or country-related words too.

For example, 科特迪瓦 (Kē tè dí wǎ) – the Chinese name for Ivory Coast, is transliterated from the country’s French name – Côte d’Ivoire; 西班牙 (Xī bān yá) – Spain, is based on the pronunciation of España – the country’s name in Spanish; And 印度 (Yìn dù) – India, is the transliteration of the word “Hindu”, which derived from Persian and used to refer to people from India.

Literal Translation for Country Names

A few countries got quite literal names in Chinese. For instance, the island country Iceland is 冰岛 (Bīng dǎo) with 冰 (bīng) for the ice and 岛 (dǎo) for the landscape. So the name means “Ice island”. Pretty neat, isn’t it?

Montenegro is another example, the country name means “black mountain”, therefore, it’s 黑山 (Hēi shān) in Chinese.

Combination of Sound and Meaning

While the vast majority of country names are translated into Chinese either based on sound or meaning, a few country names are a combination of both.

For instance, the “new” in New Zealand is translated to 新 (xīn), meaning “new” in Chinese, while the “Zealand” part is transliterated to 西兰 (xī lán) based on the sound. Other examples include the “north”, “south”, “central”, “and”, “islands” in North Macedonia, South Africa, South Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago, Solomon Islands, and so on.

Character Country Names

For countries that have historically used Chinese characters, original character country names are retained in Chinese.

For example, Japan is still 日本 (the Japanese name for Japan). It’s pronounced “Nippon” in the original Japanese but “Rì běn” in Chinese (characters are read differently in Chinese and Japanese). The same goes for other places like Korea – 韩国 (Hán guó), Vietnam – 越南 (Yuè nán) and Taiwan – 台湾 (Tái wān).

Meanings of Country Names in Chinese

Although the Chinese characters that make up country names having meanings on their own, these meanings are not connected to the particular country when they’re used for phonetic reasons. 

For example, the United Kingdom is called 英国 (Yīng guó) in Chinese. The character 英 (yīng) means something like “handsome”, “brave” or “heroic”. But when a Chinese person hears the name 英国 (Yīng guó), she will not relate the name to a kingdom of knights and kings. It’s just the phonetics of “eng” as in “English” or “England”.

To further illustrate that these characters are used for phonetic reasons only, consider that Malta – 马耳他 (Mǎ ěr tā) is “horse ear he” and Portugal – 葡萄牙 (Pú táo yá) is “grape tooth” in word-for-word translation.

That said, the Chinese like to use characters with favorable meanings to transcribe foreign place names whenever possible. So the literal meanings of country names in Chinese often carry a positive connotation (sometimes neutral, but never offensive). For instance, America is 美国 (Měi guó) – “beautiful country”, not 霉国 (Méi guó) – “bad luck country” or “mildew country”, even though 霉 (méi) sounds more similar to the original “me” sound in “America”.

And sometimes, the characters chosen for a country’s name can even give you a hint as to the country’s whereabouts.

For instance, you can probably infer that Spain is geographically located in Western Europe from its Chinese name 西班牙 (Xī bān yá) as 西 (xī) stands for “west”. And for Australia – 澳大利亚 (Ào dà lì yà), the character 澳 (ào) is used to transcribe the “au” sound in its name, while also implying the country is surrounded by oceans (the radical 氵on the left side of 澳  is colloquially referred to as “three drops of water” and symbolizes flowing water), whereas for Austria – 奥地利 (Ào dì lì), a landlocked country, 奥 (ào) – a character without the “water” radical – is used instead to transcribe the “au” sound.

Now, here’s the interesting part:

Because of the limited range of syllables, Mandarin Chinese has lots of homophonous characters (having the same pronunciation but different meanings). So it’s easy to use different character combinations to transcribe the same country name. In other words, some countries have more than one name when written in characters.

For instance, Honduras is called 洪都拉斯 in China but addressed as 宏都拉斯 in Taiwan, though they are both pronounced “Hóng dū lā sī”.

On the other side of the spectrum, different (sounding) Chinese names may be given to places with the same English name. For instance, the Eastern European country Georgia is translated as 格鲁吉亚 (Gé lǔ jí yà) in Chinese, while the U.S. state Georgia is named 佐治亚 (Zuǒ zhì yà) to differentiate between the two.

In this article, we list the official country names that are used in Mainland China.

Complete List of All Country Names in Chinese

Well, if you came here for a simple list of country names in Chinese and are getting bored by all the explanations, you’ll find the list of official Chinese names for the worlds’ 197 countries in this section, complete with Chinese characters and Pinyin pronunciation.

We’ve organized the country names by continent first, then in alphabetical order, because country names are easiest to learn when you associate them with neighboring countries.

But while we’re on the subject, let’s take a quick look at how to say the continents in Chinese first.

“Continents” in Chinese

All right, let’s check out the full list of Chinese country names. Just pick out your country from the list below, continue reading this article on how to say what country you’re from in Chinese and you’re all set!

51 European Country Names in Chinese

We’ll start with 欧洲国家 (Ōuzhōu guójiā) – European countries. Note that while some countries are geographically in Asia (e.g. Armenia, Cyprus), but politically and culturally Chinese people consider them as a part of Europe, so they are listed here.

Although the average person on the street in China probably can’t tell the difference between the United Kingdom and England, there is an official Chinese name for each of the four constituent countries of the UK.

• England – 英格兰 (Yīng gé lán)
• Scotland – 苏格兰 (Sū gé lán)
• Wales – 威尔士 (Wēi ěr shì)
• Northern Ireland – 北爱尔兰 (Běi ài ěr lán)

43 Asian Country Names in Chinese

Here is a list of the Asian country names in Chinese, organized alphabetically. Feel free to add them to your Chinese vocabulary.

54 African Country Names in Chinese

Now we’ll hop over the pond to learn the Chinese names for 54 African countries. 

23 North American Country Names in Chinese

Here is how you say the names of North American countries in Chinese.

Like the countries, every state in the United States also got its own Chinese name. So if you are an American visiting or living in China, here’s a special guide to help you explain which part of the United States you’re from to your curious Chinese friends.  

12 South American Country Names in Chinese

Not enough? Let’s head down to 南美洲 (Nánměizhōu) – South America!

14 Oceanian Country Names in Chinese

Last but not least, here are the country names of Oceania in Chinese.

Differences in Country Names between Standard Mandarin and Taiwanese Mandarin

So far, we’ve been learning country names in standard Mandarin used in Mainland China. Although Taiwanese use traditional characters in all written Chinese, the country names in Taiwanese Mandarin are quite similar. In fact, the vast majority of country names sound the same. 

For example, Russia is written as 俄罗斯 in Mainland China and 俄羅斯 in Taiwan – essentially, 羅 is the traditional form of 罗.

But some countries have a different name in Taiwanese Mandarin. You might be used to hearing a country name in standard Mandarin and then be caught off guard while traveling in Taiwan, for example, when you hear Qatar called 卡達 (Kǎ dá) when in China it’s called 卡塔尔 (Kǎ tǎ ěr).

Some more examples include:

• Croatia
  Standard Mandarin: 克罗地亚 (Kè luó dì yà)  
  Taiwanese Mandarin: 克羅埃西亞 (Kè luó āi xī yà)

• Laos
  Standard Mandarin: 老挝 (Lǎo wō)
  Taiwanese Mandarin: 寮國 (Liáo guó)

• Saudi Arabia
  Standard Mandarin: 沙特阿拉伯 (Shā tè ā lā bó)
  Taiwanese Mandarin: 沙烏地阿拉伯 (Shā wū dì ā lā bó)

• Nigeria
  Standard Mandarin: 尼尔利亚 (Ní rì lì yà)
  Taiwanese Mandarin: 奈及利亞 (Nài jí lì yà)

• Sierra Leone
  Standard Mandarin: 塞拉利昂 (Sài lā lì áng)
  Taiwanese Mandarin: 獅子山 (Shīzi shān)

• New Zealand
  Standard Mandarin: 新西兰 (Xīn xī lán)
  Taiwanese Mandarin: 紐西蘭 (Niǔ xī lán)

Chinese Abbreviations for Country Names

Like in English, there is a list of standard abbreviations or short-form names for countries in Chinese.  

Some most common country names are essentially the abbreviated forms of their full Chinese names already.

Take 美国 (Měiguó) for example. The full name of the United States of America in Chinese is 美利坚合众国 (Měilìjiān hézhòng guó) – literally, “America Federated Country”. The character 美 (Měi) is the shortening of the Chinese phonetic translation of “America” – 美利坚 (Měilìjiān), and 国 (guó) is the shortening of the literal translation of “United States” – 合众国 (hézhòng guó). So basically, 美国 (Měiguó) is “me country” as in “America Federated Country”.

Some other examples include:

• 法国 (Fǎ guó) – France
  法国 (Fǎ guó) is the abbreviated name for 法兰西共和国 (Fǎ lán xī gònghé guó) – République française, or the French Republic.
  法 (Fǎ) is the shortening of the phonetic translation of “France” – 法兰西 (Fǎ lán xī).

• 德国 (Dé guó) – Germany
  德国 (Dé guó) is the abbreviated name for 德意志联邦共和国 (Dé yì zhì liánbāng gònghé guó) – Bundesrepublik Deutschland, or the Federal Republic of Germany.
  德 (Dé) is the shortening of the phonetic translation of “Deutsch” – 德意志 (Dé yì zhì).

• 英国 (Yīng guó) – United Kingdom
  英国 (Yīng guó) is the short name for 大不列颠及北爱尔兰联合王国 (Dà bù liè diān jí běi ài ěr lán liánhé wángguó) – the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

• 韩国 (Hán guó) – Korea
  韩国 (Hán guó) is the abbreviated name for 大韩民国 (Dà hán mín guó) – 大韓民國 (hanja), or the Republic of Korea.

• 阿联酋 (Ā lián qiú) – UAE
  阿联酋 (Ā lián qiú) is the abbreviated name for 阿拉伯联合酋长国 (Ā lā bó liánhé qiúzhǎng guó) – United Arab Emirates.
  阿 (Ā) is the shortening of the phonetic translation of “Arab” – 阿拉伯 (Ā lā bó).

In case you are wondering, the name for China – 中国 (Zhōng guó) itself is also an abbreviation. Depending on the context, it can either mean 中华人民共和国 (Zhōnghuá rénmín gònghé guó) – the People’s Republic of China (PRC) or 中华民国 (Zhōnghuá mín guó) – the Republic of China (ROC – Taiwan).

Unfortunately, only a few countries get to have short-form names in Chinese. If you’re lucky enough to come from one of the countries below, then you can just use its short name for convenience.

• Bosnia and Herzegovina
  Official Chinese Name: 波斯尼亚和黑塞哥维那 (Bō sī ní yà hé hēi sài gē wéi nà)
  Short Name in Chinese: 波黑 (Bō hēi)

• Kazakhstan
  Official Chinese Name: 哈萨克斯坦 (Hā sà kè sī tǎn)
  Short Name in Chinese: 哈萨克 (Hā sà kè)

• Indonesia
  Official Chinese Name: 印度尼西亚 (Yìn dù ní xī yà)
  Short Name in Chinese: 印尼 (Yìn ní)

• Kyrgyzstan
  Official Chinese Name: 吉尔吉斯斯坦 (Jí ěr jí sī sī tǎn)
  Short Name in Chinese: 吉尔吉斯 (Jí ěr jí sī)

• Malaysia
  Official Chinese Name: 马来西亚 (Mǎ lái xī yà)
  Short Name in Chinese: 大马 (Dà mǎ)
  Literally, “big Ma”

• Saudi Arabia
  Official Chinese Name: 沙特阿拉伯 (Shā tè ā lā bó)
  Short Name in Chinese: 沙特 (Shā tè)

• Tajikistan
  Official Chinese Name: 塔吉克斯坦 (Tǎ jí kè sī tǎn)
  Short Name in Chinese: 塔吉克 (Tǎ jí kè)

• Turkmenistan
  Official Chinese Name: 土库曼斯坦 (Tǔ kù màn sī tǎn)
  Short Name in Chinese: 土库曼 (Tǔ kù màn)

• Uzbekistan
  Official Chinese Name: 乌兹别克斯坦 (Wū zī bié kè sī tǎn)
  Short Name in Chinese: 乌兹别克 (Wū zī bié kè)

• Ethiopia
  Official Chinese Name: 埃塞俄比亚 (Āi sài é bǐ yà)
  Short Name in Chinese: 埃塞 (Āi sài)

• Australia
  Official Chinese Name: 澳大利亚 (Ào dà lì yà)
  Short Name in Chinese: 澳洲 (Ào zhōu)
  Literally, “Au-continent” 

However, most countries can be abbreviated to the first character in their name when they are a part of a country-related word or phrase.

For example, 日本 (Rì běn) – Japan can be abbreviated to 日 (Rì) when referring to people or things pertaining to Japan, like

• 日军 (Rì jūn) – Japanese army
• 日货 (Rì gǔ) – Japanese products
• 日剧 (Rì jù) – Japanese TV shows
• 在日华人 (zài Rì huá rén) – Chinese people in Japan

You may also use single-character abbreviations when describing the relations between two or more countries. For example,

• 俄美关系 (É Měi guānxi) – Russia-US relations
  俄 (É) → 俄罗斯 (É luó sī) – Russia; 美 (Měi) → 美国 (Měi guó) – United States

• 中日友好 (Zhōng Rì yǒuhǎo) – China-Japan friendships
  中 (Zhōng) → 中国 (Zhōng guó) – China; 日 (Rì) → 日本 (Rì běn) – Japan

• 英法战争 (Yīng Fǎ zhànzhēng) – England-France war (Hundred Years’ War)
  英 (Yīng) → 英格兰 (Yīng gé lán) – England; 法 (Fǎ) → 法国 (Fǎ guó) – France

• 以巴冲突 (Yǐ Bā chōngtū) – Israeli-Palestinian conflict
  以 (Yǐ) → 以色列 (Yǐ sè liè) – Israel; 巴 (Bā) → 巴勒斯坦 (Bā lè sī tǎn) – Palestine

In common conversation, however, excessive use of abbreviations is undesirable, because it could easily lead to misunderstanding. For instance, 巴 (Bā) can be interpreted as 巴勒斯坦 (Bā lè sī tǎn) – Palestine, 巴基斯坦 (Bā jī sī tǎn) – Pakistan, or even 巴西 (Bā xī) – Brazil at the same time without a context!

Country Names in Chinese Conversation

All right, now you’ve seen the complete list of country names and know how to say your country in Chinese, but what’s the proper way of introducing your Chinese friends to your country?

Well, first, you have to be able to understand the question “where (or what country) are you from” when you get asked in Chinese.

“Where Are You From” in Chinese

There is more than one way to ask someone where she is from in Chinese. Here are the five most common questions you’ll hear from native speakers requesting this information.

• 你是哪个国家的？
  Nǐ shì nǎ gè guójiā de?
  Literally, “You are of which country?”

• 你是哪国人？
  Nǐ shì nǎ guó rén?
  Literally, “You are which country person?”

• 你是哪里人？
  Nǐ shì nǎli rén?
  Literally, “You are where person?”

• 你从哪里来？
  Nǐ cóng nǎli lái?
  Literally, “You from where come?”

• 你来自哪里？(more formal)
  Nǐ lái zì nǎli?
  Literally, “You come from where?”

“I am from …” in Chinese

You can of course just say the name of your country in response to these questions, but why wouldn’t you want to impress your Chinese-speaking friends with a full answer?

You can choose one of the four expressions below to express “I am from …” in Chinese.

• 我是加拿大的。
  Wǒ shì Jiā ná dà de.
  Literally, “I am of Canada.”

• 我是加拿大人。
  Wǒ shì Jiā ná dà rén.
  Literally, “I am Canada person.”

• 我从加拿大来。
  Wǒ cóng Jiā ná dà lái.
  Literally, “I from Canada come.”

• 我来自加拿大。(more formal)
  Wǒ lái zì Jiā ná dà.
  Literally, “I come from Canada.” 

Simply swap out Canada with your country and you can introduce yourself in Chinese, no matter what country you’re from!

There you go! Once you have these patterns down, you’re golden. So, tell me, what country are you from?

FAQ about Countries in Chinese