These languages do not put spaces between words, so an ordinary counter reports a whole paragraph as one word. This counts characters instead, which is the unit publishers and translation agencies actually use, and breaks them down by script.
Chinese, Japanese and Korean do not put spaces between words. An ordinary counter splits on spaces, so it reports a whole paragraph of Chinese as one word. The number is not slightly off, it is meaningless.
The correct unit is the character, which is what publishers, universities and translation agencies count. This page counts characters, and breaks them down by script so you can see what you are actually looking at.
| Language | Counted by | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese (Simplified or Traditional) | Han characters | Punctuation is normally excluded from a quote |
| Japanese | Kanji + hiragana + katakana | All three count as characters |
| Korean | Hangul syllable blocks | 한 is one character, not three |
| Mixed with English | Both, separately | Latin letters are counted apart, above |
Agencies quote in different units, so you often need to convert. The commonly used ratios:
| From | To English words | Rough ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Chinese characters | English words | ÷ 1.5 to 1.8 |
| Japanese characters | English words | ÷ 2 to 2.5 |
| Korean characters | English words | ÷ 2 to 2.5 |
So 1,500 Chinese characters is roughly 900 English words. These are estimates used for quoting, not exact conversions — technical writing runs denser, dialogue runs looser.
A normal Japanese sentence mixes kanji (borrowed Chinese characters), hiragana (grammar and native words) and katakana (foreign words and emphasis). The breakdown above separates them, which is useful for two things:
Platform limits count characters, and one Chinese character is one character — the same as one Latin letter. That means a Chinese post fits far more meaning into the same limit. Weibo's 140-character limit was never as restrictive as Twitter's 140 was in English.
Why does a word counter say my Chinese text is one word? Because Chinese has no spaces between words, and ordinary counters split on spaces. The correct unit is the character, which this page counts.
How many English words is 1,000 Chinese characters? Roughly 550 to 670 English words, using the usual ratio of 1.5 to 1.8 characters per word. Treat it as an estimate for quoting.
Is one Hangul block one character? Yes. 한 counts as a single character even though it is built from three letters, which is how Korean publishers and agencies count it.
Why separate kanji, hiragana and katakana? A high kanji ratio means denser, more formal Japanese. An unusually high katakana count often means loan words were transliterated rather than translated.
Does this tool store my text? No. Everything is counted in your browser. Nothing is uploaded and no account is needed.