学生

学生 (xuésheng) is the Chinese word for 'student' — anyone who studies, from elementary school through graduate school. It pairs naturally with 老师 (lǎoshī, 'teacher') as the foundational classroom duo every learner meets.

Note the pronunciation: the second syllable 生 reduces to a neutral tone in this compound (xuésheng, not xuéshēng), even though 生 is normally first tone on its own. Two things English speakers should note: first, 学生 covers all levels — to be specific, add a prefix: 小学生 (xiǎoxuéshēng, elementary student), 中学生 (zhōngxuéshēng, secondary student), 大学生 (dàxuéshēng, university student), 研究生 (yánjiūshēng, grad student); second, when introducing yourself, the natural sentence is 我是学生 (Wǒ shì xuésheng), not 我学生 — the verb 是 ('to be')