学校

学校 (xuéxiào) is the Chinese word for 'school' — the institution, the building, and by extension the community of students and teachers. It covers every level: primary school (小学), middle school (中学), high school (高中), university (大学), and language schools. Two notes for learners: first, the standard measure word is 所 (一所学校 'one school'), though casual speech often uses 个; using 所 in writing or formal speech sounds more polished.

Second, the verbs that pair with 学校 are slightly different from English — Chinese says 去学校 'go to school' for the action, 上学 'attend school' as a daily routine verb, and 在学校 'be at school' for location. Literally 'study + building / school,' 学校 first appeared in classical texts and survived intact into modern Mandarin.