(1) universality. The words in basic vocabulary are commonly used by people in a language community in daily life and communication, and they are widely used. These words represent some of the most common realistic phenomena and basic concepts. For example, "water, rice, vegetables, sleep, clothes, cars, eating, walking, watching, listening, big, hot, high and new" in Chinese.

(2) stability. Most of the basic vocabulary has a long history since ancient times. People have used it for several generations and it is not easy to change it. For example, in Oracle Bone Inscriptions three thousand years ago, there were words such as "ox, sheep, horse, chicken, wine, sun, moon, rain, snow, wind, sight, killing, big and small", which have been widely used since ancient times.

(3) Strong word formation ability is the foundation of new words. Most basic words are composed of a root, and the meaning they represent is generally important and core in the semantic system of language, so these roots can easily become the backbone of constructing new words.