Guides
Written guides for learners of Chinese
Short, practical guides on the parts of Chinese that confuse everyone first: tones, spelling rules, stroke order, polyphonic characters, and how to build a study routine that lasts. Every guide connects to the free tools on this site, so you can read a rule and practice it in the same minute.
Pinyin tones: the four tones of Chinese, explained
How each Mandarin tone actually sounds, the tone changes you will hear in every sentence, and a practice routine that fixes your weakest tone pair.
Read the guide →Pinyin spelling rules: ü, y, w, tone marks, and apostrophes
Why qù is spelled with a plain u, when yi and wu appear, where the tone mark sits, and how an apostrophe keeps Xī’ān apart from xiān.
Read the guide →Chinese stroke order: the eight rules that cover almost every character
Top before bottom, left before right, horizontal before vertical — the eight stroke order rules with a worked character for each, plus the exceptions.
Read the guide →Polyphonic characters (多音字): one character, two readings
Why 行 is xíng in one word and háng in another, the most common polyphones with word pairs, and how context tells you which reading is right.
Read the guide →HSK 1 study guide: what the test covers and a 4-week plan
What HSK 1 actually tests, the 150 words grouped by theme instead of alphabetically, and a week-by-week plan that ends with you exam-ready.
Read the guide →How to type Chinese and pinyin with tone marks
Long-press tricks and keyboard layouts for tone marks on iPhone, Android, Mac, and Windows — plus how pinyin turns into full characters.
Read the guide →Pinyin vs zhuyin (bopomofo): which should you learn?
What zhuyin is, how the same syllables look in both systems, and an honest answer to which one an English speaker should learn first.
Read the guide →Chinese writing practice: a method that actually sticks
Why writing by hand beats tapping, how many characters to write per day, and the trace–copy–recall method that moves characters into long-term memory.
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