How it works

How does MandarinChineseSystem.com work?

MandarinChineseSystem.com is free and works without an account. Below you'll see briefly what each feature does and how you use them together to learn Mandarin Chinese fast.

What can you do?

Words Flashcards for the complete HSK 1–6 vocabulary (about 5,000 words) plus everyday extras, organised in 31 themes such as food, travel, work and feelings, each filterable by HSK level. Choose the direction (English → Chinese or the other way round) and how many cards you want. Every word shows the characters, pinyin and English meaning, with audio. Writing practice Learn to write every character stroke by stroke. Watch the animation, trace, copy, or write from memory with only the pinyin and meaning — each stroke is checked as you draw. Characters you write from memory without mistakes count as mastered, and you can switch on writing inside your Interval Study reviews. Every character has its own page with radical, components and a memory hint, and you can print worksheets. Quiz Multiple-choice questions with instant feedback and pronunciation. A quick way to test what you already know and where the gaps are. Tell the time An interactive clock trainer: read the clock and say the time in Chinese with 点, 分 and 半, or set the hands yourself. Covers the 两点 vs 二点 rule and 上午 / 下午 / 晚上. Say the date An interactive calendar trainer for years, months, days and weekdays (年, 月, 日, 星期). Say the highlighted date out loud and check yourself. Articles Short conversations and news items to read and listen to. Toggle characters, pinyin and English separately, play the whole text, and tap any word to add it straight to your deck. Interval Study Your own smart practice deck. The FSRS system (the same algorithm as Anki) schedules every word exactly when you're about to forget it, so you repeat efficiently. Free decks hold up to 200 cards; Premium is unlimited.

Themes, HSK levels, simplified and traditional

All words are organised in 31 themes — greetings, food and drink, travel, work, feelings, function words and more — because that is how you use vocabulary in real life. Every theme can be filtered by HSK level, so a beginner sees only the HSK 1–3 words of a theme while an advanced learner drills HSK 5–6. If you are preparing for the exam, use the lists per HSK level instead: HSK 1 (150 words), HSK 2 (151), HSK 3 (300), HSK 4 (600), HSK 5 (1,300) and HSK 6 (2,500), plus about 200 daily-life words the exam leaves out.

Every card shows simplified characters by default, and you can switch to traditional characters at any time. Pinyin with tone marks and audio are always there, so you learn to read and pronounce every word from day one.

Remembering: favourites, pipeline and Interval Study

While you practise, you automatically build up your own study material:

♡ Favourites — mark words you want to save to practise separately.
✚ Personal Deck — tap any word in the word popup to save it, even before it has its own flashcard. Add your own words too.
🚚 Pipeline — words you got right three times in a row move on automatically. Ready to move into your Interval Study deck.
📚 Interval Study — your main deck with smart repetition (FSRS). View your cards in the list and track your progress in the statistics.
💾 Saved decks — save your mistakes or a selection as a temporary deck and practise it again later. They're available straight from the homepage.

The smartest way to learn

Start with HSK 1. Those 150 words are the ones you need most often, and every later level builds on them.
Do 10 minutes every day rather than an hour once a week. Short, regular sessions stick better — especially for characters and tones.
Always say the word out loud and listen to the audio. Pinyin tells you the tone; your ear and mouth have to learn it.
Press 📚 on words you really want to remember. They go into Interval Study and are repeated at the right moment.
Open Interval Study every day and finish whatever is due. That way you make the most of the smart repetition.
Practise in both directions: Chinese → English trains recognition (reading), English → Chinese trains active knowledge (speaking and writing).
Once HSK 1–3 feels comfortable, switch on HSK 4 in the themes you need most, and add the clock and date trainers, so you can actually use your Chinese in a shop, a taxi or a chat.
Then read and listen to the articles, and tap any word you don't know to add it to your deck. You see the words you learned again in context.

Free and Premium

Everything you need to learn Chinese is free forever — all HSK word lists, flashcards, characters, pinyin, audio and progress sync. Free comes with generous daily limits (a 200-card Interval Study deck, 30 own words and 5 quiz rounds a day). Premium simply removes those limits and unlocks full statistics and more. See the pricing page for the full comparison.

Progress and account

Your progress is saved in your browser, even without an account — so you can always pick up where you left off. Want to practise the same deck on multiple devices (phone, laptop)? Create a free account, and your progress is synced automatically.

Ready to start? Start with the 150 words of HSK 1