Learn to write Chinese characters

How to learn to write Chinese characters

Chinese characters look daunting until you notice that every one of them is built from the same small set of strokes, drawn in a predictable order, and combined from a few hundred reusable components. Learning to write is therefore less about memorising thousands of pictures and more about learning a system: the eight basic strokes, the stroke-order rules, the most common radicals, and then a daily routine that moves characters from "I recognise it" to "I can write it from memory". The trainer above gives you that routine; this guide explains what you are practising and why.

The eight basic strokes (笔画)

Almost every character is a combination of these strokes. Each has a fixed direction — you never draw a horizontal from right to left — and the trainer checks that direction as you write.

Stroke order rules (笔顺)

Correct stroke order is not pedantry: it makes characters faster to write, gives them the right proportions, and is what handwriting recognition on your phone expects. Eight rules cover the vast majority of cases. Click an example to watch it animated.

1. 三
   Top to bottomThe three horizontals of 三 are written from the top down.
2. 你
   Left to rightWrite the left component (亻) before the right one (尔).
3. 十
   Horizontal before verticalWhen strokes cross, the horizontal goes first.
4. 月
   Outside before insideDraw the frame first, then fill it.
5. 国
   Inside before closingFill the box, then draw the bottom stroke that closes it.
6. 小
   Middle before the sidesFor symmetrical characters, the central stroke comes first.
7. 人
   Left-falling before right-falling撇 before 捺 when they meet.
8. 玉
   Dots and small strokes lastA final dot is added after the main body.

How many characters do you need to write?

The HSK vocabulary is a good yardstick. Counting each character at the first level where it appears, our word list contains:

You don't need to write all of them. Most learners aim to write the roughly 617 characters of HSK 1–3 from memory and to recognise the rest, since day-to-day writing in China happens on a phone with pinyin input. If you take the HSK exam on paper, or simply enjoy handwriting, extend the routine level by level.

A 10-minute daily writing routine

1. Review first (3 min). Open Interval Study with ✍️ Write switched on and write the characters that are due today from memory. Spaced repetition decides what you need to see; writing makes it stick.
2. Learn 3–5 new characters (5 min). Pick a theme or HSK level above and start in Copy mode: the word is visible, the box is empty, and you get a hint after two misses. Look at the radical and components on the character page — 好 is a woman 女 next to a child 子 — and say the word out loud as you write.
3. Test yourself (2 min). Finish the same characters in Recall mode with only pinyin and meaning. Anything you write without mistakes turns green in the character overview; anything else comes back tomorrow.

Ten tips from people who learned to write by hand

• Learn radicals before rare characters. The 40 most common radicals appear in most characters; knowing 氵 means "water" and 讠 means "speech" turns a random shape into a meaningful one.
• Think in components, not strokes. Once you can write 日, 月, 木 and 口, you already know most of 明, 林, 相 and 品. Every character page shows what a character is made of.
• Keep proportions with a grid. The 米字格 grid in the trainer (and on the printable worksheets) shows where the centre and the diagonals are; components should share the square, not sit in a corner.
• Write big, then small. Large strokes on screen or paper train the movement; shrink the size only when the order is automatic.
• Say it while you write. Pronounce the syllable with its tone on every repetition — it links sound, meaning and shape in one memory.
• Prefer recall over copying. Tracing feels productive but recall is what builds memory. Move to Recall mode as soon as you can.
• Short sessions, every day. Ten minutes daily beats an hour on Sunday; the spaced-repetition schedule only works if you show up.
• Use a stylus or your finger on a phone. Handwriting on a touchscreen transfers well to paper and lets you practise anywhere.
• Learn simplified first, add traditional later. Mainland China and Singapore use simplified characters; Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional. The trainer uses simplified, and the character pages show the traditional form where it differs.
• Handwrite what you use. Practise the characters of words you actually say — from your deck or favourites — rather than working through a list alphabetically.