The best apps to learn Chinese
In an age when smartphones have become indispensable in our daily lives, it's hardly surprising to turn to apps designed to make learning substantially easier.
In an age when smartphones have become indispensable in our daily lives, it's hardly surprising to turn to apps designed to make learning substantially easier. Today we discover applications for virtually everything—from cooking and travel planning to entertainment and daily tasks.
Learning the Chinese language is no exception, as we now see an explosion of applications on Google Play and the Apple Store aimed at studying, writing, and translating Chinese.
Whether a student of Chinese or not, Mandarin is now within everyone's reach with just a few taps on our phone. A wonderful way to continue learning and perfecting this challenging yet so enriching language!
To help you choose from the range of available applications, we've prepared a curated list of the best apps, in our view, to support you in learning Chinese.
PLECO, a free Chinese dictionary
With over 1 million downloads, Pleco ranks among the most downloaded apps in its category.
Pleco presents itself more as a dictionary than a learning application, but its scope expands with features like character recognition or flashcards. The app offers a free base version along with paid updates to access more advanced options.
Pleco is a multi-purpose application that can be extremely useful for translation while traveling, for example. And although we may encounter certain limitations requiring us to call upon a specialized translation agency, this application fulfills its role perfectly for everyday use.
Available on iOS and Android
Skritter to learn to read and write Chinese
Another essential among apps for learning Chinese, I present to you Skritter! Less well-known than Pleco, Skritter nevertheless has much to offer enthusiasts of Chinese characters.
With Skritter, you can learn to read and write Chinese characters at your own pace. With its flashcard system, you can review all characters as many times as you wish and learn new ones each day. The app also guides you through writing practice and shows you the direction of strokes, word meanings, and pronunciation for smooth learning.
The app is free but also offers paid options for more in-depth use. It's available on Android and iOS.
Learn Chinese - ChineseSkill for game-based learning
This small free application is perfect for beginners in the Chinese language. The interface is genuinely simplistic and somewhat playful but allows you to focus on your learning objectives.
With ChineseSkill, you'll learn the basics such as numbers, colors, foods, and shapes through engaging and intuitive games.
An app worth noting, then, for anyone wishing to pick up some fundamentals of Chinese before heading to Chine.
Available free on Android and iOS
AnkiDroid for revision and Chinese vocabulary learning
AnkiDroid is a very comprehensive application for more advanced learners. This app makes it easy to create or consult flashcards to regularly practice your Chinese vocabulary. But AnkiDroid's primary strength lies in its spaced repetition system. Its algorithm determines your learning capabilities to propose memorization methods tailored to you. Anki analyzes the time needed between each lesson and optimizes your cognitive abilities so that everything you've learned stays in memory.
The application makes revision in many languages available, including Chinese.
Anki is free for Android users but costs $24.99 for iOS.
Memrise for learning new vocabulary effectively
With no fewer than 88 languages available, the Memrise app is among the most comprehensive for learning foreign languages.
Like AnkiDroid, Memrise uses the spaced repetition method to help you regularly memorize new vocabulary without forgetting what you've learned before. The app is quite intuitive in that it has developed engaging exercises for both written and oral skills, using multiple-choice questions, photos, listening exercises, and memes (association techniques) for learning characters.
The application is available on both Android and iOS platforms.
Google Translate to assist you while traveling
If you were to download only one app for your trip to Chine, we'd recommend Google Translate. This application, which perfectly plays the role of multilingual translators, is an essential while traveling—both for translating texts using its integrated word recognition system and for its ability to translate, even offline, everyday phrases.
Google Translate has saved many travelers in Chine, and remains particularly useful when asking for directions or ordering food at a restaurant, for example.
The app is free on all platforms.
Chinese Handwriting Recog to translate and learn to write Chinese
This application recently underwent a redesign and now performs very well with a comprehensive Chinese handwriting recognition dictionary.
The app also features a solid English-to-Chinese dictionary based on different translation websites that you can preselect.
The application is very simple to use and recognizes strokes well. It then offers several character variants and their translations with derivatives. It's a minimalist app that lets you learn Chinese characters gently and progressively.
With this list of applications, you'll have no more excuses to avoid in-depth or partial learning of Chinese. These apps can be perfectly suited to help you prepare for your stay in Chine and approach the Chinese language under the best conditions.
Frequently asked questions
Several free apps stand out for learning Mandarin. Pleco is ideal as a reference dictionary, ChineseSkill suits beginners perfectly thanks to its engaging exercises, and Memrise offers comprehensive courses with spaced repetition. Google Translate remains essential for translation while traveling.
Yes, apps like Skritter are specifically designed to teach Chinese character writing. They guide users on stroke direction and order, word meaning, and pronunciation of each character. Chinese Handwriting Recog also offers handwriting recognition for effective practice.
To prepare for a trip to Chine, we recommend Google Translate for its offline capability and character recognition via camera. ChineseSkill allows you to quickly build essential vocabulary (food, transport, numbers), and Pleco serves as an excellent backup dictionary for daily use.
AnkiDroid is one of the most effective apps for memorizing Chinese vocabulary thanks to its spaced repetition system. Its algorithm adapts review frequency based on your performance, which optimizes long-term memory retention. The app is completely free on Android but costs $24.99 on iOS.
Apps are excellent supplementary tools for independently learning vocabulary, characters, and pronunciation. However, to master Mandarin tones and progress quickly in speaking, guidance from a teacher or native tutor remains very beneficial, especially at intermediate and advanced levels.
