The other puzzle everyone prints, playable
Chinese Crossword
A real crossing grid, in pinyin. The clue is the meaning, the answer is how the word sounds — and every crossing checks a letter you thought you knew. HSK 1–6, 8 answers to start, and a clock.
- Tap a square and type. Tap the same square again to switch between the Across and the Down answer that share it. The clue you are working on is always shown above the grid.
- Every answer is checked as you finish it — the moment its last empty square is filled. Get it right and it locks green; get it wrong and the board says so without telling you which letter.
- One letter can finish two answers. When it does, both lock and you get +50 on top. That is the whole reason to solve a crossword rather than a word list.
- Keep the run going. Every 3 answers in a row without a wrong one raises the multiplier, up to ×5.
- Stuck? Reveal one letter in the answer you are on, for 30 points. Not the whole word — one letter is usually all it takes, and it keeps the hint a nudge.
- Phone or keyboard. There is a letter keypad under the grid; on a physical keyboard the arrows move, Space switches direction and Tab jumps to the next unsolved clue.
A round-one board with its answers filled in — 8 crossing answers in a 13×13 grid. In the game the squares are empty and the clue list is the right-hand column only: you are given computer, not diànnǎo, and certainly not 电脑.
- 3. computer (7) — diànnǎo, 电脑
- 5. student (8) — xuésheng, 学生
- 7. teacher (6) — lǎoshī, 老师
- 8. to like (6) — xǐhuan, 喜欢
- 1. China (8) — Zhōngguó, 中国
- 2. cooked rice (5) — mǐfàn, 米饭
- 4. friend (7) — péngyou, 朋友
- 6. time (7) — shíjiān, 时间
Most vocabulary drills ask you to recognise — here are four options, pick the right one. A crossword cannot do that. There is nothing to choose between: you either produce the word or you do not, letter by letter, and the grid knows immediately. That is the difference between knowing a word when you see it and having it available when you need it.
In Chinese it also drills the thing pinyin quizzes usually skip. You may be sure that xuésheng is student, but is it xuesheng or xuesheg, sheng or shen? A crossing answer settles it for you — and settling it by deduction rather than by looking it up is exactly the kind of retrieval that sticks. That is why one letter completing two answers is paid a bonus here: it is the moment the puzzle taught you something you did not walk in with.
If the meaning alone is too little to go on, switch the clues to Meaning + characters on the start screen. It becomes a reading drill instead: you are shown 时间 and asked how it sounds, which is the other half of the same skill and the harder half for anyone who learned their vocabulary from pinyin.
There is no print button here on purpose. Teacher Zone's crossword generator already does printing properly: your own pasted word list if you have one, hanzi in the clues or not, an answer key, and the copyright and licence footer every sheet handed round a classroom needs.
Both surfaces call the same grid builder — the same placement, the same trimming and the same numbering — so the puzzle on paper and the puzzle on screen are made the same way. A change to one is a change to both, which is the point of it living in one place.
| Grid | Answers | Clock |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | most per answer |
| 2 | 10 | less per answer |
| 3 | 12 | less per answer |
| 4 | 14 | less per answer |
| 5+ | 16 | less per answer |