Absolute beginner → HSK 1
31 steps
10–12 weeks at 20–30 min/day
Chinese from Zero — 30 steps, in order
You have never studied Chinese. Start here and do these thirty things in this order.
What you can do at the end
Read pinyin out loud with correct tones, recognise around 150 characters, build simple sentences, and pass an HSK 1 mock test.
Your progress
0 / 31 (0%)
Chinese from Zero — complete
Read pinyin out loud with correct tones, recognise around 150 characters, build simple sentences, and pass an HSK 1 mock test.
Pick your next pathWeeks 1–2 — the sounds
Before any characters: learn to hear and say Mandarin.
What pinyin actually is
Five minutes of context stops a month of confusion — pinyin is a pronunciation system, not an alphabet.
The interactive pinyin chart
Click every syllable and hear it. This is the full inventory of sounds in Mandarin — it is smaller than you think.
Pinyin pronunciation guide
The letters that do not say what an English speaker expects: q, x, zh, c, ü.
Tone Trainer
Four tones, over and over, until you can hear the difference. This is the single highest-value thing you will do.
Tone rules and sandhi
Why 你好 is said ní hǎo. Learn the three sandhi rules now and never be confused by them later.
Pinyin spelling rules
Why it is written jiu and not jiou. Ten minutes here saves endless spelling mistakes.
Similar Sounds Quiz
Test whether you can actually tell shi from si, and zhu from ju.
Tone Pairs Quiz
Single tones are easy; tone pairs are where real words live.
Weeks 3–5 — your first words
Vocabulary and the sentences you can build with it.
Say hello
Your first real Chinese. 你好, 您好, and what people actually say instead.
Numbers 1–100
Chinese numbers are the most regular system in any major language. One evening's work.
Survival Phrases Quiz
Thank you, sorry, excuse me, how much, I don't understand. Twelve phrases that cover most emergencies.
HSK 1 flashcards
The official 150-word list. Five new words a day, shuffled review every weekend.
Word order — Subject + Verb + Object
The one structural rule that makes Chinese sentences work. Time and place go before the verb.
是 sentences and 很 with adjectives
Why 我很好 has no 是 in it. Fix this now and you will sound native on day one.
吗 and 呢 questions
The easiest question formation in any language: add one character to the end.
不 vs 没
Chinese has two words for "not" and they are not interchangeable.
Number & Date Quiz
Prices, times, dates and phone numbers — the numbers you will actually be asked for.
Weeks 6–8 — characters and reading
From recognising sounds to recognising shapes.
How to write Chinese characters
Stroke order is not decoration — it is what makes handwriting legible and dictionaries usable.
The radicals hub
The 100 components every character is built from. 氵 is water, 讠 is speech. This is the shortcut.
Stroke Order Animator
Type any character and watch it written. Use it every time you meet a new one.
Printable 田字格 sheets
Handwriting builds recognition faster than reading does. Fifteen minutes, three times a week.
Your first story
Ten sentences you can read end to end. This is the moment Chinese starts feeling real.
Read three more HSK 1 stories
Volume beats difficulty. Pick any three and read each one twice.
Measure words
一个人, 两本书. A number never touches a noun directly in Chinese.
有 — have and there is
One verb covering both "I have" and "there is", with the place stated first.
Weeks 9–12 — put it together
Listening, speaking and the exam.
Listening Comprehension Quiz
Half of HSK 1 is listening. Do this every other day from here on.
Pinyin Listening Dictation
Hear a word, type its pinyin. The hardest and most useful drill on the site.
Speaking Practice
Say it out loud and let the browser tell you whether it understood. No account, no recording stored.
Sentence Builder
Rebuild scrambled sentences — the fastest way to internalise word order.
The full HSK 1 word list
Every word, searchable, with audio. Check nothing has slipped.
HSK 1 mock test
Twenty questions, ten minutes, instant weak-word report. Retake until you clear 80%.
Or take a different route
Not sure this is the right path?
Take the 5-question placement quiz — it recommends a path and a starting HSK level in about a minute. Or browse everything at once in the Pinyin Learning Center.