Most Chinese-learning apps drill flashcards. Hanzi Play turns characters into quick, replayable games you can play on any phone or laptop — no download, no account. Practice stroke order, match characters to their meanings, and break characters into radicals to see how they are built. A few minutes a day is enough to start recognising characters naturally.
Trace each character in the correct stroke order. Get instant feedback.
Flip cards to pair each character with its English meaning.
Guess a character's meaning, or break it into its component parts.
Hear a character pronounced, then pick its meaning. Train your ear.
成语接龙: keep the chain going by starting the next idiom with the last character.
听音选字: hear a character, then pick the correct character from six — sound to form.
成语接龙进阶: same chain, a 15-second clock. Faster, harder, more idioms.
Read our short guide: How to Learn Chinese Characters (and Why Radicals Matter). It explains what radicals are and why breaking characters into parts makes them far easier to remember.
Free guides that make the games click — and help you understand how characters work:
· How to Learn Chinese Characters
· Guide to Chinese Radicals (部首)
· Chinese Stroke Order Rules
· Character List with Pinyin & Meaning
Hanzi Play is a small collection of free games for anyone learning Mandarin Chinese. Every character comes with pinyin and an English meaning, and the radical-breakdown games help you understand how Chinese characters are constructed from simpler parts. New games and characters are added regularly.