Learn Chinese online, free, from your first tone to C2
A guided Mandarin Chinese course for English speakers. You practise the tones with your own voice, the grammar is explained in plain English, and flashcards come back when they're due. Characters are simplified, with pinyin wherever you need it.
How it works
- Start at your level. Begin from zero with the tones and pinyin, or take the placement test.
- Press Continue each day. The app picks the next lesson, review, story or listening session.
- Learn it once, keep it. Words and grammar come back with spaced repetition (FSRS) just before you'd forget them.
- Use it. Read graded stories and Chinese classics, watch videos at your level, and talk with the AI partner.
What's in the Chinese course
- 80+ grammar lessons across seven levels, A0 to C2. Read them all here.
- 2,500+ flashcards with pinyin and an example sentence each, most useful first, up to about HSK 6. See the word lists.
- 15+ graded stories with an English meaning for every sentence, and 9 public-domain books, from Lu Xun to the Analects, most with a free audiobook.
- Tone and pronunciation practice with feedback on your own voice, and videos sorted by level.
- An AI conversation partner and writing feedback at your level, with the reasons in English.
Simplified characters and pinyin
From A0 to A2, every example is written in Simplified characters with pinyin and tone marks after it: 我很忙。(Wǒ hěn máng.) From B1, examples are in characters, with pinyin only for some new or hard words, and in stories you tap a word from the course for its pinyin. The AI partner, too, gives less pinyin as you go. Answers count in characters or in pinyin.
Tones from day one
A wrong tone changes the word: 买 (mǎi) is to buy, 卖 (mài) to sell. The course starts with the four tones and the tone changes, the pronunciation practice trains the pairs English speakers mix up most, and when you read a sentence aloud, the app compares what it heard with the sentence, character by character.
Questions
Which Chinese does SparkAI teach?
Standard Mandarin (Putonghua), as spoken in mainland China, written in Simplified characters with pinyin. A C1 lesson explains Traditional characters, Taiwan usage and regional accents.
Do I have to type Chinese characters?
No. You can answer in characters or in pinyin, and tone numbers (ni3 hao3) work too. Pinyin with the right letters but no tones is flagged as a tones slip, so you know exactly what to fix.
Is the Chinese course free?
Yes. The pinyin and tone lessons, the grammar, the flashcards and the Chinese library cost nothing and show no ads; only the AI features have a daily limit.
Do I need an account?
Not to start. Choose Mandarin Chinese and learn straight away; your progress is kept on your device. AI chat gives three guest prompts, then needs a free account, which also saves your progress and syncs it across devices.
How does it compare with HSK?
SparkAI's levels follow the CEFR, from A0 to C2. As a rough guide, A0–A1 is about HSK 1–2, A2 about HSK 3, B1 about HSK 4, B2 about HSK 5, and C1–C2 HSK 6 and above. The two scales measure different things.
Start free, right now
A complete, free Mandarin Chinese course from A0 to C2. No payment details, no ads, and no account needed to start.
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