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Hanzijo · free to start on iPhone

A Chinese characters app that makes hanzi stick

Hanzijo teaches 3,088 characters with stroke order, pinyin in tone colours, the components they are built from and an exclusive memory story for each one, then brings every character back just before you would forget it.

3,088characters
10,940words that use them
1mnemonic for every character
7SRS growth stages

Shape, sound and meaning together

Each character shows its stroke order, its pinyin coloured by tone with native audio, and its meaning. Learning all three at once is what lets you read and say a word, not just recognise a shape.

A memory story for every character

Most characters combine a meaning part with a sound part. Hanzijo builds an exclusive mnemonic for every character, and every word, from the parts inside it, so 妈 is remembered as a woman and a horse that sounds like mǎ, not as a random shape.

Characters inside real words

Every character links to the words that use it, with audio and example sentences, so you meet 学 in 学生, 学习 and 大学 rather than on its own.

Reviews that adapt to you

The seven-stage SRS brings each character back just before you would forget it. A few minutes a day keeps thousands of characters fresh.

Characters in the world around you

Point the OCR scanner at a menu or a sign and Hanzijo reads the characters for you. Widgets keep one character in view on your home and lock screen.

A study day with Hanzijo

  1. Start at HSK 1, or the level the free level test gives you.
  2. Learn a few new characters a day with their mnemonic and stroke order.
  3. Review what the SRS schedules: say the pinyin and tone before you flip.
  4. Scan real Chinese text to meet the characters you know in the wild.

Good to know

  • Hanzijo is on iPhone today; an Android version is on the way.
  • Hanzijo teaches simplified Chinese, the standard for the HSK.

Frequently asked questions

How many characters does Hanzijo teach?

3,088 characters across HSK 1 to 9, each with stroke order, pinyin, audio and a mnemonic.

Does it show stroke order?

Yes. Every character has its stroke order.

Are the mnemonics for characters or words?

Both. Every character and every vocabulary word has its own exclusive mnemonic.

Are Chinese characters just pictures?

Only a small minority are. Most combine a meaning part and a sound part, which is exactly what the mnemonics use. See 30 characters that really are pictures.

Try Hanzijo free

Free to download on iPhone. One Premium account unlocks Kanjijo, Hanzijo and Hanguljo.

Download on theApp Store

Learning more than Chinese? Our sister apps use the same method - free:

日 Kanjijo - Learn Japanese (JLPT N5–N1)한 Hanguljo - Learn Korean (TOPIK 1–6)

One Premium account unlocks all three apps.