What's New

Sharper quizzes, and clearer about what we store

• Improved The cookie notice now says what actually happens. It used to offer analytics and marketing switches that did not control anything. It is now a single notice covering the one cookie the site sets, with a What we store panel listing everything else — the progress kept in your browser, sign-in data if you use an account, and our cookieless visitor counts.
• Improved The full detail lives on one page. Our privacy policy sets out what is collected, why, how long it is kept, and how to delete your account. The short version: everything works without an account, there are no adverts, and nothing is sold.
• Improved Grammar particles no longer appear in quizzes. Words like 的, 了 and 过 do a job in a sentence but have no meaning of their own, which made them impossible to answer fairly. They now stay in Flashcards and Browse, where they belong, and sit out the Quiz and Type Test.
• Fixed 什么 now reads simply "what". It had been listed as "what, why" — but 为什么 is the word for "why".
• Improved A way out of the quiz results screen. Finishing a quiz used to offer only "Try Again". There is now a Close button too.
• Improved A way back from a finished game. Clearing every pair in Lianliankan left the win screen covering the only exit. It now has a "Back to games" link, and Escape closes it.
• Fixed The cookie notice no longer covers the flashcard buttons. On smaller screens it could sit on top of Review and Know until dismissed.

Study only the words you find hardest

A learner revising for their HSK 3 exam asked for a way to study just the words they had marked for review, instead of working through the whole list every time. It made a lot of sense, so it went live the same day.

• New A study scope switch on every level. Choose All words to work through the full list, or Review only to drill just the ones you have flagged. The count next to it shows how many are waiting.
• New It applies to all three study modes. Flashcards, Quiz and Type Test all follow whichever scope you pick.
• New Your choice is remembered per level. Come back to HSK 3 tomorrow and it will still be where you left it.

Two ways to practise that don't feel like practice

• New Lianliankan. The classic tile-matching game, played by pairing characters with their meanings. Added 17 June.
• New Hanzi Rain. Characters fall, you type the pinyin before they land. Added 9 June, and extended soon after to cover more HSK levels.
• Improved Both games play properly on a phone. A run of fixes to layout, controls and power-up placement on small screens.

A new look, and progress that follows you

• New The site was redesigned from top to bottom. New typography, colour, and layout across every page, plus a dark mode that holds up properly.
• New Free accounts. Sign in with an email address or with Google, and your progress is saved so it follows you between devices. Everything still works without an account.
• New Profile avatars, and a delete button that means it. Pick a character to represent you, and remove your account and its data whenever you want.
• New A contact page. Which is how the July feature above came to exist.
• Improved Faster first load. The sign-in code is no longer downloaded by people who never sign in, saving a few hundred kilobytes on every visit.

The upper levels opened up

• New HSK 4, 5 and 6 went live. All six levels are now available in full, alongside the Numbers section.