Getting started

Basics lessons: pinyin, characters, first phrases

The basics lessons are three short lessons that follow on from the intro: Pinyin and pronunciation, Characters, and First phrases. Each covers one topic in more depth than the intro lesson. They need neither a dictionary nor completed sessions, and you can take them in any order.

Where to find them

If you are studying at HSK 1, the lessons appear as cards on the home screen. A lesson you have finished or closed disappears from there.

All three, together with the intro lesson, are always in Materials → Basics — at any level and as many times as you like, including the ones you have finished.

Pinyin and pronunciation

A detailed look at the sounds: what a syllable is made of, consonants and vowels with audio, aspiration, the similar-sounding series of sibilants, and spelling traps. On tones — where the tone mark goes and how tones change in real speech. It ends with two exercises: recognise the sound and hear the tone.

Characters

How to see parts in a character rather than a picture: character breakdowns, the most common keys, how a key hints at the meaning while another part hints at the reading. How to remember a character through an image, why a sound alone is not enough and how simplified writing differs from traditional. It ends with building a character from keys and finding the right key.

First phrases

A quick win: say hello and goodbye, talk about yourself, turn a statement into a question, say thank you, apologise and say you do not understand. Basic word order comes along the way. It ends with building a phrase and choosing the right reply.

If you close a lesson

You can close a basics lesson at any step. It counts as finished and disappears from the home screen, but stays in Materials → Basics. When you open it again, it starts from the beginning.