Writing Mandarin Characters
Like Duolingo, but for Writing Mandarin Characters. Tomo turns the whole topic into a game you play five minutes a day, until it actually sticks.
For the part of you with thirty open tabs that never became anything.
69 levels across 9 sections, about 138 minutes end to end, roughly 28 days at five minutes a day. It moves through The First Strokes, The Building Blocks, Spatial Awareness and Balance, Memory Systems for Hanzi, Essential Daily Characters, The Logic of Meaning, The Logic of Sound, Practical Writing for Life, and Retention and Mastery. It starts from scratch.
Free forever · No credit card · iPhone & Android
Key ideas in Writing Mandarin Characters
- The spatial constraint of characters
- The directional rule for horizontal strokes
- Shù strokes always travel from top to bottom
- Piě strokes curve down and to the left
- Gravity and hand position dictate a downward motion for stability
- The stroke tapers to a point like a blade of grass or a whisker
- Visual recognition of the left-falling stroke
- Characters are composed of distinct, separate movements
- The directional rule for vertical strokes
- Lifting the pen ensures each stroke has its own clear start and end point
- The discrete nature of stroke execution
- Characters are built from the top down
- Mandarin characters follow a left-to-right flow
- The highest horizontal stroke must be completed before the middle and bottom ones
- The top-to-bottom rule for stacked components
- The left-hand radical or component must be fully completed before starting the right-hand side
You've tried the other tabs
Thirty open tabs. Four facts you actually kept.
You watched. You nodded. By Sunday it was gone.
One answer, then back to scrolling.
Eight weeks. You meant to finish. You didn't.
Tomo gives Writing Mandarin Characters the Duolingo treatment: levels, streaks, and quick quizzes that test what you just learned. That game loop is what the tabs above never had, so it's the one you actually finish.
Here's what playing it feels like
A real question from this course. Take your best guess.
When you are drawing a horizontal Héng stroke, which way does your pen need to move?
Get it right to open this lesson and 68 more in the app.
Where Writing Mandarin Characters takes you
A structured, logic-based approach to mastering Chinese characters. Designed specifically for learners who benefit from clear patterns, visual systems, and memory-anchoring techniques.
- 1
The First Strokes
- The Four Basic Directions
- The Logic of Stroke Order
- 2
The Building Blocks
- The 'Person' and 'Number' Radicals
- Nature's Symbols
- 3
Spatial Awareness and Balance
- Framing the Character
- The Rule of Proportions
- 4
Memory Systems for Hanzi
- Visual Mnemonics for Abstract Ideas
- The Story Method for Complexity
- 5
Essential Daily Characters
- Pronouns and People
- Action and Movement
- 6
The Logic of Meaning
- The 'Hand' and 'Heart' Radicals
- The 'Metal' and 'Wood' Radicals
- 7
The Logic of Sound
- Recognizing the Sound-Hint
- The 'Ma' and 'Qing' Families
- 8
Practical Writing for Life
- Writing Your Identity
- Digital vs. Hand-written Mandarin
- 9
Retention and Mastery
- Spaced Repetition for Hanzi
9 sections · 17 units · 69 levels. Built to play, not to enroll.
You pick the voice
Writing Mandarin Characters is taught in the The Bestie style: your friend who just gets it. Want a different feel? In the app you can spin up the same topic in any of Tomo's teaching styles. Same facts, totally different vibe.
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Start Writing Mandarin Characters today.
Download Tomo, search Writing Mandarin Characters, and play your first lesson in under a minute.