Radical Chinese
Learn Chinese Seriously
Free · Designed for iPad. Not verified for macOS.
Stop playing games. Learn Mandarin.
I built Radical Chinese as a solo student project because I needed it myself. With a summer school program in China coming up, I wanted to learn as much Mandarin as humanly possible in a short amount of time.
I didn't have time for gamified apps, and while traditional flashcards are great for rote memorization, they don't give you the reading and speaking practice you actually need for the real world. I just wanted a straightforward, rigorous tool built for rapid language acquisition. So, I built one.
Designed for serious beginners and motivated learners, Radical Chinese bridges the gap between studying characters and using them.
CORE FEATURES:
The New HSK 1-3: Master around 2,000 essential words (with higher levels planned for the future) structured for rapid learning.
Start Where You Are: A quick vocabulary quiz places you at the right level so you're not grinding through words you already know.
Understand, Don’t Just Memorize: Stop staring blindly at characters. The Character Anatomy tool breaks complex words down into their core radicals and components, so you understand how they are built.
Total Immersion Roleplay: Practice speaking in realistic scenarios like ordering food or talking to a cashier. You get to chat with an AI that provides detailed feedback on your grammar in a zero-pressure environment.
Read Anything: Read our built-in graded stories, or import your own text. Just tap any character to see its pinyin, meaning, and audio.
Scientifically Proven Retention: Built on the FSRS-5 spaced repetition algorithm. It predicts precisely when you are about to forget a character and schedules your review to lock it into your long-term memory.
Research-Backed Methods: The methods used in the app are based on real linguistic research. You can even find links to the specific scientific papers right in the settings.
Learn Offline: Take your studies on the go. The core flashcards and built-in reading stories work entirely offline. You only need an internet connection for the AI roleplay and importing custom text.
Track Real Fluency: Watch your vocabulary grow with transparent stats, mastery heatmaps, and retention data.
100% FREE. NO SUBSCRIPTIONS.
I built this app for my own studies and want to share it with other serious learners. There are no paywalls, no forced ads, and no premium subscriptions. I have no plans to ever charge for it. If the app helps you out, there is a simple "Buy Me a Coffee" button in the settings, but otherwise, just enjoy learning!
Ratings & Reviews
- This app hasn’t received enough ratings or reviews to display an overview.
Vocabulary quality update. Every card now has a "Why" note explaining grammar, usage, or common confusions — over 2,000 new
explanations added. Translations have been polished across the deck so the meaning shown on the back of the card matches the example
sentence (no more "erhua variant of…" or wrong readings on common words like 说, 比, 考, 跑). Many example sentences were also
replaced with ones that better illustrate the word's primary meaning.
The developer, Clemens Steinwendner, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- User Content
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Clemens Steinwendner
- Size
- 105.8 MB
- Category
- Education
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 16.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 16.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 16.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 13.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later. - Apple Vision
Requires visionOS 1.0 or later.
- iPhone
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
4+
- 4+
- Copyright
- © 2026 Clemens Steinwendner