The Pinyin Tutor

For beginning students of Chinese, simply spelling a spoken Chinese phrase can be challenging. The Pinyin Tutor is designed to help improve this fundamental skill. Students using the Pinyin Tutor have shown significant improvement from pre to post test and the tutor has since been used by thousands of students at over thirty institutions around the world.


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Learn Pinyin. Sharpen your Chinese listening skills.

  • Using the Pinyin keyboard, type the Chinese phrase you hear.
  • Mistakes are highlighted so you can correct them.
  • Click "Target" to hear the phrase again.
  • Click "Your Attempt" to hear what you typed.

Get Points as the Pinyin Tutor carefully tracks your improvement.

  • As you practice, the tutor learns your strengths and weaknesses.
  • It gives more practice on items that you should find challenging, helping you to learn quickly without wasting time on items too easy for you.
  • With over 8,300 recordings, the Pinyin Tutor tailors a unique learning path precisely for you!

When curious look up items in the dictionary.

  • After answering an item, click on the little magnifying glass to look it up in the dictionary.
  • Each entry lists the Chinese characters corresponding to the current Pinyin item, along with English translations.

Track your skills and hear more examples.

  • The Pinyin Tutor constantly updates a detailed record of your skills.
  • At any time, you can view your current skill levels to see where you stand.
  • Click on the little speaker icon to hear examples of Chinese words with that sound!

Improve skills 5 words at a time.

  • The Pinyin Tutor is a fun game!
  • Practice is easy, just 5 words at time.
  • You start with simple items, and then advance to more complex ones as your skills improve.
  • Can you get to Level 10 and become a Pinyin Master?