Kylin: Learn Chinese HSK

Kylin teaches Mandarin Chinese to beginners and follows the new HSK 3.0 standard, in use since July 2026. Learn Chinese characters, pinyin, tones and grammar from zero to a solid HSK 3, in your own language. All of HSK 1 is free. THE WORD LIST THAT COUNTS The HSK exam changed. The official HSK 3.0 standard was published in November 2025 and took effect in July 2026. Most apps and word lists still teach the old one. Kylin follows the new one: 1,011 words, 655 simplified characters and 46 grammar patterns across HSK 1, HSK 2 and HSK 3. Studying for HSK 1, 2 or 3? These are the words you'll be tested on. CHINESE CHARACTERS, TAKEN APART Every character (hanzi) is broken into its components, and components are taught before the characters that use them. Each of the 655 characters comes with a short story tying its parts to its meaning, and a painting of that story to remember it by. Stroke order is animated for every character. Of the 655, about 250 are characters the exam expects you to write by hand, 95 of them in HSK 1. Those you write on screen with your finger, and each one is checked: on the stroke, complete and in the right direction. PINYIN, TONES AND LISTENING Every word has recorded audio. Tones get a drill of their own, in pairs. 妈 (mother) and 马 (horse) are the same syllable and two different words, so the tone is part of the word: see the characters, hear the word, pick the tone. The listening drill plays a word with nothing on screen but the choices, so your ear does the work. Pinyin is shown at first and can be hidden when you're ready. The characters are always there. VOCABULARY THAT STAYS You get multiple choice once: the first time you meet a word. After that, the answer has to come from you: say it out loud and check yourself, or write the character by hand. Reviews follow a spaced repetition model that brings each word back shortly before you would forget it. The home screen shows one number: out of everything you have learned, how much the app expects you to recall right now. A word leaves your queue when you can recall it, not when you tap past it. Right answers speed a lesson up; a wrong one slows it down and gives you more help. NO STREAK TO KEEP ALIVE Miss a day and nothing breaks. Your reviews just move, nothing is lost, and the app stays quiet about it. What gets measured is what you still remember weeks later. Progress you can prove, not a streak you protect. GRAMMAR AND READING Each sentence pattern has its own page with an explanation and examples. You never meet a sentence with more than one new thing in it. The 22 graded readings use only characters you already know; tap any word for its meaning. Your notebook keeps every word you have met, searchable by characters, pinyin or meaning. IN YOUR LANGUAGE, OFFLINE The teaching is in your language, not just the buttons: word meanings, character stories, grammar notes and the meanings in the readings. The app comes in twelve languages: English, Vietnamese, Thai, Korean, Indonesian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Japanese, Russian, Italian, French and Turkish. The whole course lives on your phone, audio included: nothing to download before a lesson, and everything works in airplane mode. FREE AND PRO HSK 1 stays free forever: all 300 words, 248 characters, 14 patterns and 8 readings, with the audio, handwriting and stories. No account needed. Kylin Pro opens HSK 2 and HSK 3: 711 more words, 407 more characters, 32 more patterns and 14 more readings. Pay monthly, pay yearly, or pay once and never renew. Dictionary meanings come from CC-CEDICT under CC BY-SA 4.0. Stroke order and component data come from Make Me a Hanzi under the Arphic Public License. Both are credited in the app. Privacy: https://iocodo.com/apps/kylin/privacy.html Support: https://iocodo.com/apps/kylin/support.html Terms: https://iocodo.com/apps/kylin/terms.html