Handwriting-first
Learn Chinese the way it's written — one stroke at a time.
Hanzi Ben turns character practice into something you actually do with your hand. Trace, recall and review the characters that matter, in the order that builds real fluency fastest.
本 běn — “root, origin, book”
Why handwriting
Reading recognises. Writing remembers.
Recognising a character and being able to produce it are different skills. Hanzi Ben trains the one most apps skip — and the one that makes everything else stick.
Trace, don't tap
Draw each character on a real practice grid. Strokes, Ghost and on-device Check score your handwriting — no server.
See how it's built
Flip the card for Composition: the character tree, formation type and etymology — so new characters feel assembled, not arbitrary.
History on the back
Seal Script, simplification and frequency rank sit next to Pinyin — where the character came from, and how often it shows up today.
Start with radicals
A free 100-card Radicals deck, plus Radical Ben: 100 families with the component first, then the characters that use it.
Pick your path
HSK 3.0 handwriting and vocabulary, Hanzi Ben’s 2,443-card beginner path, Radical Ben, or your own My Hanzi list. Switch any time.
Your own list
Type Hanzi, Pinyin or English — mom finds 妈. Free practice uses the first 10 matched cards; Pro practises the full list.
New in this update
Write it. Look it up. Translate it.
Hanzi Ben is no longer only for character practice. It is now an everyday dictionary and a live translator too — search, speak or type, in English or Chinese.
-
An everyday dictionary
Search by English, Pinyin or Hanzi — or draw the character. Every entry gives the meaning, Pinyin and a short example sentence.
-
A live translator
Type a phrase and get an English ⇄ Chinese translation with Pinyin. Each word is listed beneath it, ready to open. Correct the original if needed, then read it aloud or copy it.
-
Speak to search
Tap the mic and speak English or Chinese. Recognition runs offline with Google’s language packs, and you can fix a misheard word before translating.
-
Straight into practice
Tap any result to open it as a practice card — then trace it until it sticks.
Dictionary look-up and phrase translation are always free. Available on Android and iOS. The Chinese translation model (about 30 MB) and the voice packs download once, then work offline.
Curricula
One home screen. Five ways in.
The same chips you'll tap inside the app. Choose a track, drill into books and chapters, and begin.
Quick Access adds two standalone decks: Radicals — a free 100-card list of the building-block components (not the same as Radical Ben) — and the Survival Kit, 159 high-frequency connecting words grouped by what they do in a sentence.
Pricing
Start free. Unlock everything once.
Try Hanzi Ben for real before you decide. One simple, one-time purchase unlocks the rest — no subscription.
Enough to build a genuine habit.
- First chapters of Foundation, Everyday Life, Survival Kit, Radical Ben and HSK — plus the 100-card Radicals deck
- My Hanzi: look up English, Pinyin or Hanzi — practise the first 10 matched cards
- Full handwriting, Composition, History, streaks and progress
- Dictionary look-up and phrase translation
Every curriculum and character, forever.
- Every curriculum, book and chapter
- The complete character set in search and drawing
- All future content included
A one-time purchase handled by the app store, with Restore on a new device. See the Terms of Use.
How it works
From cold start to first character in under a minute.
Choose a track
Tap a curriculum chip, then pick the books and chapters you want to work through.
Write it out
Trace on the grid, follow stroke order, then flip for Composition and History — how it's built, and where it came from.
Keep the streak
Daily progress, learned markers and a forgiving streak keep momentum without the pressure.
Why learning Chinese?
A language the whole world is taking up.
In a single decade, Chinese has gone from a regional language to a global one — taught on every continent and written into national curricula around the world.
Your data
Everything stays on your device.
Hanzi Ben has no server and no account system. Your curriculum, deck order, progress, streak and custom lists live only in your browser's local storage. The Pro purchase is handled by the app store using your store account — we never see your payment details.