Best Mandarin Chinese Learning Apps for Speaking, Reading and Tones

Choose your Mandarin tools around the work you want to do: speak in fuller sentences, understand what you hear or read with less reliance on pinyin. ChickyTutor offers guided speaking practice at your level; the other options include courses, reading tools and a dictionary.

This guide covers Mandarin. If your family, school or destination uses traditional characters, check that your reading tool supports them.

Guided speaking and feedback: ChickyTutor

ChickyTutor Mandarin practice leads you through sentences to translate into Mandarin. You answer aloud, get feedback and can ask for help understanding the wording.

For beginners, that can mean short statements and questions. Intermediate learners can practise longer sentences and more varied word order; advanced learners can work on precise meanings and language suited to different situations. The tutor supplies the next task, so you can concentrate on forming your answer.

AI feedback is fallible. Use native audio and a teacher or proficient speaker to check tones and uncertain regional wording. Decide which character system you want to read alongside your speaking practice.

Try guided Mandarin Chinese speaking practice.

Structured Mandarin lessons

HelloChinese

HelloChinese is a Mandarin-specific beginner app covering reading, writing, listening, vocabulary, grammar, speech activities, and handwriting. Its native-speaker videos and structured course make it a stronger all-round starting point than a generic vocabulary app.

Some content and features are paid. Speech recognition is practice feedback, not proof that your tones would be clear to every listener.

LingoDeer

LingoDeer Chinese provides sequenced lessons, grammar guidance, and native-speaker audio. It is useful when you want a guided course with more explicit explanation than a game-led app normally provides.

Confirm the course's character options and current depth against your goal. Guided exercises still need native listening and unscripted output beside them.

Reading with audio: Du Chinese

Du Chinese is built for graded Mandarin reading and listening. Stories and articles include native audio, instant word lookup, translations, and grammar explanations, with material from newbie to advanced levels.

It is a reading-led tool rather than a full beginner syllabus. Start with text that feels easy enough to follow, hide pinyin for a second pass, and retell two sentences aloud.

Dictionary and reference: Pleco

Pleco is a Chinese dictionary and reference app for iOS and Android. The free base includes dictionary search and basic audio; optional additions include licensed dictionaries, flashcards, document reading, handwriting, and OCR.

Pleco helps you investigate language, but it does not choose a curriculum for you. Save words from sentences you actually met, not isolated lists assembled because they look useful.

Listening and spoken recall: Pimsleur Mandarin

Pimsleur Mandarin centers on 30-minute listen-and-respond lessons. Its current official page lists five levels, making it a substantial choice for learners who want scheduled oral recall and can study without looking at a screen.

The subscription is expensive compared with free apps, and audio-first work needs separate character reading and writing. Try the trial and check the cancellation terms before committing.

Short daily exercises: Duolingo

Duolingo Chinese offers short guided lessons in Mandarin with simplified characters. It is a convenient free option for habit, basic sentence patterns, and review.

It should not be your only tone model or your only source of natural speech. Repeat useful lines with native audio, and add a resource that makes you produce answers without tiles.

Duolingo listed Chinese (Simplified) in its official course selector when checked on August 8, 2026. Duolingo's own course explanation says its English-speaker course teaches Mandarin Chinese with simplified characters.

Choose your next practice session

Start a ChickyTutor session when you want to practise forming spoken answers. For reading, choose a Du Chinese text at a comfortable level and use Pleco for words you need to investigate. Keep a consistent native-audio source for tones, and check simplified or traditional character support before choosing a reading tool.

Start Mandarin Chinese speaking practice.