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How to Start Learning Mandarin Chinese: A Beginner's Plan

Mandarin has a reputation for being hard, but its first steps are very learnable. There are no verb endings to memorize and no grammatical genders, and you can say real sentences within weeks. Here is a simple plan for starting from zero.

By the Memphys team · Updated · 7 min read

Mandarin, Chinese and characters: the basics

“Chinese” is a family of languages. Mandarin (普通话 Pǔtōnghuà) is the one most learners mean: the official language of mainland China and Taiwan, one of the official languages of Singapore, and the first language of more people than any other language in the world. It is written with Chinese characters: simplified characters in mainland China and Singapore, and traditional characters in Taiwan and Hong Kong. Most beginners start with simplified characters and pinyin.

A step-by-step plan for beginners

1. Learn pinyin and the four tones first

Spend your first week or two on sound. Pinyin shows you how every word is pronounced, and the four tones are part of every word’s meaning. Good habits here save you months of fixing them later.

2. Start with words for the things around you

Concrete words are the easiest to remember because you can see them every day. Learn the Chinese for your cup, your phone, your chair and your cat, and your home becomes a set of flashcards. Try our list of everyday Chinese words.

3. Learn characters through their parts

Don’t memorize characters as pictures. Learn the common radicals and see each new character as a combination of pieces you know: 日 (sun) + 月 (moon) = 明 (bright).

4. Write a little by hand

You will type most Chinese with pinyin, but writing characters by hand, in the right stroke order, is one of the best ways to remember them. A few characters a day is plenty.

5. Build simple sentences early

Basic Mandarin word order is subject, verb, object, just like English: 我喝水 wǒ hē shuǐ, “I drink water.” Verbs never change form: 我吃饭, 你吃饭, 他吃饭 all use the same 吃. Add 吗 ma to the end and you have a question: 你喝水吗？ Do you drink water?

6. Speak out loud every day

Reading silently won’t train your mouth or your ear. Say every new word aloud, copy native recordings, and record yourself to check your tones.

7. Review a little, often

Memory fades fast at first and slower with each review. Short daily sessions that bring back yesterday’s words, then last week’s, beat long sessions once a week. Ten to fifteen minutes a day, every day, is a great start.

How long does it take to learn Mandarin?

It depends on your goal. The U.S. Foreign Service Institute places Mandarin among the most time-intensive languages for English speakers, estimating around 2,200 class hours to reach professional working proficiency. But you don’t need that to enjoy it. With a little daily practice, beginners can usually read and say hundreds of everyday words and simple sentences within a few months.

If you like milestones, the HSK (汉语水平考试) is the official proficiency test for Mandarin learners. The 2021 Chinese Proficiency Grading Standards, which the new HSK follows, describe nine levels in three bands, and many learners use the HSK word lists as a roadmap.

Common beginner mistakes

Make it a habit you enjoy

The best plan is the one you keep doing. That is the idea behind Memphys: learn a few words a day from the things around you, practice saying and writing them, and look after a Memphys, a little pet who grows as you learn.

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