Mandarin by construction
Mandarin · The method

Bricks, rules, and sentences of your own.

Every word you learn is a reusable brick. Checked rules combine them: you build correct sentences you never learnt by heart, then you transform them, listen to them and meet them again in real situations.

The method

Six families of bricks

Every word comes in simplified characters, in pinyin with its tones, with its audio and a meaning in context.

People
我wǒ 你nǐ 他tā 她tā 我们wǒmen

Who is speaking, to whom, about whom. 他 and 她 sound exactly the same.

Actions
喝hē 吃chī 去qù 有yǒu 喜欢xǐhuan

Around twenty common verbs. They never change form: no -s, no -ed, no -ing.

Objects and places
茶chá 水shuǐ 饭fàn 中国Zhōngguó 餐厅cāntīng

What you drink, eat or own, and the places you go.

Operators
不bù 没méi 很hěn 吗ma 哪里nǎlǐ

Negation, questions and nuances: they transform a sentence without rewriting it.

Patterns
我喝茶S + V + O 我想喝茶S + 想 + V 你去吗… 吗?

The rules for putting bricks together. Nothing is glued word for word.

Tones and listening
妈mā 麻má 马mǎ 骂mà 吗ma

The four tones and the neutral tone, taught from the very first lesson.

In real life

The same bricks, everywhere

At a restaurant, on the move or meeting someone new, a few bricks are enough to make yourself understood.

restaurant, cup of tea
At the restaurant
我想喝茶。Wǒ xiǎng hē chá.I’d like to drink some tea.
underground, railway station
Getting around
你去哪里?Nǐ qù nǎlǐ?Where are you going?
meeting, conversation
Meeting people
你喜欢中国吗?Nǐ xǐhuan Zhōngguó ma?Do you like China?
A session

Fifteen minutes a day

Adjustable from 5 to 30 minutes. Missing a day costs you nothing: your progress waits for you.

Learner with earphones, phone in hand
3 min
Review
Today’s reviews, spaced according to how well you did.
4 min
New bricks
Two or three words, with their audio and their tones.
5 min
Build
Five sentences to build or transform, with mistakes explained.
3 min
Listen
A question you hear, an answer to give.
a conversation over tea

Lay your first brick.

Choose your goal and your pace, and the first lesson starts straight away.

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