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MenziMenzi: Learn Chinese
Stop recognizing Chinese. Start using it. Menzi has you build sentences with every new word, then write your own — and everything you read and hear is made from the words you know.
Philosophy
Learn Mandarin by using it
Everything in Menzi serves one habit: putting the words you learn into sentences. Pick one of these five to see what it means in practice.
A word you can use is a word you know
Recognizing a word is the easy half. Menzi has you put each word into sentences — first with help, then on your own — and a tutor that reads what you actually wrote grades it. Everything else in the app is there to make those sentences come easier.
A word is not one thing you know
You can read 请 and miss it when someone says it, or understand it and never manage to say it. Menzi tracks meaning, reading, listening and speaking separately, each on its own review schedule, so you can see which one is lagging and practice that.
That is what the shape says: 请 reads and means further along than it hears or speaks, and one score would have averaged the gap away.
Fluency in a bubble, then a bigger bubble
The stories you read and the sentences you hear are written for you, from the words you already know. That makes a small world you can genuinely be fluent inside. New words you meet along the way go on a list, and the ones you keep meeting join your deck as your schedule has room — so the bubble grows with you.
Grammar is something you learn, not something you pick up
Chinese gets hard at the patterns. Menzi teaches about 120 of them the way it teaches words: each one is introduced, drilled in both directions, and kept on its own review schedule — and the sentences you practice are built around the patterns you are learning.
Using it is how it gets measured
Reading a story counts toward the words in it. A sentence you followed by ear counts toward hearing them. What Menzi knows about you comes from you using the language, never from a test you sat down to take.
How a word is learned
From guided practice to your own sentences
Nobody is asked to write Chinese on day one. Every word goes through two stages.
Practicing
Guided practice
A new word starts with help. You fill gaps in a sentence that is mostly there, put a sentence in order from tiles, and translate short sentences in both directions. The drills get harder as you get them right.
Reviewing
Your own sentences
Once you can use the word, it moves into review: you write a sentence of your own with it, and the tutor grades what you wrote. Reading, listening and speaking come with it, each on its own schedule.
One connected system
Where it comes together
Grammar, conversation, listening and reading all draw on the same deck, and all of them count toward it — so whatever you practice, the rest gets easier.
Grammar
Patterns are learned the way words are: each one is introduced, then drilled by translating into Chinese and out of it, and keeps its own review schedule and its own difficulty as you improve.
Chat
Role-play scenes with an AI tutor — ordering food, asking the way, a job interview, or one you set up yourself. Type or speak each turn, and every reply you write is graded as you go. The tutor writes at your level, so the conversation gets harder as you do.
Transcribe
Spoken sentences built from the words already in your deck. Type what you hear and it's graded word by word — and the words you catch count toward hearing them, so it doubles as a review. Dictate and Translate work the same sentences by speaking and by translating.
Read
Stories written for you from the words you already know, narrated with read-along audio. Tap any word for its pinyin and meaning without losing your place, and new words you meet are saved for later.
Questions
Before you start
The things people ask first.
Is Menzi for beginners?
Yes. A new word starts in guided practice — gaps to fill and tiles to arrange — before you are ever asked for a sentence of your own, and the first sentences you build are the easiest ones. A guided curriculum for complete beginners is in the works.
Can it be my main way to learn Mandarin?
It is built to be: vocabulary, grammar, reading, listening and speaking are one system, and each feeds the others. What it does not have yet is the structured lesson path, which is coming.
What does a plan get me?
Hanzi, listening and speaking cards, the HSK dictionary and the stories already written are free on every account. Sentence drills, grammar, chat and new stories run on a monthly allowance: Casual covers about eight graded sentences a day and ten minutes of audio a month, Pro about twenty a day and thirty minutes. New subscribers get a week free.
Which Mandarin does it teach?
Mainland Mandarin in simplified characters, or Taiwanese Mandarin in traditional characters, with zhuyin if you prefer it — you choose when you start, and every sentence, story and voice follows.
Pricing
Casual or Pro
Hanzi, listening and speaking cards, the dictionary and the stories already written are free. A plan adds a monthly allowance for sentence drills, grammar, chat and new stories — and new subscribers get a week free.
Menzi Casual
Monthly$7.99 per month
For ten minutes a day. 8M AI credits a month — about eight graded sentences a day — and ten minutes of audio.
- 8M AI credits per month
- About 8 graded sentences a day
- 10 minutes of audio per month
Menzi Pro
Monthly$19.99 per month
For daily practice. 20M AI credits and 30 minutes of audio each month — the headroom that matters if you lean on speaking, conversation and generated stories.
- 20M AI credits per month
- About 20 graded sentences a day
- 30 minutes of audio per month
Menzi Casual
Annual$79.99 per year
The same Menzi Casual, paid once a year instead of month to month — $15.89 less than paying monthly across the year.
- 8M AI credits per month
- 10 minutes of audio per month
- One payment, once a year
Menzi Pro
Annual$199.99 per year
The same Menzi Pro, paid once a year instead of month to month — $39.89 less than paying monthly across the year.
- 20M AI credits per month
- 30 minutes of audio per month
- One payment, once a year
Community
Where to find us
Progress updates, sentence breakdowns, and the odd 唐诗 — YouTube is on the way.
Get Started
Your journey starts today
Every fluent speaker started with one word. Time to learn yours.
Menzi: Learn Chinese