Chinese grammar is famously light — verbs do not conjugate, nouns do not decline — which shifts almost the entire learning burden onto vocabulary and characters. That is the single best fit for spaced repetition there is: a very large set of discrete items, each either known or not, with no rules to reason your way to the answer. Tones add a second fact per word, and tone errors are exactly the sort of detail that decays without scheduled retrieval.
Why spaced repetition suits Chinese
The Chinese writing system
Written Chinese uses characters rather than an alphabet. Around 2,500 characters cover the large majority of everyday text, and most words are built from two characters combined. Mandarin is tonal: the same syllable carries different meanings at different pitches.
What English speakers find hard about Chinese
- Four tones plus a neutral tone, contrastive and easy for English speakers to under-hear.
- Characters must be learned separately from pronunciation — knowing a word aloud does not mean you can read it.
- Measure words, required between a number and a noun and specific to the noun type.
- A large gap between spoken fluency and literacy, which progresses much more slowly.
Cards you might meet
Generated from whatever theme you name — these are the kind of thing that comes back.
加油
keep going, you can do it
Literally "add fuel".
麻烦
troublesome; to trouble someone
差不多
more or less, close enough
习惯
a habit; to be used to
不好意思
excuse me; mildly embarrassed
What you get
- SM-2 scheduling with four grades and keyboard shortcuts
- Generated Chinese vocabulary on any theme you name
- Pronunciation for every card
- Grammar sets from A1 to C2
- Writing feedback on your own sentences
- Photo vocabulary — name what is in front of you
Popular Chinese themes
everyday lifefoodbusinesstraveltechnology
Chinese questions
- Does Language Flash use simplified or traditional characters?
- Generated cards default to simplified characters, as used in mainland China and Singapore. Asking for traditional characters in your theme steers the generator accordingly.
- Is there Chinese conjugation practice?
- No, because Chinese verbs do not conjugate — that is one of the genuine simplicities of the language. The drill is hidden when Chinese is your target language. Vocabulary, grammar, diary and photo vocabulary all work.
- How many characters do I need?
- Around 2,500 characters covers the substantial majority of everyday written material, though comfortable reading of newspapers and books generally takes more. Words are mostly two-character compounds, so each new character compounds in value.