A free Mandarin reading app with pinyin

taihaa treats Mandarin as its own language. Paste a simplified Chinese text and the reader can show Hanyu Pinyin over the characters. The Mandarin reading guide shows the screen. Cantonese stays separate, with Jyutping, on the free Cantonese reading app.

What the Mandarin reader does

• Pinyin above the characters, on or off.
• A YouTube link with subtitles becomes a video lesson, with pinyin on the caption text. 3 new video lessons a week on the free plan. If a video has no subtitles, paste a transcript.
• Split (Fix word split): tap between characters to break a compound into characters or join characters into one word. The fix is saved on that lesson for you.
• Tap a word for an English dictionary suggestion. Check it before you save. Your own saved vocabulary is preferred.
• Save the word with the sentence you found it in.
• Review saved words at the end of a lesson, with the sentence still attached.
• Natural Mandarin voice for words and sentences, 5 plays a day free, more with Taihaa Plus.
• Graded stories on the HSK 1, HSK 2, and HSK 3 shelves, plus a News tab with fresh Mandarin headlines.
• A lesson can show an estimated HSK 1–6 tag. That tag is guidance, not an exam result.
• Free, no card, with no cap on saved words or text imports.

Bring the text you already want

Du Chinese and The Chairman’s Bao publish their own graded lessons. This page is for an article, a class handout, a PDF, an EPUB chapter, or a news page you chose. Those libraries are covered in a free Du Chinese alternative and a free Chairman’s Bao alternative.

What it costs elsewhere

If the letters and tone marks are new, start with how to read pinyin. A YouTube link with Chinese subtitles is covered in learn Mandarin from YouTube.