Chinese character learning
Master 1000
Chinese characters
With the most common 1000 characters you can read 89% of modern Chinese. Take them everywhere. Learn at your own pace.
Chinese character learning
With the most common 1000 characters you can read 89% of modern Chinese. Take them everywhere. Learn at your own pace.
What's inside
A focused, distraction-free environment built around the characters themselves — not gamification or subscriptions.
Learn in whichever script matters to you. All 1000 characters and all 3000 example sentences are available in both Traditional and Simplified Chinese.
Each character comes with 3 short, natural example sentences so you understand how it's actually used — not just what it means in isolation.
Every character and sentence includes pinyin romanization and an English translation. Toggle them on or off to test yourself as you improve.
Tap any blue character within an example sentence to hear it spoken aloud. Correct tones from day one.
Hit the shuffle button to jump to a random character and test yourself. A fun way to review or discover characters you've overlooked.
Switch between several beautiful Chinese fonts to see how each character looks across different writing styles — great for calligraphy practice.
About the app
Whether you're just starting out or have been learning Chinese for years, CharacterMatrix is a great companion. Quickly scroll through all 1000 characters, tap into any one for a deep dive, or use it as a reference while practicing calligraphy.
Tap on characters within example sentences to navigate directly to them. The matrix adapts beautifully to every device — on iPad you see more at once, or split the screen alongside another app.
Dark mode
CharacterMatrix supports both light and dark mode, automatically adapting to your system setting. The characters shine in both — especially in dark mode where the ink-on-black aesthetic feels truly immersive.
Apple Watch
CharacterMatrix now runs natively on Apple Watch. Open the app and a random character is waiting for you — tap Next to draw another, or tap Details to see all example sentences with pinyin, translation, and spoken audio read aloud by the Watch.
The Watch app is included with the iOS app. The free version gives you 100 characters; unlock the full version to get all 1000 on your wrist.
Listen
This audio overview explores CharacterMatrix, a specialized learning tool designed to help users master the 1000 most common Chinese characters, which account for 89% of modern Chinese text. For those interested in the app's utility, the overview details how it serves as a "great companion" on the journey toward fluency.
Latest episode
What people say
Real reviews from people using CharacterMatrix on their Chinese learning journey.
"This is a great addition to my Chinese learning tools. I have dictionaries and flash cards but this provides a cool way to rediscover and review characters. The examples are very helpful because they are always short."
"The user interface is super clean. I love seeing all these characters in one place in my favorite font, especially on my iPad. Tapping the random button jumps to a random character and it's a great way to test your knowledge."
"I really love this app! It lists 1000 popular Chinese characters with examples. After you master these 1000 characters, you can pick up most Chinese books and understand lots of sentences. Very user-friendly."
Pricing
No subscriptions. No recurring fees. Buy once, use forever.
Trial
100
characters — free to try
Complete
1,000
characters — one-time $9.99