Chinese Pronunciation

Check Your Chinese Pronunciation and Mandarin Tones in One Click!

Tap the mic, read 5 words out loud, and get instant detailed feedback on what to fix.

Free. No Credit Card Required. No Signup.

Why I built SayMandarin

What it is

SayMandarin is a free service for checking and practicing your Chinese pronunciation and Chinese tones. It includes feedback from a strong AI system. SayMandarin gives you scores and detailed feedback on how to improve your pronunciation.

SayMandarin feedback screen: a note from Tangy, how many sounds and tones came out clean, and the first mistake it heard

My name is Tony, and I built SayMandarin by myself as a small indie developer. I graduated from Beijing Language and Culture University in 2018. I have been teaching Chinese since 2015, and have worked at multiple Chinese IT companies.

After graduation I left China, and now I work in another country. I don’t have any Chinese people near me and don’t have much time for a Chinese tutor. I realized that my Chinese pronunciation has started to slip due to a lack of practice and feedback from native speakers.

My students had the same problem: they practiced a lot, but nobody could tell them whether their tones were right. Chinese friends are usually too polite to correct you, and a tutor isn’t always an option.

So I built this tool, which has helped me and my students practice pronunciation and tones in an easy way. Now I’ve opened it for everyone, and I hope it will be useful for you too.

Tony in a graduation gown next to the Confucius statue
Beijing Language and Culture University graduation, 2018

How it works

You read 5 simple Chinese syllables out loud, and the AI system tells you how they sounded and what to work on first. The whole process usually takes no more than a minute, and you don’t need to sign up for anything.

  1. Tap the big orange button with the microphone.
The orange microphone button in the SayMandarin widget, marked with number 1
  1. When your browser asks, let it use your microphone. It only asks once.
Browser asking for microphone access, with “Allow while visiting the site” marked with number 2
  1. Say the syllable you see on the screen. Don’t worry, every one of them comes with pinyin, and there’s no need to sound perfect.
The widget while recording: the syllable mǎ (马) and the red stop button, marked with number 3
  1. After the fifth word you’ll get your result right away. The result includes an overall sound score and honest feedback on your sounds and tones. It’s free, no sign-up and no personal information needed.
Your pronunciation feedback: a note from Tangy, how many sounds and tones you got right, and your main mistake with tips to fix it
  1. Here is a detailed breakdown of the feedback screen. I know it looks a bit complicated, but everything is where it should be, so take a moment to get the general logic first.
The feedback screen, labeled: a note from Tangy; how many of the 5 words you got right; your main mistake, what we heard, how to fix it, and buttons to compare; your next mistake; words that came out clean; and your next steps

Why my method works

school Learning Chinese since 2012
I learned Chinese from scratch to the point where I could run business meetings in Chinese. I graduated from Beijing Language and Culture University, China’s best university for teaching Chinese as a foreign language.

I lived in China for 5 years, have taught Chinese since 2015, and went from having Chinese people laugh at my pronunciation to working at Chinese companies and speaking fluently with my Chinese colleagues.
handshake Mix of human touch and AI technology
I don’t put “AI” on the product for marketing. I’m tired of endless AI slop and mindlessly generated content.

My goal is to combine my own experience with AI so that everything here still has a human touch. I personally check every feature and test it on myself and my students first, before publishing it here.
record_voice_over Built by a learner, not a native speaker
I know exactly where English speakers get stuck in Chinese, because I was there myself. The product is built around those spots.

I have neither a musical education nor a musical ear, but I managed to get pretty good at Chinese tones (if I don’t praise myself, no one will).
graphic_eq Feedback that helps you get better every day
SayMandarin’s feedback feature doesn’t just give you a pronunciation score. It tells you what it heard instead of what it expected. It highlights mispronounced words and tones.

The key feature is that SayMandarin gives you tips and shows exactly how to fix your tones and pronunciation problems.

Pick what to work on next

show_chart Chinese tones
3 tips before you start practicing your tones and a tone pair chart where you can say each pair and get feedback.
Practice tones
mic Mandarin pronunciation
Step-by-step guides for the tricky sounds: xu, zh, ch, sh… and a useful tool that helps you check your pronunciation.
Fix tricky sounds
menu_book Chinese reading practice
Read short Chinese sentences out loud and get feedback on every sound and tone you said. Free, no sign-up.
Start reading

Is this for you?

  • For people who have just started learning Chinese and want to build a solid pronunciation base from the start so they don’t have to spend time fixing it later
  • For self-learners using apps that never tell you what you’re actually getting wrong
  • For heritage speakers who grew up hearing Chinese at home but never felt confident speaking it
  • For people who have been learning Chinese for a long time, know lots of words, understand almost everything, but often aren’t understood by native speakers
  • For college students learning Chinese
  • For people preparing for the HSK exam
  • For travelers to China who want to handle everyday situations with confidence during their trip
  • For business professionals who want to impress their Chinese partners with a few well-pronounced phrases at the negotiation table or over dinner

Frequently Asked Questions

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