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Pinyin trainer

Hear a real word and name its tones. The trainer notices which tone pairs you mix up and gives you more of those.

Streak 0

Press play, then mark the tone of each syllable.

Voice

Words

Your tone pairs

Each square is a pair of tones, first syllable down the side, second across the top. It fills in as you answer, darker where you're sure of it, marked where you slip.

First tone	1	2	3	4	N
1	First then first: –	First then second: –	First then third: –	First then fourth: –	First then neutral: –
2	Second then first: –	Second then second: –	Second then third: –	Second then fourth: –	Second then neutral: –
3	Third then first: –	Third then second: –	Third then third: –	Third then fourth: –	Third then neutral: –
4	Fourth then first: –	Fourth then second: –	Fourth then third: –	Fourth then fourth: –	Fourth then neutral: –

Why tone pairs

Most learners can name a tone said alone and still lose it inside a word. Mandarin words are mostly two syllables, and the 20 tone pairs each have their own shape: a third tone before another third rises (你好 is said ní hǎo), a third before anything else stays low. Practising pairs in real words trains the ear the way you'll actually hear Mandarin.

How it works

Every word is a real HSK 1–4 word in our saved Female or Male voice. Answer with the tones as they are written or as they are said: when a tone change makes a word sound different (你好 is written nǐ hǎo and said ní hǎo), both count, and the answer says why. The trainer picks your next word from the pairs you miss most, so the hard ones come back until they stick.

Keys

Space plays the word again. 1 to 4 mark a tone and 5 or 0 the neutral tone. Backspace takes a mark back, and Enter goes to the next word.

More free tools

Pinyin test: twenty words, one score. Pinyin chart: every syllable, all four tones.

The voices are generated speech (ElevenLabs), the same two the app's word cards use. The pinyin is how each word is expected to sound.