Learn Mandarin Chinese · 中文 🇨🇳
Learn Mandarin Chinese by reading, character by character
Graded Chinese stories with tap-to-translate and pinyin — climb from your first sentence all the way to Journey to the West.
This is the real Mandarin Chinese reader — tap a word, hover a sentence, press play.
The Mandarin Chinese library
猴子的故事
The Chinese ladder is live: graded originals that climb to a level-controlled retelling of 西游记 — Journey to the West — and then excerpts of the real thing. The first book is free — no card, no account needed to start reading.
Free Mandarin Chinese resources
Start right now — no download needed.
阿凡提的故事阿凡提的故事Stories of Afanti · Pro
白蛇传白蛇传The Legend of the White Snake · Pro
聊斋志异选聊斋志异选Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio · Pro
三国演义选三国演义选Romance of the Three Kingdoms (selections) · Pro
十二生肖十二生肖The Twelve Zodiac Animals · Pro西游记西游记Journey to the West · FreeHow it works
Reading is the method.
No drills, no streak guilt, no cartoon owl. You read real stories, and the app quietly removes everything that used to make that hard.
Tap any word
An instant gloss with romanization for every script — no dictionary detour, no losing your place in the story.
Tap a sentence
See the full translation only when you want it. Understanding stays a choice, not a crutch.
Watch your words add up
Every word you meet is counted. Once you've read it three times without tapping, it's yours — an honest “words known” number that grows chapter by chapter.
Read-along audio
Narrated books you can read along with.
- Natural narration on the narrated books — today the whole Chinese library and a Georgian classic, with more on the way.
- Karaoke highlighting. The word being spoken lights up as you read, so your ear and eye learn together.
- Your pace. Slow it to 0.5× while you're starting out, push past 1× when you're flying. Tap any sentence to replay it.
- Offline too. Download the audio with the book and listen anywhere.
Questions
Fair questions, straight answers.
Do I need to know characters before starting?
No — every word shows its pinyin and translation on tap, so you can read real sentences from day one and absorb characters in context, at reading speed.
Is Journey to the West really readable for learners?
The ladder version is a level-controlled retelling: the story of 西游记 told within a graded vocabulary, climbing chapter by chapter. By the top of the ladder you read excerpts of the original.
Is Mandarin Chinese available now?
Yes — the Mandarin Chinese graded ladder is live in the app, and the first book is free.
Is it free?
The first book in every language is completely free — no account, no card. A Pro subscription later unlocks the rest of each library.
How is this different from flashcards?
Flashcards teach words in isolation; stories teach them in context, with grammar and collocations attached. ReadNative tracks your vocabulary automatically while you read, so you get the measurable progress of an SRS without the grind. And if you love Anki, every book exports a ready-made deck.
Also on ReadNative
One subscription, every language.
Every language gets the same treatment: a graded ladder of real books, tap-to-translate, audio narration and vocabulary tracking.
Read your first Mandarin Chinese book tonight.
The first Mandarin Chinese book is free — no account, no card. Download the app and tap your first word in the next ten minutes.
