Learning Chinese? You need to learn how to type pinyin on your computer and phone. Once you have a Chinese keyboard on your computer or phone, you can type Chinese in Outlook, Word, web browsers...anywhere you can think of!
If you want to know how to handwrite Chinese characters, check out this beginner's guide to writing Chinese characters.
Now, on to the good stuff! Below are instructions how to type Chinese on a Mac, PC, and phones, including iPhones and Androids with the pinyin method:
To type in Chinese, simply select 'Chinese' from the Language Bar and then type pinyin using your keyboard. You'll be presented with a number of different characters. Select the number of the character/s you want. E.g. To type 'hello' in Chinese (see below), type 'nihao' and either the number '1' or the space bar on the keyboard and the characters '你好' will then appear where you're typing. If you can't see the character you want, press the arrow down key to see more options.
The process for adding a Chinese keyboard to cellphones is slightly different for each brand.
Here is how to add a Chinese keyboard for the major phone brands.
Above, we explained how to type Chinese on a computer and phone using pinyin. However, pinyin is not the only input method for typing Chinese.
Indeed, most digital devices will offer users several Chinese input options because no one "standard" method can be used to illustrate all the complexities of the Chinese language. These options are pinyin, Wubi, Cangjie, Bihua, or Bopomofo/Zhuyin.
These input methods can be divided into two categories:
The pinyin and Wubi methods are preferred in mainland China, and therefore will be explained below.
The pinyin input method is popular among both Chinese learners and native Chinese speakers alike as pinyin is taught in schools and is the most widely used romanization system of the Chinese language.
When using the pinyin input method, users are required to have basic Chinese pronunciation knowledge and be able to read Chinese characters without necessarily knowing their strokes, radicals, or how to write them following proper stroke order.
With this input method, the user simply needs to type pinyin and then select their desired character from the list of homophonic character possibilities suggested by the program.
Although picking the right character may come as a challenge for new learners, the character suggestions are listed from the most commonly used to the least commonly used.
What’s more, one can activate the fuzzy pinyin or fuzzy input (模糊音 móhú yīn) feature which tells the system to consider similar-sounding vowels or consonants as if they were the same.
This feature adjusts for regional differences, where some vowels and consonants often get mixed up, for instance c- and ch-, s- and sh-, z- and zh-. If you ever wondered how Chinese dialects with pronunciations different from that of Mandarin are typed using pinyin, this is how it’s done.
For instance, if the user types cifan with the fuzzy pinyin feature activated, the program will still be able to guess that they probably meant chīfàn 吃饭 (to eat).
Nonetheless, the pinyin input also has several drawbacks. The input speed is generally slower than that of shape-based input methods because users must input individual letters. Moreover, phonetic input methods such as the pinyin method may cause users to forget or neglect to learn to write Chinese characters.
In contrast to the pinyin method, the Wubi method requires users to know the structure of a Chinese character rather than its pronunciation.
Therefore, users do not need to worry about the different Chinese accents and pronunciations when using this method.
Under the Wubi method, all Chinese characters are organized into 5 regions corresponding to their respective root type, hence the name 五笔. The 5 regions of a Wubi keyboard are: • the QWERT region • the YUIOP region • the ASDFG region • the HJKLM region • the XCVBN region.
Each letter on the keyboard is associated with various root characters. For example, Q is associated with 金, 钅, 勹, and 儿 among others. Users can type several keystrokes in the proper order to build the desired character, jigsaw-puzzle style.
Although it may seem complex, many native Chinese speakers prefer using the Wubi method to type Chinese as it is far less time-consuming than pinyin.
Oftentimes, Wubi requires prior knowledge of Chinese characters and is more difficult to learn, which cancels out that time benefit for most elementary Chinese learners.
You can translate Chinese characters to pinyin by using online dictionaries like Google Translate or Purple Culture Chinese to pinyin converter.
If working in MS Word, you can simply select the Chinese characters with your mouse, then click on the phonetic guide icon in the Home tab, then hit the “ok” button.
A simpler alternative that can be used anywhere is to skip the diacritics and type out the pinyin with the tone numbers after each syllable of the Chinese characters instead.
For example: 北京 bei3jing1
If you want to write just the pinyin and tones without the corresponding Chinese characters, this is the easiest way to do it.
Looking to type in Chinese on your smartphone or computer, but have no clue how to do it?
Fortunately for you, the Chinese use the same QWERTY/AZERTY keyboard as the rest of the world. It's simply a matter of setting up your keyboard to type in Chinese, which we're going to show you step by step for each device!
In this guide you'll learn:
2 Easy methods of typing Chinese characters (Start here)
How can I type Chinese on iPhone
How can I type Chinese on Android
How can I type Chinese on Mac
How can I type Chinese on Windows
Now that you know you can use a normal keyboard, you might be wondering how can you write Chinese with it?
There are two main methods that you can use: pinyin and handwriting.
NOTE There are also few other ways to type, such as the five-stroke (wǔ bǐ) input method, but we won't cover those as they are a bit difficult and not much useful.
This is by far the easiest method to type in Chinese! All you have to know is the pinyin of each word and type them in English. You don't even need to care about the tones.
You can check every pinyin combination using this free pinyin chart.
Nowadays, every system is smart enough to automatically understand which character you are referring to. Once you start typing a pinyin, the keyboard on the screen displays an ordered list of characters to choose from like this:
To select the right character you can either:
TIP You can go faster by typing the word completely instead of one character at a time.
If the character you are looking for is not on the list, you can expand it for more choices. In most cases, it won't be needed.
Most platforms present the choices based on character frequency or by guessing based on the previous words you already typed.
Typing using pinyin is easy until you want to write the final ü. I struggled as well at first!
Let me save you some time: use the letter "v" instead.
The second method is with the handwriting keyboard. It's really useful as long as you know how to write in Chinese. If you want to learn how to write Chinese characters, make sure to check our app.
The handwriting system is great to use with a Chinese dictionary. When you don't know the pinyin of a character, switch to this keyboard and write the word with your finger or mouse.
The handwriting method has many advantages, use it for:
Now that you know the basics, let's set up step-by-step the simplified Chinese character input keyboard on your favorite device!
To set up the Chinese character keyboard on your iPhone device, follow these 6 steps:
Tap on "Keyboard"To set up the Chinese character keyboard on your Android device, follow these 9 steps:
NOTE You need to install Gboard to access the Chinese keyboard on Android
To set up the Chinese character keyboard on your Mac device, follow these 4 steps:
Click on "Keyboard"NOTE You need to have a trackpad to use the handwriting input method on Mac.
To set up the Chinese character keyboard on your Windows machine, follow these 4 steps:
You don't need a special keyboard to type in Chinese, you can set up your device to either use the pinyin or handwriting input method.
Most people believe typing in Chinese is hard, but it's easier than writing. your device is doing a fantastic job to filter only the relevant characters.
Now that your phone and computer are properly set up, you can start chatting and impress your Chinese friends and classmates!
Any questions? Let me know on Twitter.
Coder by day, Chinese learner by night 🌙 Heinrich studied at Tongji University where he decided to move from Canada to Shanghai to work on Hanpath. When you run into a bug on the app, he’s very sorry ehh!
Co-Founder @ Hanpath
Subscribe to get the latest updates.
Email AddressSkip to content
admin HSK, video blog, News, Basic Chinese Reply to comment
Whatsapp lessons are a great opportunity to learn Chinese when it's convenient.
All you need to learn Chinese is a cell phone, whatsapp and the internet.
You send me your email address (linked to youtube). After payment, you will receive a link to the video by e-mail. This video is available only to you! Your task:
You determine the schedule of classes yourself, the recommended number of classes is 2 times a week, but if you can take in more information, you will receive more lessons, the main thing is that the quality of knowledge does not suffer.
nine0003
Video lessons 1, 2, 3, 4 are in the public domain on my channel youtube.com/c/AlinaVaskova in playlist whatsapp . You can start learning Chinese with these lessons absolutely free of charge, and I will test your knowledge and homework before starting paid classes. Example:
This method was tested absolutely free for 4 lessons on a group of 80 people, and everyone who completed 100% of homework achieved excellent success, and even many of them continued to engage with me in whatsapp VIP chats individually. Due to the constant control of oral and written speech, you do not lose anything, but on the contrary, in comparison with classes via Skype, you save your time and money.
nine0003
If you have any questions - write
If you are wondering if it is possible to add a number of a person abroad to WhatsApp contacts, you will be interested to know how to do it correctly. Let's figure it out together. nine0003
For example, +802123456789. Checked! No viruses or other threats detected.
This resource is an unofficial WhatsApp fan club site. All text, graphics and video materials are taken from open sources and are for informational purposes only. In case of disputes, claims, violations of copyright or property rights, please contact the site administration.
nine0003
Here are the steps to buy a China virtual phone number:
In mainland China, mobile phone numbers consist of 11 digits in the format 1xx-xxxx-xxxx (excluding 140-144, which are 13-digit IoT numbers), in which the first three digits (13x to 19x) denote a mobile communication service. provider.
When calling to China from India, follow the above dialing format.
➊ Select a free phone number from the list below.
…
Receive SMS online China +86
In fact, CallHippo is one of the most efficient providers when it comes to international phone numbers and international calls. … With CallHippo, your company can choose a local or toll-free number from over 50 different countries and even call to over 197 Congo
WhatsApp is blocked in China, but here's how you can access it. All over the world, people use WhatsApp to send messages to their friends, family and groups. But not in China. You see, the Chinese government blocked WhatsApp back in 2017.
Mobile phone numbers are always 10 digits long (three digits for the carrier plus a seven digit number). nine0161 …
Telephone numbers in the Philippines.
| Location | |
|---|---|
| International call prefix | 00 |
| Trunk prefix | |
… Besides Skype and Facetime, there are other options like Zoom and Whatsapp (but you will need a VPN), WeChat (a Chinese app that works well in China), or a virtual phone number service. nine0003 
