These are the vocab lists that words will be added from during practice. To select different lists, go to the vocabulary page.
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Welcome to the Skritter tutorial!
Choose your language:
Do you know how to write characters?
(If not, we'll give you a basic run-through first.)
All right, let's go! Trace the character 一 here.
Great! Normally the outline disappears while you draw to encourage memorization, but we're takin' it easy on you.
Click here to move on.
That was the character for "one", yī. Here's èr, "two"
Very good! Click the speaker to hear the pronunciation.
Nice. Now let's continue.
Skritter intelligently figures out what you need to review next based on your learning history! So the next thing to study is always your next biggest priority.
Now you're on your own. If you don't know sān, the character for "three", hold down the "Show" button to see it.
Skritter automatically keeps track of what you get right and wrong. To override Skritter, click the "Correct" button.
When you're ready, let's learn stroke order rules.
Stroke order is important in Chinese.
The first rule is "top to bottom, left to right".
Hold down the "Show" button for this example.
The second rule: "horizontal strokes first."
The third rule: "cutting strokes last."
The fourth rule: "diagonals right-to-left before diagonals left-to-right."
Getting the hang of it?
Fifth rule: "center verticals before outside wings."
Six through eight are rules about boxes. Sixth rule: "Outside before inside."
Seventh: "left vertical before enclosing."
Eight: "bottom enclosing line last."
And the last rule: "dots and minor strokes last." So the upper-right dot in this character comes last.
Phew! Stroke order takes practice, but when you write on Skritter, it sinks in naturally without getting in your face. Let's go on to tones!
This is a tone prompt. Draw or click the tone mark that matches 天. (Hint: it's first tone.)
First tone sounds high and flat, like the second syllable in "ta-daa!"
Second tone is a rising tone, sort of like asking, "what?"
Third tone starts low, dips, and then goes back up.
Think of saying "me?" like you can't believe someone's talking about you.
Here's the fourth tone, which starts high and falls low, like saying, "Hey!"
There's also a fifth, neutral tone, which doesn't have any tone at all.
Most words in Chinese are made up of two or more characters. Here's "telephone", which comes from the characters "electric" and "speech".
All right, let's go! Trace the character 你 here.
Great! Normally the outline disappears while you draw to encourage memorization, but we're takin' it easy on you.
Click here to continue.
Now write hǎo.
Very good! Click the speaker to hear the pronunciation.
Nice. Now let's continue.
Skritter intelligently figures out what you need to review next based on your learning history! So the next thing to study is always your next biggest priority.
Now you're on your own.
Don't know this character? Hold down the "Show" button to see it.
Skritter automatically keeps track of what you get right and wrong.
To override Skritter, click the "Correct" button.
Great. Now let's do a tone prompt.
This is a tone prompt. Draw or click the tone mark that matches 我.
Skritter gives you instant feedback as you write. Try writing these strokes in the wrong direction or out of order.
Skritter is flexible about different stroke order standards. How do you write the 方 component?
Tone prompts are scheduled independently from writing prompts, if you know one better than the other.
Skritter can be flexible about certain writing shortcuts. For example, you can do this character in two or three strokes.
Draw a circle for neutral tones.
If you're unsure of a stroke order, you can hold down the 'Show' button and it will animate the character for you.
Writing complex characters like this can take a while at first, but once you get used to writing in Skritter, this will only take a few seconds.
Skritter also teaches you the pronunciations and definitions of word. These behave just like flash cards. Try to say the answer before clicking to see if you got it right.
That's it for the tutorial. Skritter has many more features, like individualized learning stats, advanced spaced repetition algorithms, and access to hundreds of textbook and themed vocab lists.
Sign up and let Skritter optimize your character learning. The first two weeks are free!
Or you can keep going to try out a dozen more words!
At Oberlin, George's lǎoshī often call him a huàidàn (rotten egg) because he doesn't study enough.
The character for "man" is made up of a "field" radical (田) and a "power" radical (力). That's right, men: get to work!
Before Skritter, Nick could never remember this one. Good thing Skritter keeps reminding him.
The traditional form of this character, 廣, has 14 strokes! You can study simplified, traditional, or both on Skritter.
The traditional form of this character, 广, has just 3 strokes! You can study simplified, traditional, or both on Skritter.
The right radical, 门, is actually a phonetic component. It usually means "door" or "gate", but it exists here because it's pronounced mén. Most Chinese characters have a phonetic part like this.
Nick loves this character!
He also thinks this one looks great. But maybe he just likes eggs.
Best reason to learn Chinese? So you can move to China and eat these all the time.
And after you try these once, you'll want to be on the lookout when reading menus.
That's the demo. Sign up and let's get that Chinese into your brain!
All right, let's go! Trace the character 一 here.
Great! Normally the outline disappears while you draw to encourage memorization, but we're takin' it easy on you.
Click here to move on.
That was the character for "one", いち (ichi). Here's に (ni), "two"
Nice. Now let's continue.
Skritter intelligently figures out what you need to review next based on your learning history! So the next thing to study is always your next biggest priority.
Now you're on your own. If you don't know さん (san), the character for "three", hold down the "Show" button to see it.
Skritter automatically keeps track of what you get right and wrong. To override Skritter, click the "Correct" button.
When you're ready, let's learn stroke order rules.
Stroke order is important in Japanese.
First 2 rules: "top to bottom" and "left to right".
Hold down the "Show" button for this example.
Third stroke order rule: "horizontal strokes that cross vertical strokes usually go first"
The fourth stroke order rule: "center strokes are written first and then the left and right strokes if these strokes do not exceed two strokes each."
Getting the hang of it?
Fifth rule: "outside enclosures first, but bottom last."
Sixth rule: "vertical strokes drawn through the center are last."
Seventh: "right to left diagonal before left to right diagonal"
And the last stroke order rule: "strokes which cut through the middle of a kanji are written last."
Phew! Stroke order takes practice, but when you write on Skritter, it sinks in naturally without getting in your face. Let's continue with reading and definition practice!
All right, let's go! Trace the character 日 here.
Great! Normally the outline disappears while you draw to encourage memorization, but we're takin' it easy on you.
Click here to move on.
Now write the character for ほん!
Nice. Now let's continue.
Skritter intelligently figures out what you need to review next based on your learning history! So the next thing to study is always your next biggest priority.
Now you're on your own!
If you don't know this character, hold down the "Show" button to see it.
Skritter automatically keeps track of what you get right and wrong. To override Skritter, click the "Correct" button.
When you're ready, click here to see some more of Skritter's helpful features for writing practice.
Skritter gives you instant feedback as you write. Try writing these strokes in the wrong direction or out of order.
Skritter can be flexible about certain writing shortcuts. For example, you can do this character in two or three strokes.
If you're unsure of a stroke order, you can hold down the 'Show' button and it will animate the character for you, or if you just want to see the character you can click it.
Great! Let's move on to reading and definition practice.
This is a reading prompt. This works like a normal flashcard; try to say the word to yourself before clicking to see the answer.
Did you get it? Unlike with writings, Skritter can't tell on its own so you'll need to click the correct button if not.
And here's a definition prompt, which work just like reading prompts. Actively producing the answer before you see it is the key to learning well!
Writing, reading and definition prompts are all scheduled separately, so Skritter tests you on what you really need to work on.
That's it for the tutorial. Skritter has many more features, like individualized learning stats, advanced spaced repetition algorithms, and access to hundreds of textbook and themed vocab lists.
Sign up and let Skritter optimize your character learning. The first two weeks are free for you to check it out!
Or you can keep going to try out some more words.
Writing complex characters like this can take a while at first, but once you get used to writing in Skritter, this will only take a few seconds.
The character for "man" is made up of a "field" radical (田) and a "power" radical (力). That's right, men: get to work!
Scott keeps on forgetting which character means east and which one means west. Good thing Skritter keeps reminding him.
When Nick and George (the Chinese learners at Skritter) want to show off their Japanese knowledge, they usually say this, or 'すみません', because those are what they picked up from the anime they've watched.
Okay, time for a harder one!
That's the demo. Sign up and let's get that Japanese into your brain!
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In order to get started practicing with Skritter, please go to the Vocabulary Lists page to choose what you'd like to study.
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