Mandarin 中文
Everyday Mandarin, in characters and sound
Momo teaches 227 everyday Mandarin words and phrases on picture cards. Each card shows the Chinese characters, a pinyin hint (without tone marks) and the word in your own language, and every word has its own pre-made audio clip spoken by a clear AI voice. There are three age modes, for ages 2 to 5, 6 to 12, and 13 and up, all in a modern web browser on phone, tablet or computer.
Hear it
A few of the 227 words
Straight from the app: the word, its pronunciation hint, and the clip Momo plays. The voices are natural AI voices.
What is inside
15 topic decks, the same in every language
227 everyday words and phrases, each with a picture, a pronunciation hint and its own audio clip.
- Hello & Phrases (18)
- My Family (13)
- Animals (22)
- Food & Drink (21)
- Colors (12)
- Shapes (10)
- Numbers (20)
- My Body (15)
- Feelings (12)
- Nature & Weather (16)
- My Things (19)
- Travel Phrases (16) · not in Little Explorer
- School (12)
- Clothes (12)
- Transport (10)
What you learn
What you learn in Mandarin
Every Mandarin deck is complete, with no missing words or hints. Alongside the word cards there is a word a day, the travel phrases, short games and speaking practice.
A word a day
Today's word gives you one word a day, the same one for every learner, in all three age modes. Tap it to hear the Mandarin, then the word in your own language.
16 travel phrases
Phrases for shopping, restaurants, hotels, getting around and asking for help, such as "How much is this?", "The bill, please" and "I'm lost". Each card shows the phrase written in Chinese, so you can also show the screen if you are not understood.
Short games
Find it!, How many? and I spy in every age mode, plus Memory match in Big Kid and Teens and Grown-ups, which pairs each picture with its Mandarin word in characters and pinyin. Collect stars and up to 40 stickers, and keep a daily streak.
Say it like Momo
In every age mode, from the home screen or the Say it button on any deck: hear the Mandarin word, hold to record yourself, then play your take back, or turn it into a chipmunk, a slow giant, a robot or a kitty. Little Explorer gets bigger record and play buttons for small hands. Nothing scores or grades your speaking, and your recordings never leave your device.
Mandarin in Momo
What is special about Mandarin in Momo
What a Mandarin card shows and what you hear in the games.
- Chinese characters on every card. The word is written in characters, the pinyin hint sits on the line below, and your own language is under that.
- Pinyin without tone marks. The hints are plain pinyin, such as "mao" for cat, so no card shows tone marks.
- Numbers 1 to 20 in characters. Number cards show the digit with the Eastern Arabic numeral too (for example 3 and ٣), and the Mandarin word in characters, such as 三 (san).
- Uncles and aunties on both sides. Mandarin has different words for an uncle or auntie on your mother's side and on your father's side, and the My Family deck has a card for each. With English as your helper, two cards say "Uncle" and two say "Auntie", so the Mandarin word is what tells them apart.
- Prompts and cheers in Mandarin. In Find it! and I spy you hear what to find in Mandarin, and the cheers you hear in the games are in Mandarin too. For picture words, Big Kid and Teens and Grown-ups also show a short English line asking where the item is, even when your helper language is not English.
The voice
One clear AI voice for Mandarin
Every Mandarin word and phrase has its own pre-made audio clip, spoken by a clear AI (neural) voice set for Mandarin as used in mainland China (zh-CN). It is a natural-sounding computer voice, not a recording of a person.
- No mix of speakers or accents. Every Mandarin word, prompt and cheer uses this same voice, so expect the people you meet to sound more varied than the app.
- Your helper word comes next. With English as your helper, a second AI voice says the English word after the Mandarin one.
- Same speed in every mode. The clips do not slow down for younger children, so tap a card to hear it again as often as you like.
- Your device's voice, now and then. The greeting when you pick Mandarin, and any clip that fails to play, use the voice built into your phone, tablet or computer, so they can sound different. If it has no Chinese voice, it reads the pinyin aloud instead.
Who it suits
Who Mandarin in Momo suits
Children from 2 to 12
Little Explorer (2 to 5) uses bigger pictures and buttons, with 2 choices in Find it! and How many? counting up to 5. Game prompts are spoken only, but the characters and pinyin still show on the cards. Say it like Momo is there too, with bigger record and play buttons. Big Kid (6 to 12) adds the Travel deck, Memory match and a progress page.
Heritage families
For children who hear Mandarin from parents or grandparents and want to see the characters for everyday words, from family members to food. You can switch age mode any time, so a child and a grown-up can take turns on one device. On an ordinary account there are no separate learner profiles: everyone on that device shares one set of stars and progress, and it stays on that device. A family account (set up by us; you cannot choose one at sign-up yet) gives each of up to 5 people their own stars and progress on each device.
Travellers
Learn the travel phrases before you go, then use Save offline to download the Mandarin audio (under 10 MB with English as your helper). The app keeps working offline for up to 7 days after it last checks in, so connect at least once a week while you travel.
Teens and adults starting out
Teens and Grown-ups mode (13 and up) has all 15 decks, the travel phrases among them, the four games (Find it!, Memory match, How many? and I spy) and speaking practice. It is a gentle first look at characters and everyday words, not a full course.
What Momo does not do in Mandarin
Momo teaches words and short phrases. It is not a grammar or conversation course, it does not drill tones, and it does not check or score your pronunciation. There is no translator yet; a translate tool is coming soon.
Mandarin questions
Does Momo show the tones?
No. The pinyin hints have no tone marks, so "ni hao!" appears in plain letters, and Momo does not teach or drill tones. To hear how a word is said, play its clip.
Is it Mandarin or Cantonese, and which accent?
Mandarin only. The clips use one AI voice set for Mandarin as used in mainland China (zh-CN), and there is no choice of regional voice. Cantonese is not one of the 11 languages in Momo.
Does Momo teach you to write Chinese characters?
No. You see characters on every card and in Memory match, but there is no writing, tracing or stroke practice for Mandarin. Trace it is for Arabic letters only.
We speak Chinese at home. Can Chinese be the "I speak" language?
Yes, when you learn one of the other languages. 中文 is one of the 12 "I speak" helper languages, so a family member who reads Chinese can learn French, Spanish or another Momo language with the Chinese word on every card. It cannot be the helper while you learn Mandarin itself: the app switches to English, or you can pick another helper such as Français or Español. English is a helper only, not a language you can learn on the word cards.
More to explore
All 11 languages
What every language shares and what is special about each.
Learn moreTravel phrases
The 16 phrases, grouped by situation.
Learn moreGames
Find it!, Memory match, How many? and I spy, and which age modes get each.
Learn moreSpeaking practice
Record yourself and play it back, with no scoring of your speech.
Learn more
Start learning Mandarin
Create an account for a 90-day free trial, with no card needed. Pick an age mode, choose Mandarin and your "I speak" language, and open your first deck.