TIMED PRACTICE · 简体中文
Mandarin Chinese typing speed test
Flow like a stream. Space commits a word, backspace fixes the last one. Tab or Esc restarts.
Testing your Mandarin Chinese typing speed
Mandarin Chinese is not typed one key per character: you compose the sound of a word using Pinyin IME and choose the written form you meant.
Pick a duration or a word count, turn punctuation and digits on if you want them, and type 43 common Mandarin Chinese words in whatever order the shuffle produces. Because the words come fresh each run there is nothing to learn by repetition — a second attempt measures you, not your memory. Afterwards: net WPM, accuracy, a consistency figure and the keys you missed most.
Nothing about your keyboard changes for Mandarin Chinese. Pinyin IME is software: you type a sound, it proposes the ways that sound can be written, and you pick. The 43 practice words here use 77 distinct characters, and you will reach every one of them without a single unfamiliar key.
The plateau people hit in Mandarin Chinese is usually not a typing plateau at all. When the hands are fast and the output is slow, the bottleneck is the candidate list — and the fix for that is more exposure to written Mandarin Chinese, not more drills.
A frequency count of the bank explains why early progress feels fast and later progress does not. The top ten characters cover about 20% of everything these Mandarin Chinese words contain; past that you are learning characters that turn up once in a paragraph, which takes as long to automate and pays back far less often.
- Writing system
- Han
- Keyboard layout
- Pinyin IME
- Direction
- left to right
- Practice words
- 43
- Distinct characters
- 77
- Average word
- 2 units
- Input method
- Candidate selection
Characters that come up most in these Mandarin Chinese words
- 天4
- 习2
- 字2
- 学2
- 间2
- 上1
- 下1
- 中1
- 今1
- 以1
- 们1
- 作1
Counted across the 43 practice words — the ones worth recognising first.
双手放在主键位上保持放松Pinyin is one of several ways in
There is no keyboard with a key per Chinese character, and there could not be — the question is which intermediate system you type instead. Several answers are in daily use and they are genuinely different skills.
Pinyin, which these lessons use, is phonetic: you type the romanised sound of a word and choose from the characters that share it. It is overwhelmingly dominant on the mainland, it requires no new keyboard, and its weakness is homophones — a common syllable can offer dozens of candidates, so speed depends on how well the software predicts you and how quickly you read a list.
Zhuyin, also called Bopomofo, is the standard in Taiwan. It is also phonetic but uses its own set of 37 symbols rather than Latin letters, arranged across the keyboard, so it needs a layout you do not already have.
Shape-based methods such as Wubi and Cangjie work differently again: you decompose a character into its strokes or components and type those. They are much harder to learn and have no homophone problem at all, which is why professional typists and transcriptionists still use them.
Questions about typing in Mandarin Chinese
Do I need a Mandarin Chinese keyboard?
No. There is no such thing as a Mandarin Chinese keyboard in the sense you mean — even in Mandarin Chinese-speaking countries, the hardware is a Latin keyboard and the writing happens in software. That is what an input method is.
Which Mandarin Chinese keyboard layout do these tests use?
Pinyin IME. The 43 practice words between them use 77 distinct characters. The keyboard guide below the typing area shows the keys you actually press, which for an input method are the Latin ones already printed on them.
Why is my Mandarin Chinese speed lower than my English speed?
Not because of the keys — those are the Latin ones you already use. The difference is the step after them: you type a sound, read what the input method offers, and commit the right one. That is reading rather than typing, and it improves with the language rather than with your hands.
Is the Mandarin Chinese typing test the same every time?
No. Words are drawn at random from the Mandarin Chinese bank on every run, so there is nothing to memorise and a second attempt is a fresh test rather than a rehearsal. You can fix the duration or the word count, turn punctuation and numbers on, or paste your own text.
What is the difference between raw and net WPM?
Raw counts everything you typed; net subtracts what you got wrong and left wrong. A large gap between the two is the most useful signal on the results screen — it means the speed is there and the accuracy is not, which is a different problem from simply being slow, and a faster one to fix.
What will I actually be typing in Mandarin Chinese?
43 of the most common words in Mandarin Chinese, drawn at random. They use 77 distinct characters between them and average 2 written units each, with the longest running to about 2. Short, frequent words are used on purpose: they are the ones your hands will meet most often outside a lesson, so the practice transfers.
Is Mandarin Chinese hard to type?
Not in the way you are probably expecting. The keystrokes are Latin and already familiar; what is hard is the selection step, and that is a reading skill rather than a typing one. Expect your Mandarin Chinese speed to be governed by how well you read Mandarin Chinese, with a wide character inventory — 77 distinct characters appear in the practice bank alone.
Do I need an account, and is it free?
No account, no payment, no trial. Progress is stored in this browser, which is enough until you want it on a second device or on a leaderboard — that is the only thing an account buys, and it is optional.
Also in Mandarin Chinese: lessons and typing games.
Other languages written in Han: Japanese.
More languages on Typelesson: Māori, Marathi, Mongolian, Nepali, Norwegian. Or browse all 86 by writing system.
Further reading
- Typing Chinese: Pinyin, Zhuyin and the shape-based methodsNo keyboard has a key per character, so the question is what you type instead. Four answers are in daily use, and they are genuinely different skills.
- Adding a keyboard layoutThe step before any of this works: turning on the layout in your operating system, switching to it, and what to do about the wrong letters on your keycaps.
- What touch typing isTouch typing means typing without looking, using all ten fingers from a fixed home position. What it is, why it works, and what it is not.