Composition first
Learn the radicals and components once, then watch thousands of characters fall into place. They snap together like Lego blocks.
A better way to
learn Hanzi
Hanly teaches Chinese characters by their composition and origin, so each one finally makes sense instead of being one more shape to memorize. And it’s genuinely fun.
Getting the characters to live in your head rent-free.
- 0+
- characters, decoded by structure
- Months
- to get there, not years
- 0.0★
- on the App Store
See it in action
Every character is a
little story.
Tap a character to pull it apart. Hanly shows you the pieces it’s built from and the idea that ties them together: the hook that makes it stick.
女nǚ
woman子zǐ
childbecomes
好
hǎo
good
A woman beside her child: the picture of harmony. Put them together and you get the everyday word for “good.”
How it works
From baffling to obvious in three steps.
01
See the pieces
Every character is broken into its building blocks: radicals and components you'll meet again and again.
02
Understand the why
A short origin story connects the pieces to the meaning, so the character becomes logic instead of a random shape.
03
Play it in
Quick, game-like reviews bring it back at the right moment, until it lives in your head rent-free.
What’s inside
Designed around how characters actually work.
Questions, answered.
No. Hanly starts from the smallest building blocks and works up, so complete beginners and returning learners both have a place to start.
The composition-and-origin approach works for both. Check the app listing for the latest on supported character sets.
Sessions are short by design: a few minutes is enough to learn a new character and review the ones due. Consistency beats marathon study.
Hanly is free. All the learning (composition, origins, stroke order, and review) is included at no cost. The only paid feature is the interactive Reader, for reading real Chinese with tap-to-look-up support.
Start reading the
logic behind the strokes.
Hanly is free on iOS and Android. Pick your store and learn your first character in the next few minutes.