Free Resource

Chinese Writing Practice

Free Chinese writing practice for HSK 1–6: learn each character’s stroke order on a 米字格 (mǐzìgé) grid, trace it, then review it with spaced repetition and printable practice sheets.

★★★★★ 5.0 rating Built by a native speaker 10+ years teaching
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Built for serious learners

Why stroke order comes first

Writing strokes in the standard order makes handwriting faster, more accurate and easier to read, and it helps you remember characters. This Chinese writing practice tool is built around it in three ways.

For a sheet built around your own characters, use the Chinese character worksheet generator: type or paste any characters and print them with stroke order and 田字格 (tiánzìgé) grids.

bǐ · brush

Real stroke-order coaching

Every character animates in the correct order. Trace it under guidance; quiz yourself with no hints when you’re ready. Build muscle memory the right way.

xí · to practise

Spaced repetition built in

Characters you struggle with come back sooner; characters you nail go longer between reviews. Powered by an SM-2 inspired scheduler.

yìn · to print

Printable practice sheets

Download an A4 sheet for any character: its stroke order step by step, then 米字格 (mǐzìgé) cells where a red guide fades out.

The tool

Start your Chinese writing practice: free, no sign-up

WillyChina · Writing Practice
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Workflow

Chinese writing practice in 4 steps

1

Pick a character

Browse HSK 1–6 or radicals. Search by hanzi, pinyin, or English meaning.

2

Watch the strokes

See the correct stroke order animated. Replay or slow it down to ½×.

3

Trace, then quiz

Trace with hints, then quiz yourself with no outline. Your mistakes feed the review queue.

4

Review daily

Come back tomorrow — your queue surfaces what you’re forgetting. Build streaks.

A page of the 214 Radicals Workbook: stroke-order diagrams and 田字格 (tiánzìgé) tracing rows for five 2-stroke radicalsCover of The 214 Radicals Workbook from WillyChina, with 部首 (bùshǒu), radicals

Practice on paper

The 214 Radicals Complete Pack

The trainer above is free and teaches one character at a time. The pack teaches the parts every character is built from: all 214 radicals, each shown inside real characters, with stroke-order diagrams and 田字格 (tiánzìgé) tracing.

  • 69page workbook
  • 830audio files
  • 3Anki decks
See what’s inside

US$21 · one payment · instant download · yours to keep

Stroke order basics

Seven stroke order rules for Chinese writing practice

Most characters follow a few general rules, so learn them early in your Chinese writing practice. Every example below is drawn from the same stroke data the trainer uses: earlier strokes in black, the new stroke in red.

  1. 1

    Top to bottom, left to right

    三 (sān), three: each stroke runs left to right, starting with the top one.

    Chinese writing practice: stroke order of 三 (sān), three, written top to bottom
  2. 2

    Horizontal before vertical

    十 (shí), ten: the horizontal stroke comes first, then the vertical that crosses it.

    Chinese writing practice: stroke order of 十 (shí), ten, horizontal before vertical
  3. 3

    Left-falling before right-falling

    人 (rén), person: the stroke falling to the left comes before the one falling right.

    Chinese writing practice: stroke order of 人 (rén), person, left-falling stroke first
  4. 4

    Centre before the sides

    小 (xiǎo), small: the middle hook comes first, then the left and right dots.

    Chinese writing practice: stroke order of 小 (xiǎo), small, centre before the sides
  5. 5

    Frame, inside, then close

    国 (guó), country: the frame goes first, then the inside, and the bottom stroke closes it.

    Chinese writing practice: stroke order of 国 (guó), country, frame first and the bottom closed last
  6. 6

    Dots last

    玉 (yù), jade: the small dot inside the character is the very last stroke.

    Chinese writing practice: stroke order of 玉 (yù), jade, with the dot written last
  7. 7

    Bottom enclosures last

    这 (zhè), this: the 辶 (chuò) part that wraps underneath is written last.

    Chinese writing practice: stroke order of 这 (zhè), this, with the bottom enclosure written last

These are guidelines with exceptions, summarised from Stroke order on Wikipedia. The official standards of mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan agree on most characters but differ on some. The trainer shows each character’s order from Make Me a Hanzi.

Grids and review

Practice grids and daily review

Chinese writing practice grids: 永 (yǒng) on a 米字格 (mǐzìgé) grid and on a 田字格 (tiánzìgé) grid

The 米字格 (mǐzìgé) and 田字格 (tiánzìgé)

Chinese writing practice paper divides each square with guide lines, so you can see where every stroke belongs. The 田字格 (tiánzìgé) splits the square into four, like the character 田 (tián), field. The 米字格 (mǐzìgé) adds two diagonals, so its lines form the shape of 米 (mǐ), rice, and give you a guide for slanting strokes. The trainer and its practice sheets use the 米字格 (mǐzìgé).

Why a little review every day works

Spaced repetition shows new and difficult items more often and easier ones less often, a method well suited to learning the vocabulary of a new language. The trainer’s review queue works this way, so a few minutes of Chinese writing practice each day keeps the characters you have learned from slipping away.

Want a teacher who can actually correct your strokes?

The tool gives you the reps. A 30-minute intro call with a real teacher tells you what those reps are missing — pronunciation, tone, the parts a screen can’t catch.

Book a free 30-minute intro call
Questions

FAQs

Yes — the writing trainer is permanently free with no sign-up. Your progress, streak, and review queue save locally in your browser so they survive across visits on the same device.
Yes — the tool is built for mouse, finger and stylus input. On a phone you trace directly with your finger; on a tablet with an Apple Pencil or stylus the experience is excellent. Desktop browsers work the same.
HSK 1 through HSK 6 (over 2,600 unique characters across all six levels; see the HSK 6 vocabulary list for the words they come from), plus 30 common radicals. HSK 3 to 6 are lazy-loaded the first time you tap their tab, so the initial page load stays fast.
Every character you watch is enrolled into a review queue. After tracing or quizzing, you grade yourself: Again (within 10 minutes), Hard (1 day), Good (3 days), or Easy (7+ days). The scheduler is SM-2 inspired — the same family of algorithms behind tools like Anki. Cards you struggle with come back sooner, cards you nail go longer between reviews.
Yes — tap the share icon on any character and choose Download practice sheet. You’ll get an A4 PDF with the character’s stroke order, step by step, and a grid of 米字格 (mǐzìgé) tracing cells whose first row fades the guide character out. Perfect for printing and practising offline.
Not yet. Progress saves locally in your browser, so it persists between visits on the same device. If you want sync across devices, drop us a note via the contact form — we’re tracking interest.
More free resources

Explore the full library

FoundationsComplete Pinyin ChartInteractive pinyin reference with native audio for every initial & final combination.Open chartReferenceMandarin Tones CheatsheetOne-page reference of the four tones plus the neutral tone, with audio examples for every pairing.Hear the tonesBuilding blocksChinese Radicals ChartAll 214 radicals — the building blocks every character is built from. Essential pairing for writing practice.Open the chartBrushChinese Calligraphy StudioWrite the same characters with an ink brush: trace a red model, then sign your piece with a seal.Open the studio

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Practise this with a native speaker

The trainer gets your hand moving. Practising with a teacher who corrects your characters and your tones is what makes them stick. Tell us where you’re up to and we’ll suggest a starting point.

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