Introduction to sounds

Sounds in HanziHero are items that correspond to a Pinyin initial, Pinyin final, or Pinyin tone.

Viewing sounds

The list of sounds in the application can be viewed at anytime by clicking on the Sounds link in the application navbar, or by directly navigating to the sounds page.

sounds page

Learned sounds

If you have already learned a sound in your lessons, it will show up as a dark cyan color, as pictured below.

learned sound

Unlearned sounds

However, if you have not yet covered a sound in your lessons, it will have an overlay graphic, as pictured below.

unlearned sound

Sound page

You can navigate to a sound by clicking on its cyan tile. Doing so will take you to the sound page, which covers all aspects of that sound.

sound page top

Pronunciation

The Pronunciation section of the sound page gives some cursory notes about how the sound is pronounced, usually giving an equivalent English sound when possible.

Association

The Association section of the sound page details the mnemonic association we have assigned that sound, along with some rationales as to why we choose that one in particular. The association will later be used in the mnemonics of characters that contain that sound.

Found in Hanzi

The Found in Hanzi section shows all of the Hanzi that include that sound. You can click on any of the tiles to navigate to the relevant character page.

Stats

Towards the bottom of the sound page is a section detailing the review stats for the sound.

sound page bottom

There you can see when you last reviewed the sound, along when your next review is scheduled.

Standard pinyin differences

The pinyin system we use to represent the various sound parts at HanziHero is slightly different than standard pinyin. We have made some modifications to how Pinyin initials and finals are divided up to better work with our mnemonic system.