Chinese Wordle: Play and Learn Chinese (chengyus)!

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve probably heard of Wordle, the word game taking the world by storm. Chinese learners, rejoice! We found a Chinese-language version of Wordle. So dear little dragons, read on to learn where to find Chinese Wordle and how to play it.

What’s Wordle?

First things first, maybe you’re not familiar with Wordle yet, and that’s 100% okay. If you are, keep scrolling, you’ll learn about Chinese Wordle faster that way.

Wordle is an English-language word game, where you need to guess a word.

Your clues: it’s a 5 letter word. You get 6 tries.

Each try, you’re shown:
GREEN: which letters are correct.
YELLOW: which letters are in the word, but not in the right spot.
GRAY: which of the letters you entered are NOT in the word you’re trying to find.

Then you get to try again.
If you run out of tries before having guessed the word, that’s it. You’re done.

And if you find the word before that, congrats!

Guessed the word, with one try to go! Woot

What makes Wordle fun and super popular is the fact you only get one word per day.
And everyone gets the same word to guess.
Ah, competition. The drive to do better than your counterparts. It never gets old.

Anyways! As a Chinese language learner, perhaps you too were wondering: how can I play Wordle but in Chinese? So, we went searching for a Chinese version of Wordle. And we found one here!

Why play Wordle in Chinese?

Why go looking for a Chinese Wordle? Well, why not?

First of all, It’s great language practice.
Trying to play a game in your target language, i.e. the langue you’re learning, is a wonderful idea. It makes you actually use the language you’re learning, which is an excellent way to strengthen your learning and maximize retention.

Second, it’s fun to try to guess things in Chinese. And to play in Chinese!

How do you play Wordle with Chinese Characters?

Before you start wondering how it would work with the thousands of Chinese characters out there, let’s set something straight. Pinyin is key here. Just like in English, pinyin offers a set number of letters, which makes the entire game, well, easily playable.

You’re not guessing Chinese Character Strokes. You play Chinese Wordle with pinyin. UPDATE: for a Chinese character based Wordle, scroll down.

How Wordle in Chinese works

Now that’s out of the way, how does Wordle in Chinese work?

Same basic principles:

One game per day
6 tries
GREEN for letters you get right (该字母在正确的位置)
ORANGE for almost right ((该字母不在正确的位置)
GREY for those that aren’t in what you’re trying to guess. (当前成语的拼音中没有该字母).
Everyone gets the same (UPDATE: or so we thought. In the Ninchanese Discord Server, we discovered you don’t always get the same. It changes per region, perhaps?)

The rules for Chinese Wordle are the same

Speaking of which, perhaps you’re wondering: What do you guess? Is it a word like in English Wordle? Nope!

Guess the 成语

In Chinese Worlde, you’re trying to guess … 成语 Chengyus!
That’s right, 4 character Chinese idioms and sayings.

In fact, Wordle in Chinese is called 拼音猜成语 – which literally means Pinyin Guess Chengyu. It’s made by Limboy. Thanks for making this fun puzzle game!

So, in 拼音猜成语 (aka Chinese Wordle), you have to guess the pinyin for 4 Chinese characters, which compose the chengyu. The number of letters for each Chinese character ranges from 2 to 5. It’s no easy feat, but that’s what makes it fun!

Knowing which letters aren’t in the chengyu and which you haven’t tried yet is very helpful

Gaaah, so close!

The goal of the puzzle game is to get it right before you run of tries! In both cases, whether you win or lose, you get to see the chengyu in Chinese characters at the end.

Success!

What else is cool about this game?

It’s good pinyin practice. You work on how familiar you are with Chinese sounds, think about syllables in Chinese, common word endings, and common words. This game makes you think about the words you know and recall pinyin sounds you’ve heard before. Excellent training.

Fun fact: if you try to enter a sound that doesn’t exist in Chinese, you get told: this sound doesn’t exist in Chinese.

In addition, all the instructions and comments you get are in Chinese, which immerses you nicely in the Mandarin language, without making it daunting. In context, you always know what they’re telling you.

Lastly, by playing this game, you’re guessing and discovering new 成语, chengyus. 成语 are an essential part of speaking Chinese.

The higher you get in your Chinese learning, the more you realize how important knowing Chengyus is. They are what allows you to show off your intelligence and education, and more importantly, you hear them a lot. In Chinese Dramas, in everyday conversations, in books… They’re also an integral part of the HSK 5 and above exams! So learn 成语!

Starting at the HSK 5 world on Ninchanese, you’ll be learning 成语 in context. You’ll also be learning stories about what 成语 mean and how they came to be. Sign up to start learning now!

Learn the Chengyus you discover for good

Once you’ve discovered a new Chengyu in the puzzle game, don’t just quit there!
You can…
Look it up on Ninchanese in the dictionary.

For instance, this is a chengyu discovered above:

Look up the chengyus in Ninchanese’s free dictionary!

Simplified Chinese: 方兴未艾 Traditional: 方興未艾
Pinyin: fāng xīng wèi ài

Then you can create a special deck of 成语s in the Nincha Decks

That way, you’re having fun and maximizing what you can learn from the game at the same time!

Happy Wordling and Chinese learning!

Come join the Discord and post your 拼音猜成语 results in the #游戏-games channel! You’ll find other motivated players there!

Looking for a non-pinyin-based Chinese Wordle? We got you. Here are some based on Bopofomo and on Chinese characters!

New find! Wordle with Chinese Characters and more

Looking for a Chinese character-based Chinese Wordle? The meowsome community on Discord got you and discovered this other Wordle-like game: 汉字Wordle

The basic principle is the same: guess the 成语. The Twist? Guess it using Chinese characters this time! Using an IME, each time you enter characters, you’re told whether:
– the Chinese character you entered is correct, and if it’s in the right place;
– there are correct letters in the pinyin of that Chinese character and if the’yre in the right spot;
– the tones are correct or not.

Needless to say, this is a more hardcore version of Chinese Wordle. It keeps you on your toes. It makes you think about the chengyus you know, the Chinese characters you’re familiar with, the tones… Give it a whirl, too!

Yeah, it’s not going too well…

This Chinese Wordle is available in both simplified and traditional Chinese.

Hints to make this Chinese wordle easier

The nice thing is they give hints!

Here are a few more Chinese Character-based Wordles to explore:

https://bryony.dev/chengyu/chengyu.html
https://allanchain.github.io/chinese-wordle/
https://cheeaun.github.io/chengyu-wordle/
http://samuello.io/jndle/

Chinese Wordle with Bopomofo

Bopomofo is used in Taiwan and is a lot more widespread there than pinyin. It comes therefore as no surprise that a Chinese Worlde using Bopofomo was invented!
Play it here: Bopofomo Chinese Wordle

Poems and Chinese Wordle?

That exists too: you can guess the poem line in Chinese with https://peotik.com.

Have fun exploring! In my case: I think I’ll stick with pinyin Chinese Wordle though!

And one more thing…

If you want to continue learning Chinese with authentic and entertaining content, then you’ll love Ninchanese.

With Ninchanese, you get a complete method to learn Chinese which has you speaking, reading, writing, and more in Chinese. What’s more, whether you’re a beginner or an advanced learner, there’s content your level on Ninchanese and plenty more!

Start using Ninchanese on the web, with your computer or tablet,

The Nincha Team

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