Read an English clue
The bold text is the English meaning. Smaller text adds a short explanation or usage note (sometimes called a gloss), when available.
Pinyin Puzzle · proper crossword prototype
Read the clue.
Build the Pinyin.
Cross every answer.
Each square holds one Pinyin initial or final. Finals carry the tone. English meanings guide you; shared tiles make every answer help solve another.
11 × 11 blocked grid
Connected Across + Down entries
HSK 1–3 vocabulary
Local save
DAILY PUZZLE11 × 11
Across + DownInitials · finals · tones
Choose your challenge
Prototype setup
Playable local prototype
Novice Pinyin crossword
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Today’s puzzles
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Your score
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0 of 0 tiles placed
Initial tile
Final + tone tile
Blocked square
+Crossing helps two answers
Tile numbers and checks
Top-left: clue number. Top-right: tile points, including the tone on a gold tile. + means a crossing shared by two answers.
✓ Green: checked and correct. × Red: checked and incorrect. No mark: not checked yet—not necessarily wrong. Changing a tile clears its previous check.
Place tiles, then check an entry or the whole puzzle.
TILE TRAY
Tap a clue to jump straight to its first empty square.
Select a square to see its tiles
Eight tiles are offered for this square. One is right. A final with no tone mark is the neutral tone.
Starts a syllable? Drop the y/w: wèi → uì, yù → ǜ.
Choose any white square to begin.
The board could not be loaded.
Run the page through the local preview server so the governed JSON fixture is available.
Word mastery
Remember words beyond this board
Words begin at New and strengthen through unassisted recall on different puzzles and days.
0%0 mastered
70% · preview next level80% · graduation ready
- New
- 0
- Learning
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- Familiar
- 0
- Mastered
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- Review due
- 0
Session learning
Curated this Class
Correctly completed words will appear here automatically.
- No words curated yet.
Add to SetList
SetLists stay on this device until you sign in.
Create or choose a named SetList. Sign in above to save it to AlongSide.
- No named SetLists saved on this device.
How these lists work: Class Curation is the temporary list of words you complete during this session. A SetList is a named collection of words you curate for later study. From any number of entertainment sources, select the words you want to practise; they will return to you at helpful intervals for Word Mastery spaced review.
Puzzle results
Results → Relevant questions → Thank-you gift
Your puzzle is complete. Next, tell us about what you experienced.
Questions for your puzzle
We ask only the questions that apply to this puzzle—not necessarily all five. Questions about phases you did not encounter are omitted, not counted as failures. Answer from memory, then send your response to continue to your thank-you gift. No name, email or entered tiles are sent.
Optional solo-play media
Play alongside YouTube
YouTube is the only prioritised media option, creating a bridge to Dual Subs and LyricSync. Music is off by default and never interrupts the crossword.
Paste a public YouTube link. Playback uses YouTube’s official privacy-enhanced embed.
Dual Subs
Multiple subtitled languages at once, on YouTube.
Our goal: you learn a language from the entertainment you already love. Dual Subs does much more than display several closed-captioned languages at the same time—on any YouTube video that carries both caption tracks, you’ll create SetLists, build Word Mastery, start a Streak of reviewed learning and celebrate Milestones.
Open Dual Subs
LyricSync
Turn any song into a multilingual master.
Our goal: author a song once, use it everywhere. LyricSync gathers every candidate version of each lyric line—from your Saved Words, lyric files, even OCR of words shown on screen—ranks them and pre-selects the most likely-correct one. You confirm or correct, line by line, into one synchronised master: Hanzi, tone-marked Pinyin, word-by-word glosses, translation and timing. Never a silent auto-merge.
Open LyricSync
How to play
A crossword made from Pinyin pieces
Unlike the first tone-only experiment, this is a connected blocked crossword. Answers run Across and Down, and every answer shares at least one square.
Place a Pinyin tile
Coral squares take initials. Gold squares take finals with the correct tone.
Spell it the tile way
y and w are not tiles — they are how Pinyin writes a final that starts a syllable. So yī → ī, wèi → uì, yù → ǜ, wán → uán. After j, q, x the ü keeps its two dots on the tile (jù → j + ǜ).
Use the crossings
A shared tile belongs to an Across and a Down answer, so solving one helps the other.
Score with Pinyin Tiles values
Correct unhinted tiles earn the same face and tone points as Pinyin Tiles.
Unified vocabulary
78,823 governed Pinyin readings
The shared Pinyin Tiles corpus combines the complete HSK 1–9 band with a safe extended vocabulary derived from CC-CEDICT. Every reading has a licensed English translation and fuller gloss. This playtest’s boards are selected from that governed corpus to suit the chosen difficulty and the crossword’s 3–8-cell entry rule.
- Vocabulary source
- HSK 1–9 and CC-CEDICT
- Board rule
- At least 45% of open squares are crossings
- Identity rule
- Duplicate board-and-answer combinations are rejected
Shared scoring foundation
Pinyin Tiles values, crossword play
Every correct initial earns its governed face value; every correct final earns its face value plus its tone value. Wrong tiles score zero until corrected, hints score zero, and a shared crossing counts only once in the board total. There is no speed bonus, so accuracy—not rushing—drives the score.
Learning with LiANN
From language games to musical and human learning
Explore Mandarin through games, music, teachers and the classroom. Available products are linked; destinations that have not launched remain clearly marked.