Typing in Chinese
This section will focus on two ways to type in Chinese - both of which have their strengths depending on the situation and your preference. These are the pinyin and handwriting input methods, and with an understanding of both, you can be confident when typing in Chinese.
Pinyin Input Method
The Pinyin input method makes typing in Chinese quick and easy. By typing the pinyin for the words and phrases you want to write, you’ll be able to select the appropriate characters. It’s comfortably the fastest way to type in Chinese, and is the most commonly used method.
Whilst pinyin has been essential for making Chinese functional on digital devices, it’s not quite as fast as typing in English, as you still need to select the appropriate characters. Given that Chinese only has 409 different sounds (excluding their tones), you’ll often have to select a character from a lengthy list of homophones. Fortunately, the most relevant characters appear first, but sometimes you’ll have to scroll through a few rows if you’re after a less common character.
Setup
The following setup instructions are for iPhone and Mac, but the process is similar across most devices; select Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional), and then a Pinyin QWERTY keyboard.
Over months and years, software updates may cause some of the steps outlined below to involve slightly different names or buttons, but the general process should remain more or less the same.
Adding images to instructions doesn’t always convert neatly to ereaders, and videos are sometimes easier to follow. You can find accompanying video at the top of this article.
iPhone
Go to Settings, then General, then Keyboard, then Keyboards.
At the bottom of the Keyboards section is an option to Add New Keyboard.
Select either Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional) depending on your preference.
Once you select Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional), you’ll have the option of adding different types of Chinese keyboards. To add the pinyin keyboard, select Pinyin - QWERTY, and then press Done in the top right of the screen.
You can now use the Pinyin - QWERTY keyboard when typing on your phone. To switch from your current keyboard to Pinyin - QWERTY, hold down the globe icon in the bottom left of the keyboard. Whilst continuing to hold down on the screen, you can select the keyboard you want to use. The Pinyin - QWERTY keyboard for Chinese (Simplified) will be listed as 简体拼音 (jiǎntǐ pīnyīn). The Pinyin - QWERTY keyboard for Chinese (Traditional) will be listed as 繁體拼音 (fántǐ pīnyīn).
Mac
Go to System Preferences, then Keyboard.
Go to the Input Sources tab.
Click on the + icon. A list of different languages will appear.
Select either Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional) depending on your preference.
Once you select Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional), you’ll have the option of adding different types of Chinese keyboards. To add the pinyin keyboard, select Pinyin - Simplified, or if you selected Chinese (Traditional), Pinyin - Traditional.
Press the Add button.
You can now use the Pinyin keyboard when typing on your Mac. To switch from your current keyboard to Pinyin, click on the keyboard bar at the top of your screen (which will likely say some form of English or ABC - Extended). When you click here, a drop down list of all the keyboards you’ve added will appear. Select the Pinyin keyboard.
You can quickly toggle between your usual keyboard and the keyboard you’ve most recently selected by tapping the Caps Lock button.
Use
You don’t have to worry about tones. Simply type the pinyin of the words you’d like to use and the characters with matching pinyin will appear above.
For example, if you type ’ni’, then all the characters with that pinyin will appear along a bar above the keyboard. Simply select the character you were looking for.
The most relevant characters will appear first, making it quick and easy to use.
When you’re after a less common character, you can press the downward facing arrow on the right side of the bar that’s above the keyboard. This will open a drop down list of all the characters that match the pinyin you’ve typed.
When typing on a Mac, the bar with the characters will appear on screen, just below where you’re typing. On a phone you can just tap the relevant character on the bar, but on a Mac each character will be numbered. You just need to enter the number of the character you need.
A great feature of the pinyin keyboard is that you don’t have to input one character at a time. You can type the pinyin of entire phrases and select the relevant phrase from the character bar.
Instead of just writing ‘ni’, selecting 你, and then moving on to the next character, you could type out the whole phrase you want to use. If you wanted to ask ‘what is your name?’, you could type ‘nijiaoshenmemingzi’, and then select the relevant phrase from the character bar; 你叫什么名字 (nǐ jiào shénme míngzì).
Tips
If you’d like to speed up the process, you can just type the initial sounds of the most common words and phrases.
For example, if you typed ’nh’, then 你好 (nǐ hǎo) would automatically appear in the character bar. If you typed ‘xxn’, then 谢谢你 (xièxiè nǐ) - ‘thank you’ - would appear in the character bar.
It even works for longer common phrases. If you wanted to say ‘nice to meet you’, you could type the pinyin initials ‘hgxrsn’, and then select 很高兴认识你 (hěn gāoxìng rènshí nǐ).
How to type ‘ü’
The pinyin for characters like ‘woman’ (女 nǚ), ‘green’ (绿 lǜ), and 'travel' (旅 lǚ) contains ‘ü’. To type this pinyin, you have to use ‘v’, as the ‘u’ key is already taken. So for the above three characters, you would type ‘nv’, ‘lv’, and ‘lv’.
Sometimes you may want to type out pinyin for its own sake - such as when making notes. To include the relevant tones, simply hold down on the relevant vowel key - such as a - and you’ll see a bar appear giving you options for which accent or marking to add to the vowel. On a phone you can just tap the relevant marking for the tone you’re after, whilst on Mac you’ll need to press the number that’s been assigned to that marking.
When using the pinyin keyboard, all the tones will be available to select from the bar that appears when you hold down on the vowel. To keep the pinyin and its tone as the typed output, press the space bar. This will make the keyboard move on from suggesting relevant characters for the pinyin you’ve just typed.
When typing with an English keyboard, the only tone that won’t appear in the bar is the third tone - such as ǎ. To type this tone, switch your keyboard to ABC - Extended :
Hold down the Alt key and then press the ‘v’ key.
The third tone will then appear.
Select the vowel you want the third tone to appear above.
Handwriting Input Method
The handwriting input method involves drawing the characters on your smartphone with your finger. It’s a lot slower than typing with pinyin, but can be helpful if you don’t know the pinyin for a character. It’s also a useful way to get extra practice writing Chinese characters - even if it’s difficult to write clearly with your finger on a smartphone.
Setup
The following setup instructions are for iPhone and Mac, but the process is similar across most devices; select Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional), and then Handwriting.
Over months and years, software updates may cause some of the steps outlined below to involve slightly different names or buttons, but the general process should remain more or less the same.
Adding images to instructions doesn’t always convert neatly to ereaders, and videos are sometimes easier to follow. You can find accompanying video at the top of this article.
iPhone
Go to Settings, then General, then Keyboard, then Keyboards.
At the bottom of the Keyboards section is an option to Add New Keyboard.
Select either Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional) depending on your preference.
Once you select Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional), you’ll have the option of adding different types of Chinese keyboards. To add handwriting, select Handwriting, and then press Done in the top right of the screen.
You can now use the Handwriting function when typing on your phone. To switch from your current keyboard to Handwriting, hold down the globe icon in the bottom left of the keyboard. Whilst continuing to hold down on the screen, you can select the keyboard you want to use. The Handwriting option for Chinese (Simplified) will be listed as 简体手写 (jiǎntǐ shǒuxiě). The Handwriting option for Chinese (Traditional) will be listed as 繁體手寫 (fántǐ shǒuxiě).
Mac
Go to System Preferences, then Keyboard.
Go to the Input Sources tab.
Click on the + icon. A list of different languages will appear.
Select either Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional) depending on your preference.
Once you select Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional), you’ll have the option of adding different types of Chinese keyboards. To add the Handwriting function, select Handwriting - Simplified, or if you selected Chinese (Traditional), Handwriting - Traditional.
Press the Add button.
You can now use the Handwriting function when typing on your Mac. To switch from your current keyboard to Handwriting, click on the keyboard bar at the top of your screen (which will likely say some form of English or ABC - Extended). When you click here, a drop down list of all the keyboards you’ve added will appear. Select the Handwriting option.
Use
Once you’ve selected the Handwriting function, a blank space will appear where there’d normally be a keyboard. You can use this space to draw the character you’re after, and your device will then suggest the most relevant characters based on what it thinks you’ve drawn.
Although it’s hard to write clearly with your finger on a small area of a smartphone, the Handwriting function is usually very good at figuring out which character you’ve drawn. Once you’ve drawn the character, simply select the right one from the character bar above the drawing area.
If you're interested in learning Chinese, there's a How to Learn Languages guide :