Table of contents


What is an Anki deck and why should I use it?

An Anki vocabulary deck is a collection of flashcards designed for learning and memorizing vocabulary words. It uses spaced repetition to optimize retention. Anki decks offer personalized learning, active engagement, and convenient accessibility, making vocabulary acquisition more efficient.

Download Anki

Note: For mobile devices, the iOS Anki app is paid. It is well worth the cost, since you will use it daily. If you don’t want to buy it, using Anki via your web browser is a free alternative. The other “Anki” apps on the Apple App Store are not official apps and should be avoided. The Android Anki app is free and is not made by the desktop or iOS Anki devs, but has an official affiliation with Anki.

<aside> ⚠️ WARNING: Anki is a great tool, but it's not enough to truly acquire words on its own. You need to see them used in context (immersion) over and over. If you do not immerse, you will likely have a lot of trouble doing your Anki reviews. More info in this video. You can find content to immerse in, starting as soon as day one, on this page:

Beginner Immersion Content

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1K Deck

If you know less than 1,000 words, this deck is probably for you! Our community 1k Anki deck teaches you the first one thousand words from the HSK test which will prepare you well for consuming any learner content based on the HSK tests. Many of these words are also among the most frequent words in the language so it will serve you well even if you prefer to consume media content made for natives from day one.

Be sure to read the rest of this guide before you start using the deck!

Note: Choose only 1 deck based on your preference (Simplified with Pinyin, Traditional with Pinyin, or Traditional with Zhuyin)

Download link

Alternate download link

<aside> ⚠️ WARNING: Anki is a great tool, but it's not enough to truly acquire words on its own. You need to see them used in context (immersion) over and over. If you do not immerse, you will likely have a lot of trouble doing your Anki reviews. More info in this video. You can find content to immerse in, starting as soon as day one, on this page:

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