基本词 · Jīběncí
Jibenci
A little Chinese, every day. Free flashcards, built for a phone.
Your first 2,000
Jibenci (基本词, jī běn cí) means “basic words.” It is the Chinese companion to Kihongo. Flip a card, hear its Mandarin pronunciation, seal what you know, and group the rest into your own folders.
The deck uses simplified Chinese. It starts with 80 everyday phrases, then includes the source’s HSK 1–4 vocabulary and a selection of HSK 5 words ordered by frequency. The HSK collections use the legacy HSK 2.0 six-level lists, not the newer syllabus. A phrase can also appear in its HSK collection; it is still one card.
Characters, sounds, and tones
Pinyin sits below the characters. Tap Pinyin to hide it and practice reading. Search accepts Chinese, English, tone-marked pinyin, plain pinyin, and numbered pinyin such as ni3 hao3. You can type ü as v or u:.
Mandarin has four main tones and a neutral tone: mā, má, mǎ, mà, ma. Dictionary words keep their dictionary tones. In connected speech, tones can change: nǐ hǎo is usually spoken ní hǎo, and 一 and 不 change in particular contexts. Phrase readings show common changes for 一 and 不. Pronunciation notes explain selected cases.
Original examples include Chinese, pinyin, and an English translation on selected cards. Other cards show the word and its meanings; words with multiple readings also show alternatives.
Tap the speaker to hear Mandarin using your device’s built-in speech engine. The app does not download recordings or use a paid speech service.
Make it yours
- Rice Paper and Pixel themes, inherited from the Japanese app
- Learning, memorized, phrase, and HSK collections
- Shuffle, swipe navigation, and custom tag folders
- Seals, daily streaks, and session combos
- Progress export and import, with separate Chinese backups
Your progress
No account is needed. Progress stays in this browser and is separate from your Japanese progress. Use Export progress before changing devices or clearing browser data. This is a manual study deck, not a spaced-repetition scheduler.
The cards can be studied after the page loads. Reloading still requires the local server or website to be available.
Keyboard shortcuts
With the study page focused: Space or Enter flips the card, left/right arrows move through the deck, and M marks a card memorized. Escape closes a tag sheet or seal award. Buttons also work with normal keyboard focus.
Sources
Vocabulary is adapted from Complete HSK Vocabulary (MIT), whose dictionary content comes from CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0). Phrases and examples were written for this app. See full attribution and data licenses.
A note from Christian
I’m Christian, a software engineer and founder who loves building things that make everyday life a little easier. Kihongo and Jibenci started with a simple thought: I wanted tools like these to exist, so I made them and shared them.
If you like what I’ve built here, check out my main brainchild, Uni-ke. It’s where I’m putting that same energy on a much bigger scale.