Scribba
Every word in a Mandarin class comes in three pieces: the character, its sound in pinyin with a tone, and its meaning. Knowing two out of three isn't enough. You can recognize 书 and know it means "book" and still lose the point on a listening quiz if you think it's shǔ instead of shū. Good Chinese notes keep all three pieces together, every time.
This guide covers tones, characters, vocabulary and flashcards, and it's honest about what Scribba can and can't do with Chinese.
Make tones visible
Tones carry meaning. Mā, má, mǎ and mà are four different syllables. English speakers tend to remember the letters and drop the tone, so your notes should make the tone hard to ignore.
- Write tone marks every time, even in quick class notes. If you skip them while writing, you'll skip them while learning.
- Color-code by tone. Pick a color for each of the four tones and one for the neutral tone, and write the pinyin in that color. Keep the same colors all year. Some students color the character too, so the tone sticks to the shape.
- Note tone changes. Some tones change in speech. Two third tones in a row become a second tone followed by a third, so nǐ hǎo is said ní hǎo. Bù becomes bú before a fourth tone, and yī changes depending on what follows it. Write the dictionary tone, then mark the spoken change above it with a small arrow.
- Practice tone pairs, not just single syllables. Words are mostly two syllables, and the pairs are what you'll hear in real speech.
Practice characters in a four-part square
Chinese students learn to write in a square divided into four parts by a cross through the middle. The cross shows you where the center of the character is, and how much room each part should take.
For each new character:
- Find the radical. Most characters have a component that hints at meaning, like 氵 (water), 口 (mouth), 木 (tree) or 亻 (person). Write it in a different color the first time.
- Write it once slowly with stroke numbers, copying the order from your textbook.
- Fill a row of squares with copies, saying the pinyin and tone out loud.
- Write it from memory the next day, before you learn new ones.
The general stroke order rules, like top before bottom, left before right, and horizontal before vertical when they cross, let you write unfamiliar characters correctly before you look them up. Know whether your course uses simplified or traditional characters, and stay consistent.
Tip: when a new character shares a radical with ones you know, write them together. Grouping by radical turns a pile of shapes into families.
Write vocabulary with measure words
Chinese nouns take a measure word between a number and the noun: 一本书 (a book), 一张纸 (a sheet of paper), 一个人 (a person). Many students learn the noun and then have to guess the measure word on the test. Write them together from the start.
For each vocabulary entry, keep: character, pinyin with tone, meaning, measure word for nouns, and one short example sentence. Put the character and pinyin in one column and everything else in the next, so you can cover one side and quiz yourself.
Listen, repeat and slow it down
Tones are much harder to hear in fast speech than in slow drills. If your professor allows recording, it gives you something to practice listening with. Ask first; rules vary by school and professor.
In Scribba, tap the mic and take notes as usual. Every stroke you write is linked to that moment in the recording. Later, tap a word you wrote to hear your professor say it. Slow down the playback to hear each tone, skip back 15 seconds to hear a phrase again, and repeat it out loud right after, matching the tones. That's shadowing, and it works well for tones. See how to record a lecture on iPad.
Setting up Chinese notes in Scribba
Paper for characters. Scribba's Graph (mm) paper is a millimeter grid with bolder lines every 5 mm and every centimeter, so each centimeter square has a bolder cross through it, close to the four-part practice square. Zoom in to write as big as you need; the paper stays sharp at any zoom. Grid paper works too if you prefer plain squares.
Tone colors. Keep your tone colors as favorites on the pen. Scribba keeps three saved colors per tool and 3 to 6 favorite colors, so the four tones and the neutral tone can be one tap away.
Pens. The fineliner and pencil are good for clean practice. For strokes that taper like a brush, use the brush or fountain pen and turn up pressure sensitivity in pen settings (double-tap the pen tool); the fineliner always writes an even line.
Quiz with study tape. Drag study tape over the pinyin column of a vocabulary page and say each word, with its tone, from the character. Then move the tape to the character column. More in study tape on iPad.
Typed flashcards with a Chinese keyboard
Be clear about one limit: Scribba's handwriting recognition doesn't read Chinese characters. It's built for the Latin alphabet. So a handwritten Vocabulary page won't turn into flashcards automatically, and search won't find characters you wrote. Your characters stay on the page as ink.
Instead, type your decks. Add a Chinese keyboard on your iPad in Settings › General › Keyboard › Keyboards › Add New Keyboard, and choose the simplified or traditional version your course uses. With the Pinyin layout, you type the pinyin and pick the character. Then in Scribba, create a new deck, tap Add Card, and type a Front and Back. If typing tone marks is awkward, tone numbers, like shu1, are a widely used alternative.
Make cards in both directions:
- Recognition: front 书, back shū, book (measure word 本).
- Production: front book, back 书 shū. Production is harder, and it's what compositions ask for.
Cards come back after 1, 3, 7, 14 and 30 days, and decks export to Quizlet or Anki. See spaced repetition flashcards.
Tip: since handwriting search won't find characters, name a bookmark for each lesson, like "Lesson 8: measure words," so you can jump there from the notebook's table of contents.
What else doesn't work in Chinese
Transcripts don't. Scribba transcribes lectures in English or Spanish, so a class taught in Mandarin won't transcribe well. The Apple Intelligence study tools, which need an iPad that supports Apple Intelligence with it turned on, also work in English and Spanish only. Recording, tapping your ink to replay, playback speed and skipping all work in any language, and those are the parts that help most with tones.
Frequently asked questions
Can Scribba read handwritten Chinese characters?
No. Handwriting recognition is built for the Latin alphabet, so it won't search or convert characters. Type your flashcards with a Chinese keyboard instead.
How should I write pinyin in my notes?
With tone marks, every time, ideally color-coded by tone. On typed flashcards, tone numbers like shu1 are fine if marks are hard to type.
What paper works best for practicing characters?
A square with a cross through the middle. Scribba's Graph (mm) paper has bolder lines every 5 mm and every centimeter, which gives each centimeter square that cross.