Do you need to learn Mandarin Chinese? Maybe you live in a Mandarin-speaking region and want to understand what people are saying, or you have a Mandarin speaking partner. Or maybe you just like the sound! Whatever your reason for learning, you’ll need to learn the fundamental words. Learning Mandarin Chinese gets a lot easier (and a lot more fun) once you can understand the words people actually use.
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Buy Now for $24.99At Refold, we're focused on getting you to understand REAL Mandarin Chinese — the kind spoken in actual TV shows, YouTube videos, and everyday conversation.
The biggest obstacle is vocabulary. Mandarin has no meaningful relationship with English, so almost every word has to be learned deliberately. That's why we built the ZH1K Vocabulary Deck: a hand-crafted set of the 1,000 words that actually appear most in real Mandarin Chinese media, ordered so each new card builds on what you already know.
And unlike European languages, Mandarin gives you nothing for free — there are no cognates, and even the little grammar words have to be learned. That is why this deck includes more of the high-frequency function words than our European decks do: in Mandarin, words like 的, 了, and 不 carry the language, and they need real study just like everything else. Every card earns its place.
Each card comes with a custom example sentence, a helpful image, and clear audio for both the word and the sentence. All words use simplified Chinese characters with pinyin readings, optimized for Mainland Mandarin.
For best results, combine this deck with regular Mandarin immersion. Vocabulary study and listening to real content reinforce each other — check out our complete immersion learning guide to see how it all fits together.
Learning Mandarin vocabulary has never been easier than with the ZH1K Vocabulary Deck.
The hardest part of learning a language is basic comprehension. Once you can understand enough to have fun, you'll never want to stop.
Clear, consistent audio for every word and sentence so you can connect characters to sound.
Reinforce what you learn with concrete, high-quality visuals.
Learn words in context with custom-made example sentences.
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You get a downloadable Anki flashcard deck (.apkg file) with 1,000 core Mandarin Chinese words, each with an example sentence, an image, and audio.
Online SRS review inside Refold (reviewing this deck in your browser at refold.la) requires an active Toolkit/subscription. The one-time deck purchase grants the Anki .apkg download so you can study it in Anki right away; it does not by itself unlock online review on the Refold site.
This deck uses simplified Chinese characters with pinyin readings, focused on Mainland Mandarin. Every word and example sentence includes pinyin to help you connect the characters to their pronunciation.
The audio is AI-generated. We use clear, consistent AI voices so every word and every example sentence has audio. It’s designed to help you connect Mandarin Chinese to its pronunciation while you study.
Yes, you’ll still want to do some basic Mandarin Chinese grammar study. Our recommendation is to keep it simple: start with vocabulary and some basic grammar, then spend a lot of time with Mandarin Chinese content so the patterns become familiar.
You could — it just takes time, energy, and effort to source words, write sentences, and add media. We’ve done that work so you don’t have to.
No. This builds the initial foundation for understanding Mandarin Chinese. Fluency comes after thousands of hours spent with the language.
Congrats 🥳! Head over to our guide on sentence mining to learn how to make cards directly from your own immersion.
