Read & Learn Chinese - DuShu

In-app purchases
4.6
2.3K reviews
100K+
Downloads
Content rating
Everyone
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About this app

DuShu is a Chinese Reader that will take any Mandarin Chinese text (via copy&paste or from a file) and present it to you in a way to make it easier to read, but at the same time help you learn as much as possible while reading.

DuShu adds tone colors, underlines that show which characters are part of a word, and pinyin. However, Pinyin is not simply added to every character, but only where you need it - the app keeps track of the characters you know. Pinyin can be turned on or off for a character simply by tapping it.

You can read sentence by sentence, with a vocabulary list below the text, or Chinese text only with the vocabulary on a separate page. The vocabulary list shows only relevant vocab according to your skill level. Words you already know can be removed from the list, the app also keeps track of your known words and will not show known words in vocab lists again.

A translation is available for each sentence - manual translations for our integrated texts, Google Translations for everything else. If your system language isn't English, you can easily switch between English translations and translations into your system language. (Sentence translations are a premium feature - however, as an introductory trial we offer them for free until the end of February 2018).

You can also listen to any text, high quality audio will be created via Google text-to-speech. You'll always be shown only the sentence that is currently being read, plus relevant vocabulary items.

Of course there's an integrated dictionary, which beyond usual dictionary-information also shows the frequency, HSK level and a breakdown into constituent components for characters.

You can save your texts & resume where you left off later, and also get lots of information about your text - like difficulty, how many unique Hanzi (=characters) there are in the text etc.

Everything's highly configurable - which words are be shown in the vocab list, which tone color scheme (or none), pinyin always, never or for unknown characters only, text and pinyin size etc. can all be selected b the user. As it will adapt to your skill level, this Mandarin Chinese Reader can be useful for everybody from beginners to advanced learners.

Statistical and grammar-based analysis makes sure the segmentation into words and annotation with tone colors and pinyin is as accurate as possible.

Texts in traditonal characters are automatically converted to simplified characters. Displaying traditional characters is currently not supported.

In case you don't know what to read, Du Shu features extensive lists of sample sentences for all HSK-levels.
Updated on
Jul 7, 2022

Data safety

Safety starts with understanding how developers collect and share your data. Data privacy and security practices may vary based on your use, region, and age. The developer provided this information and may update it over time.
No data shared with third parties
Learn more about how developers declare sharing
This app may collect these data types
App activity and App info and performance
Data is encrypted in transit
Data can’t be deleted

Ratings and reviews

4.6
2.19K reviews
Elizabeth Y
January 28, 2023
Great practice reading sentences!I found it helped me solidify new terms with the repetition in a variety of sentences vs trying to use the same flash cards over and over. The translations are accurate and very handy. You only get 10 free per day on the free version but I would subscribe if I needed more. It's well worth it. There are handy definitions and pinyin that make learning easy. Great app!
1 person found this review helpful
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Marlon N
May 29, 2020
Very good app. Highly efficient either to learn the characters or as a supplement for improving reading skills. Nicely customisable although I wished the colors of the tones would be completely customisable. The only real grip with this app is it's inability to sync the progress over devices. I use it on my Tab S4 mostly but sometimes I have some time in between and would like to grab my phone and just continue during commuting etc. I would love sync support across devices. That's why 4 stars.
22 people found this review helpful
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A Google user
December 22, 2018
This app didn't meet my expectations... it exceeded them. I wasn't expecting much, but downloaded it after I saw that it started supporting traditional characters. The ability to read text from the clipboard and note/star words is exceptional. This takes reading practice to a whole new level as you can look up words conveniently and mark them as you go. Along with Pleco, the best Chinese learning app I've encountered.
19 people found this review helpful
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What's new

Audio recordings for HSK 1 Sentences introduced (Google text-to-speech still used for the rest)