FlappyTone

Learning Mandarin tones can be hard, intimidating and honestly even boring. Most learners memorise tone numbers but can’t hear, or produce, the difference between a 2nd and a 3rd tone. FlappyTone fixes that by making tones visible. How it works You control a bird with your voice. Your live pitch moves the bird up and down, and you fly it through tunnels shaped like the four Mandarin tone marks. Say the word with the right tone and you fly through; flatten it out and you hit the wall. Because the tone marks are literally pitch diagrams, the obstacle is the lesson. Seeing your pitch traced live on a grid builds a visual memory of each tone, which sticks much faster than trying to memorise pitch by ear. Who it’s for - Beginner and intermediate Mandarin learners who struggle with tones - Learners preparing for TOCFL (word lists for TOCFL levels 1–3 are built in) - Anyone learning Taiwanese Mandarin or Traditional Chinese - Self-learners who want daily speaking practice without a teacher present Game modes - Classic: fly through a stream of words at your chosen level - Tone drill: practise one specific tone until it clicks - Tone pairs: two-syllable words, with tone sandhi rules built in (e.g. 3rd + 3rd tone) - Learn: a low-pressure hum-along mode to feel the tone shapes first Train your ear: TONEder The listening counterpart to the game. You hear a native speaker say a word and swipe to the tone you heard, Tinder-style. It trains you to tell the tones apart, and it can show you which tone pairs you confuse most. Visualiser Say any word and see your pitch drawn live next to a native speaker’s tone shape. Useful for checking a specific word or tone outside the game. Native audio, two speech styles Every clip is recorded by a native Taiwanese speaker, who is also an online Mandarin teacher - Standard: slow and clear, like in class, with slightly exaggerated tones for training - Spoken: natural, everyday speed 475+ words from the TOCFL 1–3 word lists, in Traditional Chinese with Taiwan readings - A male voice is coming soon Progress and motivation - Tone accuracy per tone and per tone pair, so you can see exactly what needs work - Daily streak and run history - Weekly, monthly and all-time leaderboards - A shareable result card to challenge friends Privacy: no AI on your voice FlappyTone uses pitch detection, not AI speech recognition. Your voice is processed entirely in your browser and never uploaded. Free tools (no sign-up) - Tone test (TONEder): find out which tones you mix up - Tone visualiser: see your pitch on any word - Tone mark converter: switch between pinyin with tone numbers (ma3) and tone marks (mǎ) Plans - Guest: play right away with no sign-up, 3 runs a day - Free account: 10 runs a day, saved progress, TOCFL levels 1–2, tone pairs (limited), leaderboard - Pro: unlimited runs, all TOCFL 1–3 words, full tone-pair practice, tone-shape history against the native speaker, custom leaderboard name, offline play (coming soon). EarlyBird: $19 one-time, lifetime access, including all future features.