How To Set Up Chinese Keyboard On Mac

Looking to type in Chinese on your smartphone or computer, but have no clue how to practise it?

Fortunately for y'all, the Chinese use the same QWERTY/AZERTY keyboard equally the rest of the world. It'southward merely a matter of setting up your keyboard to type in Chinese, which we're going to show you step by footstep for each device!

In this guide you'll learn:

2 Easy methods of typing Chinese characters

Now that you know yous can use a normal keyboard, you might exist wondering how can you write Chinese with information technology?

There are ii main methods that you lot can employ: pinyin and handwriting.

NOTE There are besides few other ways to type, such as the five-stroke (wǔ bǐ) input method, merely we won't embrace those equally they are a bit hard and not much useful.

1. Pinyin method

This is by far the easiest method to type in Chinese! All you take to know is the pinyin of each give-and-take and type them in English. Y'all don't even need to intendance well-nigh the tones.

You tin can check every pinyin combination using this costless pinyin chart.

Nowadays, every organization is smart plenty to automatically understand which character y'all are referring to. Once you lot start typing a pinyin, the keyboard on the screen displays an ordered list of characters to choose from like this:

Pinyin keyboard results

To select the right character y'all can either:

Click or tap the character
Type the number of the graphic symbol
Tap the space bar to choose the first choice

TIP You can go faster by typing the word completely instead of i graphic symbol at a fourth dimension.

If the grapheme yous are looking for is non on the list, you can expand it for more choices. In nearly cases, information technology won't be needed.

About platforms present the choices based on character frequency or past guessing based on the previous words you already typed.

Pinyin keyboard expanded results

How to type ü in Chinese?

Typing using pinyin is piece of cake until y'all want to write the final ü. I struggled as well at get-go!

Permit me save yous some time: use the letter "v" instead.

How to type ü in Chinese

2. Handwriting method

The 2d method is with the handwriting keyboard. It'southward really useful as long as you know how to write in Chinese. If you want to learn how to write Chinese characters, make sure to check our app.

The handwriting organisation is great to use with a Chinese dictionary. When you lot don't know the pinyin of a character, switch to this keyboard and write the word with your finger or mouse.

Chinese handwriting keyboard

The handwriting method has many advantages, use it for:

Practicing your writing skill
When you don't know the pinyin
Searching a discussion in a lexicon

Now that yous know the basics, allow'due south gear up step-by-stride the simplified Chinese character input keyboard on your favorite device!

How can I type Chinese on iPhone?

To set upwards the Chinese grapheme keyboard on your iPhone device, follow these half-dozen steps:

Open the "Settings" and search for "Keyboard". Tap on "Keyboard"
Tap on "Keyboards"
Tap on "Add New Keyboard"
Tap on "Chinese, Simplified"
Select "Pinyin" and "Handwriting", then tap "Done"
On your virtual keyboard, tap the "World" to switch to the Chinese keyboard

Infographic set up the Chinese keyboard on iPhone

How can I type Chinese on Android?

To set up the Chinese character keyboard on your Android device, follow these 9 steps:

Open the "Settings" and search for "Keyboard". Tap on "Keyboards".
Tap on "Virtual Keyboard (Gboard)"
Tap on "Multilingual typing (Gboard)"
Tap on "Languages"
Tap on "Add Keyboard"
Select "Chinese"
Select "Chinese (Simplified)"
Select "Pinyin" and "Handwriting", then tap "Done"
On your virtual keyboard, tap the "Earth" to switch to the Chinese keyboard

NOTE You need to install Gboard to access the Chinese keyboard on Android

Infographic set up the Chinese keyboard on Android

How tin I blazon Chinese on Mac?

To ready upward the Chinese character keyboard on your Mac device, follow these 4 steps:

Open the "Settings" and search for "Keyboard". Click on "Keyboard"
Become to "Input Sources" and click on the "+"
Select "Chinese, Simplified" and "Pinyin - Simplified". Click "Add"
In the top bill of fare, click the input icon to switch to the Chinese keyboard

NOTE You need to have a trackpad to use the handwriting input method on Mac.

Infographic set up the Chinese keyboard on Mac

How can I type Chinese on Windows?

To gear up the Chinese graphic symbol keyboard on your Windows machine, follow these 4 steps:

Open the "Settings" and get to "Time & language" settings
Click on "Add a language"
Click on "Chinese (Simplified)"
In the bottom menu, click the input icon to switch to the Chinese keyboard

Infographic set up the Chinese keyboard on Windows

Final thoughts

Y'all don't need a special keyboard to blazon in Chinese, you can gear up your device to either use the pinyin or handwriting input method. Most people believe typing in Chinese is hard, but it's easier than writing. your device is doing a fantastic job to filter only the relevant characters.

Now that your telephone and computer are properly ready, y'all can start chatting and impress your Chinese friends and classmates!

Whatsoever questions? Let me know on Twitter.