Chinese Keyboard: What It Looks Like and How Typing Chinese Works

沉浸 TeamAugust 21, 20269 min read

A Chinese keyboard looks exactly like the keyboard you're using now: the same QWERTY letters, the same space bar, nothing exotic. Chinese has tens of thousands of characters and no alphabet, so instead of one key per character, Chinese typing happens in software. You spell a word out in pinyin, the computer shows you the matching characters, and you pick the one you meant.

That's the whole trick. Type nihao, press the space bar, and 你好 appears. Below: what a Chinese keyboard looks like, how the software works, how to switch one on in about a minute on any device, and the other input methods people use.

What does a Chinese keyboard look like?

In mainland China, it's a standard US QWERTY keyboard. Buy a laptop in Beijing and the keys are printed with the same A to Z you already know. There's no secret key for 汉字 and no 5,000-key monster, which is the image most people have in mind when they ask the question.

Two real exceptions are worth knowing:

Taiwan. Keyboards there usually have extra symbols printed on the key faces: bopomofo (ㄅㄆㄇㄈ) down the right side of each key, and sometimes Cangjie components too. The keyboard is still QWERTY underneath. The extra printing is a cheat sheet for a different input method, not extra keys.
Older photos. The famous pictures of enormous Chinese typewriters with trays of two thousand-plus metal type slugs are real, and they're mechanical machines from the pre-computer era. Lin Yutang's MingKwai typewriter of the 1940s was an early attempt at something more keyboard-like. None of that survives in modern computing.

So if you were hoping for a fun photo, the honest answer is anticlimactic: a Chinese computer keyboard is your keyboard. The interesting part happens on screen.

How Chinese typing works

The software that turns your keystrokes into characters is called an input method editor, or IME. In Chinese it's an 输入法 (shūrùfǎ). By far the most common one on the mainland is a pinyin IME, which works like this:

You type the sound. Spell the word in pinyin using plain letters, with no tone marks: zhongwen.
Candidates appear. A little bar pops up with every word that matches that sound: 中文, 中问, 忠文 and so on, most likely first.
You choose. Press the space bar to take the first candidate, or press 1 through 9 to pick one from the list. Done: 中文.

Because you type by sound, the IME is a pinyin test you take a hundred times a day. If you don't know that 谢谢 is xièxie, you can't type it. That's why Chinese typing is such good practice, and it's why learners who type in Chinese tend to have sharper pinyin than learners who don't.

Things that make it fast

Type whole phrases, not single characters. Typing woshimeiguoren in one go gives you 我是美国人 straight away. IMEs guess much better with more context, so resist the urge to type one character at a time.
Initials only. In most pinyin IMEs, nh is enough for 你好 and bjdx gets you 北京大学. Once a phrase is in your history, the shortcut usually jumps to the top.
ü is typed as v. There's no ü key, so 女 is nv and 绿 is lv. The letter v is unused in pinyin, which is what makes it free for the job.
No tones needed. Standard pinyin IMEs ignore tone marks entirely. You'll never type a tone number, which is convenient and also a small trap: your typing gets fluent while your tones quietly stay wherever they were.
Shift flips languages. In most IMEs, tapping Shift switches between Chinese and English mid-sentence without changing keyboards.

The one thing to watch out for

Picking the wrong candidate is the classic Chinese typo, and it produces a real word rather than a misspelling, so spell-check won't save you. 在 and 再 are both zài. 他, 她, and 它 are all tā. Native typists slip on these too. Read what you wrote before you send it.

How to type in Chinese on any device

Every operating system ships with a Chinese IME built in. You don't need to download anything, and it takes about a minute.

Windows

Open Settings and go to Time & language, then Language & region.
Click Add a language and choose Chinese (Simplified, China), or Chinese (Traditional, Taiwan) if you want traditional characters.
Install it, then press Windows key + Space to switch input languages. Microsoft Pinyin is the default.
Tap Shift to flip between Chinese and English while you're typing.

How to add a Chinese keyboard to a Mac

Open System Settings, then Keyboard.
Next to Input Sources, click Edit, then the + button.
Choose Chinese, Simplified and pick Pinyin – Simplified. (Choose Chinese, Traditional for traditional characters.)
Switch with Control + Space, or the Globe key on newer MacBooks. The current input source shows in the menu bar.

iPhone and iPad

Settings, then General, then Keyboard, then Keyboards.
Tap Add New Keyboard and choose Chinese (Simplified).
Pick Pinyin – QWERTY for a full keyboard. Handwriting is also worth adding: you draw the character with a finger, which is handy when you know a character by sight but not by sound.
Tap the Globe key on the keyboard to switch.

Android

In Gboard, open Settings, then Languages, then Add keyboard.
Choose Chinese (Simplified) and select the Pinyin layout. Handwriting is offered here too.
Switch with the Globe key or by holding the space bar.

On phones you'll also see a 9-key pinyin layout, the old numeric-pad style where each key covers three letters. Fast typists on the mainland swear by it, but stick to the full QWERTY layout while you're learning: it keeps you spelling each syllable out in full.

Other Chinese input methods

Pinyin is the standard on the mainland and the right choice for essentially every learner. It's not the only option.

Zhuyin (bopomofo, ㄅㄆㄇㄈ). The standard in Taiwan. It uses 37 phonetic symbols instead of Latin letters, mapped across the keyboard, and the logic is the same as pinyin: type the sound, choose the character. A zhuyin keyboard is a normal keyboard with those symbols printed on it. Learn it if you're studying in Taiwan; otherwise pinyin is plenty.
Cangjie (倉頡). Popular in Hong Kong and Taiwan. You type a character's shape as a sequence of components rather than its sound. Little to no candidate list, so it's very fast once mastered, and slow to learn.
Wubi (五笔). The mainland's shape-based method, built on stroke types. Professional typists use it because it avoids the candidate list almost entirely. Most people never learn it.
Handwriting. Draw the character with a finger, trackpad, or stylus. The most useful backup for learners: it's the only method that works when you recognize a character but have no idea how it's pronounced.
Voice input. Widely used in China, and good enough that plenty of people dictate rather than type. It's a listening and speaking exercise, not a typing one.

Shape-based methods have one real advantage for learners: they force you to know how a character is built. If that appeals, our guides to Chinese radicals and stroke order cover the same ground, and you can practice writing by hand with our free character practice sheet generator.

Should learners type in Chinese?

Yes, early and often. Typing gives you three things that reading alone doesn't:

It drills pinyin. You can't produce a character without producing its sound first. Spell it wrong and nothing appears.
It builds recognition. Choosing between 在 and 再 in a candidate list is a rapid-fire recognition test, dozens of times an hour.
It's how people write now. Messaging, email, and search in China all run through an IME. This is the practical writing skill.

The honest tradeoff: typing exercises recall of sound, not of strokes. Even native speakers report 提笔忘字, the "pick up a pen and forget the character" effect. If handwriting matters to you, keep a little of it going alongside.

A good first exercise: switch your keyboard to Chinese and type out ten words you already know without checking anything. If a word won't come out, that's the gap. If you want a shortcut in the other direction, paste any Chinese text into our free Chinese to pinyin converter to see the spelling of every word at once.

A free Chenjin account gives you audio on every word, so you can hear a word, type it, and check yourself in one loop, plus a full graded reader to practice on at no cost.

FAQ

How do Chinese people type on a keyboard?

With the same QWERTY keyboard everyone else uses. They type a word's pronunciation in pinyin, and input method software offers the matching characters to choose from. Typing zhongguo and pressing the space bar produces 中国.

Does a Chinese keyboard have thousands of keys?

No. It has the same keys as any other keyboard. The thousands of characters live in software, not on hardware. Mechanical Chinese typewriters with large character trays existed before computers, but nothing like that is used today.

What is a pinyin keyboard?

The everyday name for a pinyin input method: a normal keyboard plus software that converts pinyin spelling into characters. It's the default Chinese input on Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android.

Do I need to type tone marks?

No. Standard pinyin IMEs take plain letters with no tone marks or numbers. That makes typing quick, and it also means typing won't improve your tones on its own. Our guide to Chinese tones and the Tone Coach cover that side.

How do I type ü?

Type v. In nearly every pinyin IME, nv gives 女 and lvse gives 绿色. The letter v isn't used in pinyin, so it's reserved for this.

Can I type traditional characters?

Yes. Add Chinese (Traditional) as your input language instead of, or alongside, Simplified. You can still type in pinyin and get traditional output. See simplified vs traditional characters for which to pick.

Is there a Chinese alphabet I could type instead?

No, and that's the reason IMEs exist. Pinyin is a romanization used for pronunciation and input, not a writing system for the language itself. See is there a Chinese alphabet? for the full explanation.

What's the best Chinese input method for beginners?

Pinyin, without much debate. You already know the letters, it reinforces pronunciation, and it's the default everywhere. Add handwriting as a second keyboard for characters you can see but can't say.