Pinyin Crossword Puzzles
  Download Sample #1    Download Sample #2
Puzzle-solving is an active type of learning and will help engage students with the Chinese words more than passive types of review techniques. This tool allows you to create customizable Pinyin crossword puzzles based on the Chinese words that you are teaching or learning.

It is recommended to use compound words, rather than single characters, to create the crossword puzzles because the Pinyin of single characters could be too short to create a typical crossword puzzle. Like other Arch Chinese tools, you can simply load a vocab list and click the Print button to generate a crossword puzzle. If the vocab list has many entries, only ten of the words will be used. If a puzzle cannot be made with the entered vocab list, the system may also insert a random word from the Chinese-English dictionary to make it possible.


Chinese Vocab List  Review  List  Edit

  Chinese
(e.g. 你好)		 Definition
(e.g. Hello)		 Pinyin
(e.g. ni3 hao3)		  
P 
E 
 
01
 
 
02
 
 
03
 
 
 Add Rows  Auto Add    Save  Import  Sort By    Clear  

Pinyin Crossword Puzzle Maker Options  Last-used  Reset

Paper size:        Letter (8.5 X 11 inch)    A4 (210 X 297 mm)
Puzzle Clues:        Chinese    English    Chinese and English
 Generate the answer sheet along with the puzzle sheet
 Ingore pinyin tone marks
 Use random words from the Chinese-English dictionary if needed.
 Provide the letters on the puzzle sheet for the word(s) pulled from the Chinese-English dictionary
Preferred Chinese Script:        Simplified       Traditional

Saved Vocab Lists  Manage  Refresh

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Temp Vocab List

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Find a Vocab List


To create a Chinese vocab list:
  1. Enter the title of the vocab list, such as My Family. The title is used to identify the vocab list and it is required to save the list to the server for future use.
  2. Enter the Chinese characters or words. You can copy or paste Chinese text from other sources, such as web pages or word documents, or enter them using your faovorite Chinese Input Method Editor(IME). Both simplified and traditional Chinese characters are supported.
  3. Enter the definition of the Chinese character or word. You can click the E button to let the system fill in the definition for you if the Chinese is a single character or a commonly-used word.
  4. Click the P button to add Pinyin automatically. In the case that there are multiple pronunciations for a particular character, the system will attempt to use the right one based on its context. In some cases, the user may have to edit it. Do not use punctuation marks in the Pinyin input box. Note that Pinyin must be entered with tone numbers. The system will convert them to tone marks when the puzzle PDF is generated. In addition, the Pinyin syllables must be separated by a blank space. As an example, for the Chinese word 哪儿, the Pinyin must be entered as na3 er2. Use v for ü, for example lv3 for lǚ, and number 5 for the neutral tone, e.g. ma5 (吗).
  5. Click the Add Rows button to add more rows.
  6. Go to the option section to adjust the settings accordingly.
  7. Click the Print button to generate the Pinyin crossword puzzle sheet. When you click the Print button again, the generated puzzle will be different.
  8. Optionally, click the Save button to save the vocab list for future use.