Getting started

Crow Chinese Reader has graded Mandarin and Cantonese stories to read and listen to, with sentence audio, pinyin or Jyutping, translations and long-press definitions, for iPhone and iPad.

Find your way around

The app has two tabs:

• Library has the stories, by level. Choose Mandarin or Cantonese as the reading language here.
• Grammar has the grammar chapters.

Settings has Downloads, your Saved words & backups, Restore purchases and Delete account.

Read a story

Open a story from the Library. In the reader you can turn pinyin (Mandarin) or Jyutping (Cantonese) and the translation on or off, long-press a word to see its definition, and listen to the narration. Tap Save word to keep a word for later. The reading settings change the font, tone colours, narrator, playback speed and the pause between sentences.

Reading, audio and saved words on the support page has more.

What is free

Free reading needs no account. The grammar chapters and a free selection of stories at each level are free; one optional lifetime purchase unlocks the paid story library. What can I read for free? lists what is included, and restoring the lifetime library explains restoring it on another device.

Downloads and your data

Once a story has downloaded you can read and listen offline. Check or resume downloads in Settings → Downloads. Downloads, your reading position and saved words stay on the device, so share a study backup from Settings → Saved words & backups before you uninstall the app.

Not documented yet

Guides to the reader, the grammar chapters and studying saved words aren't written yet. For anything this page doesn't cover, see Help & support or email [email protected].