Handle (汉兜)

About Handle (汉兜)

Handle (汉兜, a play on the Chinese for Wordle) was made in early 2022 by Anthony Fu and Inès. Instead of five letters, the answer is a four-character Chinese idiom, a chengyu such as 应对如流, and it is the same for every player on the same day.

Each guess has to be a four-character idiom. The game colours each character, and beneath it the pinyin is split into its initial, its final and its tone, each coloured on its own. A character can be wrong while its initial or tone is right, so a guess tells you about the sound of the answer as well as its writing. You have ten tries.

The pronunciation can be shown as pinyin or as zhuyin (bopomofo), and the interface comes in simplified and traditional Chinese. If you are stuck there are two levels of hint, the first revealing one character. A statistics page tracks your average tries and time.

It suits native speakers who enjoy idioms and learners of Mandarin who want to practise tones and chengyu in a daily habit.

How to play Handle (汉兜)

1. Open Handle and type any four-character Chinese idiom.
2. Read the colours on each character and on its initial, final and tone.
3. Use matching sounds and tones to choose your next idiom.
4. Ask for a hint if you are stuck; the first reveals one character.
5. Find the idiom within ten guesses, then share your grid.

Tips

• Pay attention to tones: a right tone in the right place narrows the answer a lot.
• Start with a common idiom whose four characters have different initials.
• Switch to zhuyin if you learned Mandarin with bopomofo.

Questions