Glyph Reef

Characters are built from smaller component radicals. Learn the radicals, then assemble the right ones to forge each target character, or break a character down into its parts. Radicals unlock before the characters that use them, so the reef builds up steadily until you face the daily boss glyph.

• Select the radicals that compose the target character
• Submit when your set forges the correct glyph
• Clear your selection to start a composition over
• Work up to the daily boss character

• Desktop: click radicals to add or remove them; use Clear and Submit
• Phone & tablet: tap radicals and buttons, fully touch-driven

• Daily: the same characters and boss glyph for everyone each day
• Practice: a fresh selection every run
• Difficulty scales how many and how complex the characters get

• Learn what each radical means, it hints at the character's sense
• Look for a familiar component inside an unfamiliar character
• Build from the most distinctive radical first to narrow the answer

Glyph Reef teaches Chinese characters through their radical components, building a system for reading them.

• Skills: Chinese characters, radicals, character recognition
• Best for: Chinese learners (teens and up)
• For parents & teachers: Chinese characters through their radicals.

Assembling characters from component radicals, and breaking them back down, is how Chinese characters are actually organised — and how dictionaries index them.

Running composition and decomposition as two directions is the original pairing.

Radicals turn an apparently arbitrary set of thousands into a combinatorial one. Most characters pair a component hinting at meaning with one hinting at sound, so a learner who knows the parts can often guess at both — which is the difference between memorising and reading.

Glyph Reef is an original, free browser game that teaches Chinese characters through their radical components. It is built in-house and plays instantly online.

A free, original browser game on PlayPendium. No download, no install.