infrastructure for learners of Taiwan's traditional Chinese
Accurate, structured data on Taiwan's 4,974 traditional Chinese characters, and an MCP server for your LLM tutor.
Taiwan Mandarin is a well-sourced reference you can browse — and a typed JSON API and MCP server you can hand to Claude, Cursor, or any LLM client, so your AI tutor answers from real data instead of guessing.
Browse the dictionary
Look up any of 4,974 characters — by character, pinyin, or English meaning.
Plug it into your LLM
One line of config and Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-aware client answers from this dictionary instead of guessing.
{
"mcpServers": {
"taiwan-mandarin": {
"url": "https://mcp.taiwanmandarin.com"
}
}
}Hand the dictionary to your LLM.
One line of config and your model sees the same data you do — real frequency ranks, readings and TOCFL levels, looked up rather than recalled. Works with Claude Desktop, Cursor, Cline, Goose, or anything that speaks MCP.
Add to your MCP config
In claude_desktop_config.json, Cursor's settings, or your client's MCP panel.
{
"mcpServers": {
"taiwan-mandarin": {
"url": "https://mcp.taiwanmandarin.com"
}
}
}Your AI tutor, with real data
How do I tell 你 apart from 您? They feel the same to me.
Start where you are
TOCFL levels
Taiwan's official graded vocabulary — 華語八千詞, Novice 1 through Level 5.
Top characters
Ranked by COCT corpus frequency. Learn the few that cover most text.
Common words
The most common traditional-Chinese words, ranked by frequency in Taiwan's COCT corpus.
By radical
All 214 Kangxi radicals. Tap one to see every character that uses it.
Random character
A different entry every time. Good for a warmup, or to meet something outside what you were looking for.
The ten most common characters
Frequency-ranked from Taiwan's COCT corpus. Learn the first hundred and you're past roughly 40% of everyday written Chinese.
- #1open ›的˙ㄉㄜGrammatical particle indicating possession or modifying a noun; used to form nominal expressions; can also indicate affirmation or emphasis at the end of a sentence.
- #2open ›一ㄧThe number one; single; a; as soon as; entire; whole; all; a "one" radical in Chinese characters; also used for clarity when spelling out numbers.
- #3open ›是ㄕˋTo be; yes; correct; right; true; to affirm; to acknowledge; a surname; a thing; indeed.
- #4open ›不ㄅㄨˋFunction word; no; not; un-; negative prefix; used to form questions or emphasize a statement; sometimes used for rhythm.
- #5open ›有ㄧㄡˇTo have; to exist; to possess; to own; abundant; plentiful; old; intentional; a bound form indicating possession or accompaniment.
- #6open ›在ㄗㄞˋTo exist; to be located at or in a place; to be in the process of doing something; to depend on; to observe.
- #7open ›人ㄖㄣˊperson; people; mankind; human being; someone else; other people; each person; a certain type or identity of person; character or disposition; surname.
- #8open ›我ㄨㄛˇPronoun; first-person singular: I, me, my; also we, us, our in compounds and formal usage.
- #9open ›他ㄊㄚFunction word; third-person singular pronoun: he, him, his; also means other, another; separate; different.
- #10open ›了˙ㄌㄜParticle indicating completed action or change of state; to finish; to understand; completely; to become clear.
Sourced & free.
Taiwan Mandarin pulls together established Chinese-language datasets — frequency counts from Taiwan's COCT corpus, character data from Unihan, and readings from the Taiwan Ministry of Education's dictionary via Moedict. The English definitions are written by a language model, grounded in those same sources and documented here. Everything is free to use through the JSON API and the MCP server.