How to play Matchu and how answers are checked

Matchu shows a clue and you type the answer. There are no choices, so you cannot guess your way through. You know it or you do not.

There are three packs for now: world capitals, Korean history figures and food names. Each pack has more than thirty questions, and every one was written for this app.

The app runs in Korean and English. Each question has an English clue written on its own, and an answer counts if it is right in either language.

Today's ten

Press play on the home page and ten questions come up in order. They are picked from the date, so anyone who plays on the same day gets the same ten, on any device, even after a refresh.

There are three levels: easy, medium and hard. Every set of ten holds four easy, three medium and three hard questions.

Typing answers

Type your answer and press check. It is marked on the spot, and the answer is shown whether you were right or wrong. If you have no idea, press skip.

Your score is the number you got right. The normal mode has no timer and no streak.

How answers are checked

Spaces, capital letters and punctuation are removed from what you type before it is compared with the answer. So Buenos Aires and buenosaires are the same answer.

Other common spellings of an answer are listed per question as aliases. Tokyo and Edo would both work only if the question lists them. A spelling that is not listed counts as wrong.

One wrong letter makes the answer wrong. There is no fuzzy matching for near misses.

Accents are ignored, so Brasilia and Brasília match.

First-letter hint

Each question lets you use one hint. In English it shows the first letter and the number of letters. In Korean it shows the initial consonants.

A question you answer after using a hint still counts as right. In ranked runs, each question without a hint adds one point, so people who use fewer hints rank higher on the same number of correct answers.

Playing a pack

A pack page plays ten questions from that pack only. Press play again and you get a different ten on the same day. Pack runs are not ranked.

Ranked run

Turn on the ranked run in today's ten and your first run of the day goes on the shared board. Each correct answer is 100 points, and each question without a hint adds 1. The top score is 1010.

If you leave it off, nothing is sent. From your second run of the day, the ranked switch does nothing.

What this app does not do

Questions and answers are never sent to a server. Playing happens entirely on your device. The only things counted are step names such as opened, started and finished.

Today's result stays on this device. Clearing your browser data removes it.

The result card is drawn on your own screen and saved as an image. Nothing is uploaded to make it.

Start with one pack and play ten. You will see what kind of questions to expect.

In the capitals pack, type just the city. You do not need to repeat the country.

In the history pack, type just the name. Many answers also accept a pen name, so write the one you know.

In the food pack, use the most common name. Where two names are both in use, both count.

Saving hints

In a ranked run each question without a hint adds a point, so on the same number of correct answers the player with fewer hints ranks higher. Use hints only on questions you half know.

Skipping does not count as using a hint. If you have no idea, skip right away instead of spending time on a hint.

Using aliases

When an answer has several spellings, type the shortest one. Fewer letters means fewer chances for a typo.

My answer was right but it says wrong

One different letter makes it wrong, and the spelling may not be on the alias list. Check the answer on the result screen. If a common spelling is missing, tell us at the address below.

I want to replay today's ten

Press play again on the result screen and you start the same ten from the top. The questions stay the same and only the score is counted again. Tomorrow the questions change.

My result disappeared

The result lives only in this browser's storage. Clearing browser data or closing a private window removes it. There is no account, so there is nothing to restore.

A question looks wrong

Tell us which question and why at the address below. We recheck the source and fix it.