Quick answer
A pung is three identical tiles, a kong four, a quint five and a pair two. Jokers can fill all but the pair, and a quint needs at least one unless it is flowers.
Every hand on the card is built from a small number of shapes. Learn the four and the card stops looking like code, because every line is just those shapes in a particular order and colour.
Pair: two identical tiles
Two of the same tile, like two red dragons or two five craks. Pairs are the strictest shape in the game: jokers can never stand in for either tile, and you cannot call a discard to complete a pair except when that pair is the last thing your winning hand needs. A pair must come from your own tiles, dealt, passed or drawn, or from the winning call.
Pung: three identical tiles
Three of the same tile. Jokers may fill any of the three. You may call a discard to complete a pung, exposing all three face up. On the card, a pung shows as the same number or letter printed three times together.
Kong: four identical tiles
Four of the same tile. Jokers allowed, callable from a discard, exposed on a call. A kong of four natural tiles, with no joker, uses every copy of that number, wind or dragon in the set, so nobody else can hold that tile, which is worth remembering when you read other players' exposures.
Quint: five identical tiles
Five of the same tile. A set has only four of each suited tile, wind and dragon, so a quint of any of those contains at least one joker. Flowers are the exception, because a set has eight, so five flowers can make a quint with no joker at all. Callable and exposable like a pung or kong. Quints appear on specific card lines and are a strong reason to hold jokers when a hand offers one.
How they combine
A winning hand is fourteen tiles made entirely of these shapes in the arrangement a card line specifies, for example two pungs, a kong, and a pair. Some lines also use single tiles in a fixed sequence, such as a year written out in numbers. Those are not sets, so no joker can fill them, and a discard can be called for one only as the tile that wins the hand.
Reading a hand on your rack means counting what you already hold of each shape. Three of a number is a pung you can build on. Two of a number is a pair that jokers will not help. That count, more than anything on the card, tells you which direction your hand should go.
Put it into practice
New to the game? Start the course at Lesson 1, Meet the Tiles. The first three lessons are free and need no account.
Already play? Have the coach read a real dealt hand for you, free. It names the direction the hand goes for, what to keep, what to pass, and the reasoning behind each call.
Counting your pairs and pungs is the whole first step of reading a hand. Our AI coach does that count on a dealt hand and names the direction, free, explaining why.