Learn Pinyin

Chinese pinyin, the basic knowledge in mandarin is the phonetic notation of written Chinese known as “汉字(hàn zì)”. Literally, pinyin (拼音) means to “spell sound”, or combining the alphabets together. Like the phonetic alphabets in English, pinyin is used to make mandarin learning easier.

Chinese pinyin is very important for learning Chinese well and we should learn pinyin before we read and write. A misuse of Chinese pinyin will make your expression hard to be understood, and in worst case you will make a fool of yourself. In the following video, you will see how Sheldon made a fool of himself with his poor pinyin in a Chinese restaurant.

How Sheldon Fooled Himself with his Poor Pinyin

Pinyin Pronunciation Guide

Pinyin is composed of three parts: consonants known as initials, vowels known as finals and tones. It usually starts with an initial followed by one or more finals. In the pinyin system, there are 23 initials, 24 finals and 4 tones as well as a neutral tone.

23 initials: b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, j, q, x, z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, r, y, w

24 finals: a, o, e, i, u, ü ai, ei, ui, ao, ou, iu, ie, üe, er, an, en, in, un, ün ang, eng, ing, ong

4 tones:

1st tone - high and flat

2nd tone - rises from the middle to high

3rd tone - curves from low to lower and then rises

4th tone - falls from the top to the bottom

neutral tone - short and light, usually unmarked as in these cases: 妈妈(māma, mom), 我们(wǒmen, we), 这个(zhège, this one).

Tones play a very important role in learning pinyin, because the same syllable with different tones may have different meanings. A misuse of them may lead into jokes or even embarrassing situations in Chinese.

How to Learn Pinyin

Don’t worry if you don’t get it right the first time.
1. Imitating a native Chinese speaker is proven to be the best way to learn Chinese pinyin.
2. Follow our pinyin pronunciation guide and repeat each initial and final as many times as possible.
3. Turn to our pinyin lessons learn pinyin with our online tutors.
4. Watch Chinese movies or tv series and feel your way.