Pinyin Chart: How to Read Mandarin Sounds
Pinyin is Mandarin written in the Latin alphabet, and it is genuinely honest: once you learn the rules, you can read any phrase on this site out loud without having heard it first. It was designed for exactly that.
The catch is that a handful of letters are borrowed from languages other than English. Get those few right and everything else follows.
Initials (the sound at the start)
Sounds close to English, with the tricky ones flagged.
- b p m f — like English, but b is unaspirated: softer than English 'b' in 'bin'.
- d t n l — like English.
- g k h — h is breathier, from further back in the throat.
- j q x — j is close to English 'j' in 'jeep'; q is like 'chee' without the strong puff; x is 'sh' said with a smile. No English equivalent, and the trio travelers notice first.
- zh ch sh r — the tongue curls back slightly. zh is like English 'j' but heavier, ch like 'ch', sh like 'sh', r sits between English 'r' and 'zh'.
- z c s — z is 'dz', c is 'ts' (like the end of 'cats'), s is like English 's'.
- y w — glides that lead into a vowel.
Finals (the sound after the initial)
- a o e i u — a is open, o is rounded, e sits around 'uh', i is 'ee', u is 'oo'.
- ü — say 'ee' then round your lips. Written as u after j, q, x and y.
- ai ei ao ou — 'eye', 'ay', 'ow', 'oh'.
- an en ang eng ong — with the final o pronounced 'ong' as in 'song'.
- iu, ui, un — shorthand for iou, uei, uen.
- er — a rhotic 'ar', as in 二 èr (two).
Letters that do not match English
| Chinese | Pinyin | English | Listen |
|---|---|---|---|
| q | qī | seven — close to English 'chee' Say 'cheese' and stop before the s. That is 七 qī. | |
| x | xièxie | thank you — like 'sh' with a smiling mouth Spread your lips as if smiling, then say sh. That gets 谢 xiè. | |
| c | cài | dish, vegetable — like 'ts' Think of the end of 'cats'. 菜 cài starts with exactly that. | |
| zh | zhège | this — heavier than English 'j' Curl your tongue back a little, then say j. 这 zhè gets close. | |
| ü | lǚxíng | travel — rounded 'ee' Say 'ee', then push your lips forward into a small o. 旅 lǚ. | |
| e | rè | hot — the 'uh' sound Not 'eh'. 热 rè rhymes with the middle of 'duh'. |
How tone marks work
The little mark over a vowel is the tone. A flat line (mā) is first tone, a rising stroke (má) is second, a v-shape (mǎ) is third, and a falling stroke (mà) is fourth. No mark means neutral tone.
When a syllable has more than one vowel, the mark goes on the one you sing: a or e first, then o, then i u ü. So 好 is hǎo and 会 is huì.