The light fifth sound
māma · 妈妈
The second ma is neutral: short and light, with no tone mark. Its pitch depends on the preceding tone.
THE SOUND OF A NEW BEGINNING
A whole language.
One sound
at a time.
Meet pinyin, your bridge to spoken Mandarin. Discover the sounds, find the melody, and bring your first Chinese words to life.
Start with the sounds21 initials · 4 tones + neutral · Endless conversations
ONE SYLLABLE, FOUR STORIES拼音
The same letters. A different tone. A different meaning.
FIRST, THE BIG PICTURE
Letters you know.
Sounds to discover.
Pinyin uses the Latin alphabet to write the pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese. It helps you read a character aloud, look up a word, and type Chinese.
The letters follow Mandarin sound rules, so English pronunciation can be misleading. Most syllables have an initial, a final, and a tone. Some, like ài, begin directly with a final.
m
INITIAL
+
a
FINAL
+
ˇ
TONE
=
mǎ
马 · HORSE
01 / THE BUILDING BLOCKS
Small sounds. A strong foundation.
Start with the opening sound, explore the ending, then recognize the syllables traditionally learned as a whole.
Lips
Tongue tip
Back of the tongue
Tongue front
Curled tongue
Flat tongue
02 / THE MELODY OF MANDARIN
Give every syllable its voice.
Tone is the pitch pattern of a syllable. Follow the curves with your voice, using a comfortable pitch range.
One vowel carries the tone. When i has a tone mark, its dot disappears: ī, í, ǐ, ì.
TONE MARK PLACEMENT
Final spellings for practice; standalone syllables may use y or w.
When two third tones meet
nǐ hǎo → ní hǎo
The first third tone is pronounced as a second tone before another third tone. Standard spelling still keeps nǐ hǎo.
Two words that change
bù + shì → bú shì
不 becomes second tone before a fourth tone. 一 is second tone before a fourth tone, and fourth tone before first, second or third tones; in isolation it is yī.
03 / PUT IT ALL TOGETHER
Find your next syllable.
Pick an initial and a final. Listen to all four tones, side by side.
m + a
Tap a tone to hear its pronunciation.
04 / THE COMPLETE SOUND MAP
The pinyin chart.
Hover over or tap a syllable to explore and hear its four tones.
Scroll to explore all finals. ∅ means no consonant initial; dashes mark unused combinations. Tone forms demonstrate placement; not every syllable occurs with every tone.
| Initial / final | a | o | e | i | u | ü | ai | ei | ao | ou | ia | ie | iao | iu | ua | uo | uai | ui | üe | er | an | en | ang | eng | ong | ian | in | iang | ing | iong | uan | un | uang | ueng | üan | ün |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ∅ | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| b | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||
| p | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||
| m | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||
| f | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||
| d | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||
| t | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||
| n | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| l | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
| g | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||
| k | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||
| h | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||
| j | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
| q | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
| x | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||
| zh | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||||||
| ch | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||
| sh | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||||
| r | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||
| z | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | |||||||||||||||||
| c | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | ||||||||||||||||
| s | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — | — |
Common Mandarin syllable forms, including some less frequent ones. Reference: University of Vermont · Chinese Phonetics. The chart uses standard written forms, including iu, ui and un.