Pinyin

Pinyin is how Chinese characters, words are pronounced, it is the standard system of romanized spelling for transliterating Chinese. The standard formation of a syllable will be "Initial + Final + Tone".

Initial Consonants

The initials are the consonants at the beginning of a syllable.There are 23 in total.

1

b

2

p

3

m

4

f

5

d

6

t

7

n

8

l

9

g

10

k

11

h

12

j

13

q

14

x

15

zh

16

ch

17

sh

18

r

19

z

20

c

21

s

22

y

23

w

Final Vowel of a Syllable（Simple or Compound ）

The finals are the vowels and semivowels at the end of a syllable. There are 24 in total.

1

a

2

o

3

e

4

i

5

u

6

ü

7

ai

8

ei

9

ui

10

ao

11

ou

12

iu

13

ie

14

üe

15

er

16

an

17

en

18

in

19

un

20

ün

21

ang

22

eng

23

ing

24

ong

Tones

The tones show you how to pronounce each syllable. There are four pinyin tones in total, marked as first, second, third, and fourth tones.

1

ā

Flat

2

á

Rising

3

ǎ

Falling-Rising

4

à

Falling

Special Syllable

There are 16 special syllables, these syllables are recognized and read as a whole, which means the initials and finals can not be separated.

1

zhi

2

chi

3

shi

4

ri

5

zi

6

ci

7

si

8

yi

9

wu

10

yu

11

ye

12

yue

13

yin

14

yun

15

yuan

16

ying