Pronunciation Basics

This page provides the basic information for correct pronunciation of spoken Mandarin. You might want to refer back to it often as you proceed through the lessons.

Pinyin

Designed in the People’s Republic of China during the mid-1950s, pinyin is a phonetic system of the Chinese language. It adopts the roman alphabet to represent phonetic sounds in Mandarin Chinese. There have been many different systems of transcription used for learning Chinese pronunciation. Whereas China’s capital was once called “Peking” in English, using pinyin it is now written “Beijing”

Tones

In Chinese the variation of a syllable’s pitch may distinguish meaning. There are four tones, indicated respectively by the following tone marks:

Tone	Tone Mark	Description	Example
First Tone		high, level pitch	妈 mā = mother
Second Tone		starting high and rising	蔴 má = hemp
Third Tone		falling first, then rising	马 mǎ = horse
Fourth Tone		starting high and falling	骂 mà = scold

• The first tone is high in pitch and even.
• The second tone is the rising tone, starting from a high pitch and rising briefly.
• The third tone is a falling rising tone.
• The fourth tone is a falling tone, starting high and descending briefly.

There is also a neutral tone. It is short and unaccented. Its pitch relies on a natural extension of the preceding tone. It is conveyed by the absence of a sign.

When one low tone follows another, the first one becomes a rising tone.

Having a good pronunciation depends greatly on getting the tones right. Of all the difficulties found in learning Chinese, the problem of tones is undoubtedly the most difficult.

Initials

There are 21 initials in Chinese and 12 of them have almost the same pronunciation as English.

m, f, n, l, h, and sh are pronounced as in English

d like “t” in “straight”(unaspirated)

j like “g” in “genius” (unaspirated)

z like “ds” in “beds”

zh like “j” in job

b like “p” in “spin” (unaspirated)

g a soft unaspirated “k” sound

x like “sh” in “sleep” but with the corners of the lips drawn back

r somewhat like “ge” in lodge

There is some special attention to be paid on the so called “aspirated” consonants. It is necessary to breath heavily after the original consonant is sounded:

p = p'(like in “pop”)

q = ch harder than “ch” in cheap

t = t’ (like in “tap”)

c = ts’ (like in “cats”), with aspiration

k = k’ (like in “kangaroo”)

ch = ch’ (tongue curled back, aspiration)

Finals

There are 36 finals in Chinese. Six of them are simple finals (a, e, i, o, u). The other 29 are compound finals. The following table shows all the finals.

	i	u	y
a	ia	ua
o		uo
i	ie		ye	ie like "ye" in "yes"
e				e like "e" in "her" (open)
er				-r (final) like "er" in "sister" (American pronunciation)
ai		uai		ai like "y" as in "by" (light)
ei		uei		ei like "ay" as in "bay" (light)
ao	iao
ou	iou			ou like "o" in "go"
an	ian	uan	yan	an like "an" in "can" (without stressing the "n")
en	in	uen	yen
ang	iang	uang		-ng (final) a nasalized sound like the "ng" in "bang" without pronouncing the "g"
eng	ing	ueng
ong	iong

There is also a final “er” which cannot be combined with initials.

an preceded by y or I = “yen” without stressing the “n”

In zi, ci, si, zhi, chi, shi and ri the i is not pronounced. It indicates that the consonant only is pronounced. e.g. zi = “ds” as in “beds” ri = “r” as in “right”

The consonants j, q and x are all followed by long vowels like the “ee” in “bee”.

When placed in the initial position Cu and Ci are written as w and y respectively.

Pronunciation Exercises

Proper pronunciation is essential in spoken Chinese. With more homonyms than any other language each mispronunciation results in another meaning.

	shān dōng Shandong	fēi jī airplane	fā yīn pronunciation	guān xīn to care for
	zhōng guó China	huā chá jasmine tea	jīn nián this year	huān yíng welcome
	kāi shuǐ boiling water	gāng bǐ fountain pen	shēn tǐ body	jī chǎng airport
	gōng zuò to work	chī fàn to eat	yī yuàn hospital	shāng diàn shop
	tā men they	zhī dao to know	duō shao how many	gē ge older brother
	nán jīng Nanjing	shí jiān (peiod of) time	zuó tiān yesterday	cháng jiāng Yangtze River
	hóng chá black tea	tóng xué schoolmate	huáng hé Yellow River	cháng cháng often
	chá guǎn tea house	liáng shuǐ cold water	chí jiǔ lasting	rén kǒu population
	niú ròu beef	nán kàn ugly	bái cài cabbage	yī yàng the same
	míng zi name	shí hou point in time	xué sheng student	péng you friend
	lǎo shī teacher	běi jīng Beijing	xǐ huan to like	huǒ chē train
	fǎ guó France	xiǎo shí hour	kě néng maybe	shuǐ píng level
	nǐ hǎo hello	kǒng zi Confucius	guǎng chǎng square, plaza	běi hǎi beihai
	mǐ fàn rice	hǎo xiàng it seems	zhǔ yào main	hǎo hàn brave
	jiǎo zi dumplings	mǔ qīn mother	wǎn shang evening	zǎo shang morning
	sì chuān Sichuan	shàng bān to go to work	qì chē car	kè tīng living room
	jiù xié old shoe	pà rén to be afraid	dì tú map	sì shí forty
	rì běn Japan	hàn yǔ Chinese language	shàng hǎi Shanghai	fàn guǎn restaurant
	guì xìng surname	hàn zì Chinese character	huà bào illustrated magazine	zài jiàn goodbye
	ài ren spouse	dì fang place	xiè xie thank you	bà ba dad
-r final	nà r where	zhèr here	nà er over there	yī diǎnr a little
	nán háir boy	nǚ háir girl

This concludes the pronunciation basics. The next basic lesson introduces the fundamentals of writing Chinese characters.