The Chinese Phonetic Alphabet
Learning the Chinese phonetic alphabet is the first step towards learning Chinese. The alphabet is
simply a method of writing Chinese pronunciation. It helps you to get the pronunciation right in
Chinese, which is probably one of the hardest parts of Chinese for most western people. But
remember that the phonetic alphabet is not a substitute for the Chinese writing system.
The Chinese phonetic alphabet is called "Hanyu Pinyin" in Mandarin Chinese.
A Chinese syllable normally consists of three parts: an initial (a consonant), a final (a vowel) and
a tone.
For example in the word ‘Beijing’, this is actually two words in Chinese: the first word ‘bei’ has
an initial B, and a final ei; the second word ‘jing’ has an initial J and a finial ing. The tone is
usually ignored when you the words are written in English, but the both of the words have a tone
of 1.
There are 23 initials in Chinese:
b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l
g, k, h, j, q, x
z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, r, (y, w)
Letter
Pronunciation
Letter
Pronunciation
Letter
Pronunciation
B
As in bay
G
As in go
Sh
As in shirt
P
As in pay
K
As in kit
R
As in leisure
M
As in may
H
As in hit
Z
As in reads
F
As in fat
J
As in jeep
C
As in hats
D
As in dad
Q
As in cheer
S
As in say
T
As in time
X
As in she
Y
As in yes
N
As in nay
Zh
As in junk
W
As in way
L
As in lay
Ch
As in church
Please bear this in mind: This table is only to help you remember to sounds. The sounds in
Chinese are not exactly the same as it is in English. I do not usually recommend that you try to
pronounce Chinese the way you pronounce English.
The Chinese initials are not syllabic sounds. No word in Chinese consists of only an initial, but
some words can consist of only one final.
There are 35 finals in Chinese. They are divided into three main groups: the simple vowels
(simple finals) the nasal vowels (nasal finals) and the compound vowels (compound finals).
a
o
e
ai
ei
ao
ou
an
en
ang
eng
ong
The simple vowels (6):
i
ia
u
ua
uo
ie
ü
üe
uai
uei
iao
iou (iu)
ian
in
iang
ieng (ing)
iong
uan
uen
uang
ueng
a, o, e, i, u, ü
The compound vowels (13): ai, ei, ao, ou
ia, ie, ua, uo, üe
iao, iou, uai, uei
The nasal vowels (16): an, en, in, ün, ian, uan, üan, ueng
ang, eng, ing, ong, iang, uang, ueng, iong
üan
üen (ün)