The Chinese Phonetic Alphabet

There have been many different systems of transcription used for learning to pronounce
Chinese. Today the official transcription accepted on an international basis is the Pinyin
alphabet, developed in China at the end of the 1950's.

Initials
A syllable in Chinese is composed of an initial, which is a consonant that begins the
syllable, and a final, wich covers the rest of the syllable.

b p m f
d t n l
g k h
j q x
z c s
zh ch sh r

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

• d like "d" in "bed" (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 "sheep" but with the corners of the lips drawn back
r somewhat like "r" in "rain"
• Particular attention should be paid to the pronunciation of the so-called
"aspirated" consonants. It is necessary to breath heavily after the consonant is
pronounced.
p like "p" in "pope"
t like "t" in "tap"
k like "k" in "kangaroo"
q harder than "ch" in "cheap"
c like "ts" in "cats"
ch (tongue curled back, aspirated)
• Distinction between certain initials:
b / p d / t g / k j / q z / c zh / ch

Finals
In modern Chinese, there are 38 finals besides the above-represented 21 initials.
 i u ü
a ia ua
o uo üe
e ie
er
ai uai
ei uei (ui)
ao iao
ou iou (iu)
an ian uan üan
en in uen (un) üen
ang iang uang
eng ieng ueng
ong iong

• ie like "ye" in "yes"

• e like "e" in "her"
• er like "er" in "sister" (american pronounciation)
• ai like "y" in "by" (light)
• ei like "ay" in "bay"
• ou like "o" in "go"
• an like "an" in "can" (without stressing the "n")
• -ng (final) a nasalized soung like the "ng" in "bang" without pronouncing the "g"
• uei, uen and iou when preceded by an initial, are written as ui, un and iu
respectivly.

Tones
Mandarin Chinese has four pitched tones and a "toneless" tone.

Tone Mark Description

1st dā High and level
2nd dá Starts medium in tone, then rises to the top
3rd dǎ Starts low, dips to the bottom, then rises toward the top
4th dà Starts at the top, then falls sharp and strong to the bottom
 Neutral da Flat, with no emphasis

Tones Changes
A 3rd tone, when immediatlely followed by another 3rd tone, should pe pronounced in
the 2nd tone.

Nǐ hǎo = Ní hǎo

Conversation
- Nǐ 你 nǐ (pro) You
你 好 hǎo (adj) good, well
hǎo 你好！ nǐhǎo! Hello, How are you?
好
! 再 zài (adv) again
！
见 jiàn (v) see
再见！ zàijiàn! Goodbye!
- Zài
再
jiàn
见
!
！

Calligraphy exercises
4 first chinese characters : 你，好，再 et 见. Learn the stroke order.
Click on the picture to get more information about the character.

Learn Chinese Characters

Rules of phonetic spelling
1 zi ci si = zcs
2 zhi chi shi = zh ch sh
3 ju jue juan jun = jü jüe jüan jün
qu que quan qun = qü qüe qüan qün
xu xue xuan xun = xü xüe xüan xün
4 yu yue yuan yun = ü üe üan ün
5 ya ye yao you = ia ie iao iou
yan yin ying yang = ian in ing iang
yong = iong
6 wu wa wo wai = u ua uo uai
wei wan wen wang = uei uan uen uang
weng = ueng
Anexe : Table of Pinyin Pronunciation

Sound discrimination
1 bo po ba pa bi pi
2 de te da ta di ti
3 ge ke ge ka gu ku
4 ji qi jia qia jiu qiu
5 zi ci za ca ze ce
6 zhi chi zha cha zhe che
7 yin ying lin ling jin jing
8 yan yang gan gang kan kang
9 gen geng men meng fen feng
Anexe : Table of Pinyin Pronunciation

Tone drills
bā bá bǎ bà bū bú bǔ bù
kē ké kě kè qī qí qǐ qì
xiē xié xiě xiè mēi méi měi mèi
guān guán guǎn guàn xī xí xǐ xì
duī duí duǐ duì mīng míng mǐng mìng
tiān tián tiǎn tiàn yī yí yǐ yì
huī huí huǐ huì xiū xiú xiǔ xiù
Anexe : Table of Pinyin Pronunciation

Neutral tone
In Chinese there are a number of syllabes wich are unstressed and take a feeble tone.
This is known as the neutral tone wich is shown by the absence of tone-graph.

māma 妈妈 : mum àiren 爱人 : husband, wife

bàba 爸爸 : dad háizi 孩子 : child, children

gēge 哥哥 : elder brother guānxi 关系 : relation

dìdi 弟弟 : younger brother xièxie 谢谢 : thank you

jiějie 姐姐 : elder sister kèqi 客气 : polite

mèimei 妹妹 : younger
xiūxi 休息 : have a rest
sister

Calligraphy exercices (Click on the character for details)

爸妈哥弟姐妹
Retroflex final
The final 儿 "er" is sometimes attached to another final to form a retroflex final and
when thus used, it is no longer an independent syllable. A retroflex final is represented
by the letter "r" added to the final.

huì + er -> huìr yíhuìr 一会儿 : a moment

diǎn + er -> diǎnr yìdiǎnr 一点儿 : a little

nǎ + er -> nǎr naǎr 哪儿 : where

zhè + er -> zhèr zhèr 这儿 : there

Easy and straightforward

The Chinese counting system is fairly easy and straightforward. There are not as many
number words as in English (where the numbers zero up to twenty require twenty-one
different words, plus more words for the tens, e.g. 'forty').

Basic Numbers : from 1 to 10

Chinese Pinyin

1 一 yī

2 二 èr

3 三 sān

4 四 sì

5 五 wǔ

6 六 liù

7 七 qī

8 八 bā

9 九 jiǔ

10 十 shí

0 零/〇 líng

Audio file : from 1 to 10.mp3

Anexe : Numbers, complicated form

From 11 to 99
Chinese Pinyin Note

11 十一 shíyī 10+1

12 十二 shí'èr 10+2

13 十三 shísān 10+3

19 十九 shíjiǔ 10+9

20 二十 èrshí 2x10

21 二十一 èrshíyī 2x10+1

22 二十二 èrshí'èr 2x10+2

 30 三十 sānshí 3x10

40 四十 sìshí 4x10

90 九十 jiǔshí 9x10

99 九十九 jiǔshíjiǔ 9x10+9

Audio file : from 11 to 99.mp3

From 100 to 999

Chinese Pinyin

100 一百 yībǎi

101 一百零一 yībǎilíngyī

110 一百一（十） yībǎiyī(shí)

111 一百一十一 yībǎiyīshíyī

120 一百二十 yībǎi'èrshí

200 二百 èrbǎi

999 九百九十九 jiǔbǎijiǔshǐjiǔ

Audio file : from 100 to 999.mp3

1000 and after

Chinese Pinyin

1 000 一千 yīqiān

1 001 一千零一 yīqiānlíngyī

1 010 一千零一十 yīqiānlíngshí

1 100 一千一百 yīqiānyībǎi

9 999 九千九百九十九 jiǔqiānjiǔbǎijiǔshíjiǔ

10 000 一万 yīwàn

1 000 000 一百万 yībǎiwàn

100 000 000 一 yīyì

Audio file : from 1000 to 100 000 000.mp3

Examples
• 100,004 = 十万〇四
• 10,050,026 = 一千〇五万〇二十六 or 一千〇五万二十六

Online exercices : http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Chinese/games/numbers/chinese/one.html

Calligraphy exercises
20 new characters. Click on the character to open its page (calligraphy, writing rules,
etymology...)

一二三四五六七八九十百千万亿零