Pinyin
Pinyin consists of three parts.
Initial Final Tone
+ +
shng m yn m shng dio
n i
you n
Initial
shng m
bbook ppay) mmom) ffun
d (dog) t (tea) n (no) l (law)
g (girl) k (kite) h (hot) j
q x zh (junk) ch (chin)
sh (shoe) rrun z kids c cats
s (sun) y (is used for i/) w (when begin
i yi yu with u sound)
e yue u wu ua wa
uai wai
Final
yn m
a o e i u
(father) (word) (uh) (ski) (ooh lala) [yu]
ai ei ui ao ou iu ie e er
(In writing, (In writing,
(cow) its a short (yet)
(eye) (pay) its a short (so) (yet) (teacher)
form for longer form for
[yue]
uei) iou)
an en in un n
(can) (taken) (teen) (u+en) (+en)
ang eng ing ong
(father (uh
(ee+ng) (only)
+song) +ng)
Basic Rule for
Placing the Tone Mark
Mark tone marks in this order:
a o e i u
Whenu and i are side by side, mark
the one that comes last.
Final
a o e i u lin x
yn m
a o e i u
b ba bo bi bu yu
m ma mo me mi mu
n na ne ni nu n
l la le li lu l
Final
lin x
ai ao an ang ei en eng ou
yn m
ai ao an ang
d dai dao dan dang
t tai tao tan tang
ei en eng ou
p pei pen basin peng
f fei fen feng
g gou
k kou
h hou
Tone
Common Tone Rules
shng dio
1Third Tone Sandhi
When a third tone followed by another
third tone, it should be pronounced as a
second tone automatically. But the writing
script should remain unchanged as the
third tone mark.
n + ho n ho
w + hn + ho w hn ho
Tone
shng dio 2Tone sandhi of b
b changes to b when it occurs before
another fourth-toned syllable in the same
word, phrase, or breath group:
44 24
bdu not correct b du
bb need not b b
Tone
3Tone sandhi of y
shng dio
y is pronounced in the fourth tone
when it precedes a first tone, second tone,
or third tone. It is read in the second tone
when it precedes a fourth tone.
y
zi shu yi bin!
say it once again!
qng zi shu y bin!
say it once again, please!
Tone
3Tone Changes in the numbers
qb
shng dio
Less commonly, q 7, and b8 may change
to second tone q, and b before a fourth-
toned.
14 24
q kui qinseven yuan q kui qin
b bi eightfold b bi