Pinyin

Pinyin

What is Pinyin?

Pinyin is the Romanization of the Chinese characters based on their pronunciation. In Mandarin Chinese, the phrase “Pin Yin” literally translates into “spell sound.” In other words, spelling out Chinese phrases with letters from the English alphabet. 

Pinyin uses the same letters as the English alphabet except for the letter v plus the addition of ū. All of the consonants represent basically the same sound that they have in English with the following exceptions:

• The letters b, d, and g are really the unaspirated versions of p, t, and k. This simply means that they are pronounced in the way the letters p, t, and k are pronounced after the letter s (as in spy, sty, and sky). The difference is subtle enough that, unfortunately, many Chinese phrasebooks do not bother to point out this crucial difference.
• The letters q, x, z, and c are pronounced more like the letters ch, sh, ds, and ts in cheap, she, suds, and cats, respectively.
• The letters zh, ch, sh, r are known as the retroflex initials, meaning that they should be pronounced with the tongue curled backwards.

Since pinyin was designed to represent phonetics, it is entirely consistent on how combination s or initials and finals should be pronounced. There are, however, a few conventions and shortcuts that you should be aware of:

• The finals ui, un, and iu, are actually shortcut for uei, uen, and iou, respectively, so should always be pronounced as such.
• The letter ū is written simply as a u (no ūmlaut) when it follows the letters j, q, x, or y.
• The letter i represents three different sounds dependent on the initial that precedes it. When it follows the so-called sibilant initials (z, c, s), it sounds like "zz". When it follows the retroflex initials (zh, ch, sh, and r) it sounds like "rr". In all other cases, it sounds like the English "ee".

Initial

In each cell below, the bold letters indicate pinyin, and the brackets enclose the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet

¹ y is pronounced [ɥ] (a labial-palatal approximant) before u.
² the letters w and y are not included in the table of initials in the official pinyin system. They are an orthographic convention for the medials i, u and ü when no initial is present. When i, u, or ü are finals and no initial is present, they are spelled yi, wu, and yu, respectively.

The conventional order (excluding w and y), derived from the zhuyin system, is:

b  p  m  f

d  t  n  l

g  k  h

j  q  x

zh  ch  sh  r

z  c  s

Final

Tones

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin for a standalone (no-initial) form, and the third indicates pinyin for a combination with an initial. Other than finals modified by an -r, which are omitted, the following is an exhaustive table of all possible finals.^1[30]

The only syllable-final consonants in Standard Chinese are -n and -ng, and -r, which is attached as a grammatical suffix. A Chinese syllable ending with any other consonant either is from a non-Mandarin language (a southern Chinese language such as Cantonese, or a minority language of China), or indicates the use of a non-pinyin romanization system (where final consonants may be used to indicate tones).

¹ [aɚ̯] is written er. For other finals formed by the suffix -r, pinyin does not use special orthography; one simply appends r to the final that it is added to, without regard for any sound changes that may take place along the way. For information on sound changes related to final r, please see Erhua#Rules.
² ü is written as u after j, q, or x.
³ uo is written as o after b, p, m, f, or w.

Technically, i, u, ü without a following vowel are finals, not medials, and therefore take the tone marks, but they are more concisely displayed as above. In addition, ê [ɛ](欸; 誒) and syllabic nasals m (呒, 呣), n (嗯, 唔), ng (嗯, 𠮾) are used as interjections.