The Chinese Phonetic Alphabet

There have been many different systems of transcriptions used for learning to pronounce Chinese.
Today the official transcription accepted on an international basis is the PINYIN alphabet developed on
China at the end of the 1950’s.
Initials
A syllable in Chinese is composed of an initial, which is a consonant that begin the syllable and a final,
which covers the rest of the syllable.
B p M f
D t N l
G k H
J q X
Y w
Z c S
Zh ch Sh r

Finals
In Modern Chinese, there are 38 finals besides the above represented initials.
Chinese Phonetic Alphabet English Key Words / Sounds
a Father
o or
e her
i see
i (After c, ch, r, s, sh, z & zh, it is
Silent)
 er err
ai eye
ei sleigh
ao now
ou oh
an ahn
en run
ang ahng
eng hung
ong oong
ia Asia
iao ee + aao
ie yes
ian yen
in pin
iang ee + ahng
ing sing
iong ee + oong
u rude
ua wash
uo woe
uai why
uei (ui) way
uan wander
uen (un) won
uang oo + ahng
ü eew / eeu
üe eew + eh
üan eew + an
ün eew + n
Tones
Chinese is a tonal language. The tone of a Chinese word is just as
important as its pronunciation. A syllable pronounced in different tone, has
different meaning even if it is composed of the same initial and final. Using
wrong tone in a Chinese word would change its meaning completely.
Chinese Puthonghua has four tones, expressed as 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th.
The 1st tone (-) is a high-level pitch.
The 2nd tone (/) is a rising pitch.
The 3rd tone (v) is a low dipping pitch.
The 4th tone (\) is a falling tone
When a syllable contains a single vowel, the tone mark is placed directly
above the vowel letter as in hĕn and qὺ. If the final of the syllable is
composed of two or more vowels, the tone mark should be placed above
the most prominent vowel (the one pronounced more loudly and clearly).
Third Tone sandhi
A third tone, when immediately followed by another third tone, should be
pronounced in the second tone, but with the tone mark “v” remaining
unchanged. For example:
nĭ hăo --- ní hăo wŏ hĕn hăo --- wó hén hăo
hĕn hăo --- hén hăo yĕ hĕn hăo --- yé hén hăo
Rules of phonetic spelling
1. zi ci si = z c s
2. zhi chi shi ri = zh ch sh r
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

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

Tone Drills
bā bá bă bà bū bú bŭ bù
kē ké kĕ kè qī qí qĭ qì
xiē xié xiĕ xiè mēi méi mĕi mèi
guān guán guăn guàn xī xí xĭ xì
duī duí duĭ duì mīng míng mĭng mìng
tiān tián tiăn tiàn yī yí yĭ yì
huī huí huĭ huì xiū xiú xiŭ xiù

Neutral Tone
In Chinese there are a number of syllables which are unstressed and take
a feeble tone. This is known as the neutral tone which is shown by the
absence of the tone graph.
māma mum àiren husband or wife
bàba dad háizi child, children

gēge elder brother guānxi relation

dìdi younger brother xièxie thank

jiĕjie elder sister kèqi polite

mèimei younger sister xiūxi have a rest

Retroflex Final
The final “er” is sometimes attached to another final to form a retroflex final.
A retroflex final is represented by the letter “r” added to the final.
hui + er – huir yíhuìr
dian + er – dianr yìdiănr
na + er – nar năr nàr
zhe + er – zher zhèr

Conversation
A: Nĭ hăo ǃ nĭ pro you
B: Nĭ hăo ǃ hăo adj good, well
nĭ hăo Hello
A: zàijiàn ǃ zài adv again
B: zàijiàn ǃ jiàn v see
Zàijiàn see again / good bye
pronounced more loudly and clearly)