Pinyin Chart: All Initials and Finals, with Audio

Pinyin is the official way to write Mandarin sounds with the Latin alphabet. Every Chinese character is read as one syllable, and every syllable is an initial (the consonant at the start) plus a final (the rest), said with a tone: 妈 mā is the initial m, the final a and the first tone.

Mandarin has only about 400 different syllables, so the whole sound system fits in one chart. Tap any syllable to hear it in each of its tones, with a common character for each.

The pinyin chart

Each example is the character used most often with that reading in common words, taken from this dictionary’s word lists. That is why bǎ is 把 but bà is 爸 (from 爸爸, dad): 把 can also be read bà, but only in rare words. Syllables that occur only in rare characters, such as den, nou and rua, are left out, and a tone is missing from a syllable when no common character uses it.

Initials

There are 21 initials. Some syllables have no initial at all (ai, er, yi, wu), shown as – in the chart. The English comparisons below are close, not exact, so use the audio.

The pairs b/p, d/t, g/k, z/c, zh/ch, j/q all differ in the same way. The first of each pair has no puff of air, the second has a strong one. Hold a sheet of paper in front of your mouth: it should move for 他 tā and stay still for 大 dà. Mandarin b, d and g are not voiced like English b, d and g, which is why they can sound like p, t and k to English ears.

Finals

The finals are grouped the same way as in the chart, mostly by the vowel they start with.

Finals with a, o, e, and -i

Finals with i

Finals with u

Finals with ü

Sounds English speakers mix up

• j q x and zh ch sh. 鸡 jī and 知 zhī, 七 qī and 吃 chī, 西 xī and 诗 shī. For j, q, x the tip of the tongue rests behind the lower teeth and the lips are spread. For zh, ch, sh the tip curls up to the roof of the mouth. j, q and x are only ever followed by i or ü.
• q is not “k”. It sounds like the ch in “cheese”. x is not “ks” either: 谢谢 xièxie starts with a sound close to “sh”.
• c is “ts”. 菜 cài starts like the end of “cats”, never like “k”.
• s and x. 死 sǐ and 洗 xǐ differ only in the initial. In si the vowel is the buzzing -i, so 四 sì does not sound like “see”.
• u and ü. 路 lù means road and 绿 lǜ means green.
• e. 饿 è and 喝 hē use a vowel English does not have: say “uh” with your lips spread and the sound far back in your mouth.
• r. 日 rì and 热 rè: curl the tongue tip up as for sh, then add voice.

Spelling rules

Pinyin spells a few finals differently from how the chart groups them. These rules explain every spelling you will meet.

1. No initial: y and w. A syllable cannot start with i, u or ü, so they are written with y or w: i → yi, ia → ya, in → yin; u → wu, ua → wa; ü → yu, üe → yue. 一 is yī, 五 is wǔ, 鱼 is yú.
2. ü loses its dots after j, q, x and y. Only ü can follow those letters, so 去 qù qù is the ü sound, never the u of 不 bù. After n and l both sounds exist, so the dots stay: 女 nǚ (woman) and 努 nǔ (to strive). On a keyboard, ü is typed as v.
3. Three finals are shortened after an initial. iou is written iu (六 liù), uei is written ui (对 duì), uen is written un (春 chūn). You may still hear a short o or e in the middle, most clearly in the third and fourth tones.
4. Tone marks go on a vowel: on a or e if there is one, on the o of ou, otherwise on the last vowel. That is why it is liù and guì. The four tones covers the marks.

Questions learners ask

How many syllables does Mandarin have? About 400 without tones, and about 1,300 when each is counted with its tones. Not every syllable exists in every tone, and some exist only in a handful of rare characters.

Is pinyin pronounced like English? Many letters are close, but q, x, c, z, zh, r, e, ü and the -i of zhi and si are not. If you read pinyin as English, Qīng comes out as “king” and cài as “kai”.

Do I need to learn pinyin? Yes. Textbooks, dictionaries (including this one) and most Chinese keyboards use it, so it is how you look up words and type. See Typing pinyin.

What about Zhuyin (bopomofo)? Zhuyin is a set of phonetic symbols used to teach reading in Taiwan. Pinyin is the standard in mainland China and the international standard for writing Mandarin in Latin letters. Both describe the same sounds.