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Chinese alphabet: pinyin sounds, one by one
Chinese has no alphabet; it is written in characters. Pinyin spells its sounds in Latin letters. Tap a sound to hear it, see how to say it in English terms and the mistake to avoid.
Tap a sound to hear it
Lips
Tip of the tongue
Back of the tongue
Flat of the tongue
Tongue curled back
Tongue behind the teeth
Semivowels
Single vowels
Vowel pairs
Ending in n or ng
er and the buzzing i
Starting with i
Starting with u
Starting with ü
Selected sound
How to say it
Like the p in “spin”: no puff of air, and softer than the English b in “bed”. Hold your hand in front of your mouth: you should feel almost nothing.
Watch out
A strong, breathy English p. That puff of air is what turns b into p: bà “dad” becomes pà “to fear”.
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How to say it
Like the p in “pot”, with a clear puff of air, a little stronger than in English.
Watch out
Too little air, so it sounds like b. pǎo “to run” and bǎo “full” differ only in that puff.
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How to say it
The same as m in “mom”.
Watch out
Ending a syllable with m, as in English “Tom”. Mandarin syllables end only in a vowel, n, ng or r.
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The same as f in “fun”: upper teeth on the lower lip.
Watch out
Hardly a trap for English speakers. Note that f is never followed by i or ü: there is no fi or fü in Mandarin.
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Like the t in “stop”: no puff of air, close to an English d said without voice.
Watch out
A breathy English t, which turns it into Mandarin t: dǎ “to hit” becomes tǎ “tower”.
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Like the t in “top”, with a strong puff of air.
Watch out
Not enough air, so it sounds like d: tǎ “tower” turns into dǎ “to hit”.
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The same as n in “no”.
Watch out
No trap for English speakers. In parts of southern China n and l are mixed up, so you may hear lǐ for nǐ “you”.
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How to say it
Like the l in “leaf”: the light l at the start of an English word.
Watch out
The dark l of “full” at the end of a syllable. Mandarin has no syllable that ends in l.
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Like the k in “skin”: no puff of air, close to an English g said without voice.
Watch out
Breathing it out like an English k. gǒu “dog” and kǒu “mouth” differ only in that puff.
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Like the k in “kite”, with a strong puff of air.
Watch out
Too soft, so it sounds like g: kǒu “mouth” turns into gǒu “dog”.
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Rougher than the English h: the air scrapes the back of the mouth, like a softer ch in Scottish “loch”.
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A light English h, as in “hat”. It is understood, but it sounds foreign; give it a little friction.
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Like the j in “jeep”, but with the tip of the tongue down behind the lower teeth and the lips spread, as in a smile. No voice, no puff of air.
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An English j with rounded lips, or the French j of “Jacques”. Pinyin j is always the smiling, flat-tongue sound.
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How to say it
Like the ch in “cheese”, with the tongue flat behind the lower teeth, the lips spread and a puff of air.
Watch out
Saying “kw” as in “queen”. q is never a k sound: qī “seven” is close to “chee”.
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Between s and sh: say “see” with the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth and the middle of the tongue raised, lips spread.
Watch out
Reading it as “ks” or “z”, as in “taxi” or “xylophone”. xièxie “thank you” starts with this soft sh.
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Like the j in “jerk”, with the tip of the tongue curled up and back. No voice, no puff of air.
Watch out
Saying z. zh is never a z sound: Zhōngguó “China” starts like “jung”.
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Like the ch in “church”, with the tip of the tongue curled back and a strong puff of air.
Watch out
Saying it with the flat tongue of q. chī “to eat” and qī “seven” differ: curled back for ch, flat and smiling for q.
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Like the sh in “shirt”, with the tip of the tongue curled a little further back.
Watch out
Mixing it up with x. shì “to be” has the curled tongue; xì “thin” has the flat tongue and spread lips.
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How to say it
Like the r in “run”, said with the tongue curled back and a light buzz, close to the s in “pleasure”.
Watch out
A rolled r or a French r. The Mandarin r is never trilled: rè “hot” sounds close to English “ruh”.
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Like the ds in “kids” without the voice: t and s said as one sound. No puff of air.
Watch out
Saying the z of “zoo”. zài “at” starts with “dz”, not with a buzzing z.
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Like the ts in “cats”, followed by a strong puff of air.
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Reading it as k or s, as in English “cat” or “city”. cài “dish” sounds like “tsai”, with a breath after the ts.
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The same as s in “sun”. It never turns into z or sh.
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Saying si like English “see”. In si the i is a buzz that holds the s: say “sss” and let the voice come in.
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Like the y in “yes”. It only starts a syllable that begins with i or ü, as in yī “one”.
Watch out
Reading yu as English “you”. yu is ü: “ee” with rounded lips.
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Like the w in “we”. It starts a syllable that begins with u, as in wǒ “I”.
Watch out
Overdoing it. In wǔ “five” the w only shows how u is written: say a plain “oo”.
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Like the a in “father”, with the mouth wide open.
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Like the o in “or” said with rounded lips. After b, p, m and f a short u slides in front: bo sounds like “bwo”.
Watch out
The English “oh” of “go”, which glides into a w. Pinyin o stays round and pure.
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Not the e of “bed”: like the u in “duh”, said further back in the mouth, with relaxed lips.
Watch out
Reading it as the e of “bed”. hē “to drink” is closer to “huh” than to “heh”. Only in ie, üe and ei is e the e of “bed”.
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Like the ee in “see”, with the lips spread.
Watch out
Reading it as the i of “sit”. Pinyin i is long and clear, except after z, c, s, zh, ch, sh and r, where it is the buzzing i.
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Like the oo in “food”, with tightly rounded lips.
Watch out
Adding a y, as in English “use”: bù “not” is “boo”, never “byoo”. And after j, q, x and y, a u is really ü.
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How to say it
Say “ee” and round your lips as for “oo” without moving the tongue: the French u of “tu” or the German ü.
Watch out
Saying “oo”. lǜ “green” and lù “road” are different words, and so are nǚ “woman” and nǔ “effort”.
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Like “eye”.
Watch out
Saying the a of “cat” or the ai of “said”. Start from an open “ah”: bái “white” rhymes with “buy”.
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Like the ay in “day”.
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Saying “ee”, as in English “receive”. hēi “black” rhymes with “hey”.
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Like the ow in “cow”.
Watch out
Reading it as two syllables, “ah-oh”. hǎo “good” is one syllable and rhymes with “how”.
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Like the o in “go” or “so”.
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Reading it as the ou of “out” or “you”. dōu “all” rhymes with “dough”.
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Like “ahn”: an open a, ended by a short n with the tip of the tongue up.
Watch out
Ending it with ng. fàn “meal” and fàng “to put” are different words.
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Like the un in “under”, ended by n: a short, neutral vowel.
Watch out
Reading it as the en of “pen”. mén “door” sounds like “mun”, not “men”.
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An open a, as in “father”, ended by the ng of “song”. No g is heard.
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The flat a of “bang”. In Mandarin the a of ang is deep and open: “ahng”.
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Like the ung in “lung”: a short, neutral vowel and ng.
Watch out
Reading it as the eng of English “length”. lěng “cold” rhymes with “lung”.
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Like “oong”: a round vowel between o and u, ended by ng.
Watch out
An open o, as in American “long”. zhōng “middle” sounds closer to “joong”.
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Like American English “are” or “err”: the tongue curls back while the vowel is said.
Watch out
Splitting it into two sounds, e and then r. er is one sound: èr “two” is said in one go.
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After z, c, s, zh, ch, sh and r the letter i is not “ee”. Hold the consonant and add voice: zi is a buzzing “dzz”, shi sounds close to “shr”.
Watch out
Saying “ee”: si like “see”, shi like “she”. sì “four” and shì “to be” are said with the buzz.
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Like “ya” in “yacht”: i glides into a.
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Like “ye” in “yes”: here e is the e of “bed”.
Watch out
Two syllables, “ee-ay”. xièxie “thanks” is “syeh-syeh”.
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Like “yow” in “yowl”: i, then the ao of “cow”.
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Short for iou: like “yo” in “yoke”. liù “six” sounds like “lyoh”.
Watch out
Reading it as “ee-oo” or as English “you”. In jiǔ “nine” the o is short but there: “jyoh”.
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How to say it
Like “yen”: between i and n the a turns into the e of “bed”.
Watch out
Saying “ee-ahn” with the a of “father”. tiān “sky” sounds like “tyen”, qián “money” like “chyen”.
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Like the een of “seen”, but short: i ended by n.
Watch out
Turning the n into ng. xīn “heart” and xīng “star” are different words.
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Like “yahng”: i glides into the deep ang.
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Like the ing in “sing”, with a longer ee.
Watch out
Dropping the ng, which turns it into in. tīng “to listen” needs the ng of “sing”.
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Like “yoong”: i, then the round ong.
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Like “wa” in “water”: u glides into an open a.
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Like “wo” in “war”, without the r.
Watch out
Splitting it into “oo-oh”. duō “many” is one quick syllable.
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Like “why”.
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Short for uei: like “way”. guì “expensive” sounds like “gway”.
Watch out
Reading it as “oo-ee” or like French “oui”. duì “correct” is “dway”.
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Like “wahn”. After j, q, x and y the same letters stand for üan.
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Short for uen: like “won”, a short, neutral vowel between u and n. After j, q, x and y the same letters stand for ün.
Watch out
Reading it as the un of “sun” or as “oon”. chūn “spring” sounds like “chwun”.
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Like “wahng”: u glides into the deep ang.
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Like “wung”. It exists only as weng, in a few words such as wēng “old man”.
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ü glides into the e of “bed”. Written ue after j, q, x and y: xué “to study”.
Watch out
Saying “oo-eh”. xué starts with the round ü, not with “oo”.
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How to say it
ü, then “en”. Written uan after j, q, x and y: quán “all”.
Watch out
Reading it like the uan of guān, “wahn”. In yuǎn “far” the vowel is ü, and the a sounds like the e of “bed”.
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ü ended by n. Written un after j, q, x and y: jūn “army”.
Watch out
Saying “oon”, as in “June”. yún “cloud” is said with ü.
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Your browser has no Chinese voice of its own, so the listen buttons stay silent here. iPhone, iPad and Mac have one built in. On other devices a Chinese voice can be added in the speech settings of the system.
A voice reads characters, not letters, so each initial plays in the syllable teachers use for it: b as 玻 bō, p as 坡 pō, m as 摸 mō, f as 佛 fó. A final plays as a whole syllable, such as 鹅 é.
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Is there a Chinese alphabet?
No. Chinese is written in characters (hanzi), and a character stands for a syllable with a meaning, not for a sound. There are thousands of them, so they cannot be learned like the letters of an alphabet.
What is often called the Chinese alphabet is pinyin (Hanyu Pinyin), the official spelling of Mandarin in Latin letters, adopted in 1958. Children in China learn to read characters with it, most people type Chinese with it, and dictionaries and apps show it with the characters.
In Taiwan, children learn the sounds with the phonetic symbols of zhuyin (bopomofo) instead. Pinyin and zhuyin side by side
The pinyin alphabet: 26 letters
Pinyin uses the 26 Latin letters, plus ü and four tone marks. v is not needed for Mandarin: it is kept for foreign words and dialects, and on a keyboard it stands in for ü. Here is each letter with its official name from the 1958 scheme, in zhuyin and in pinyin.
- Aaㄚa
- Bb
ㄅㄝ bê - Cc
ㄘㄝ cê - Dd
ㄉㄝ dê - Eeㄜe
- Ff
ㄝㄈ êf - Gg
ㄍㄝ gê - Hh
ㄏㄚ ha - Iiㄧi
- Jj
ㄐㄧㄝ jiê - Kk
ㄎㄝ kê - Ll
ㄝㄌ êl - Mm
ㄝㄇ êm - Nn
ㄋㄝ nê - Ooㄛo
- Pp
ㄆㄝ pê - Qq
ㄑㄧㄡ qiu - Rr
ㄚㄦ ar - Ss
ㄝㄙ ês - Tt
ㄊㄝ tê - Uuㄨu
- Vv
ㄪㄝ vê - Ww
ㄨㄚ wa - Xx
ㄒㄧ xi - Yy
ㄧㄚ ya - Zz
ㄗㄝ zê
In daily life few people use these names. Teachers say the initials by their sound (bo, po, mo, fo), and many people name the letters the English way.
The 23 initials
An initial is the consonant a syllable starts with. Chinese schools teach 23: the 21 consonants of the pinyin chart plus y and w, which stand for i and u at the start of a syllable. Each is practised with a syllable of its own, and the buttons above play them the same way.
| Lips | b 玻 bō p 坡 pō m 摸 mō f 佛 fó |
|---|---|
| Tip of the tongue | d 得 dé t 特 tè n 讷 nè l 勒 lè |
| Back of the tongue | g 哥 gē k 科 kē h 喝 hē |
| Flat of the tongue | j 基 jī q 欺 qī x 希 xī |
| Tongue curled back | zh 知 zhī ch 蚩 chī sh 诗 shī r 日 rì |
| Tongue behind the teeth | z 资 zī c 雌 cí s 思 sī |
| Semivowels | y 衣 yī w 乌 wū |
The pairs b and p, d and t, g and k, j and q, zh and ch, z and c differ in one thing only: the second one has a puff of air. Neither is voiced, so the difference is breath, not voice.
Three groups sit close together and are the hardest for most learners: j, q, x with the tongue flat and the lips spread; zh, ch, sh, r with the tongue curled back; z, c, s with the tongue behind the teeth.
The finals
The final is the rest of the syllable: a vowel, two or three vowels, or a vowel ended by n or ng. Linguists count about 35, as the pinyin chart does. Chinese schools teach 24 finals and 16 whole syllables, shown here.
| Single vowels | a o e i u ü |
|---|---|
| Vowel pairs | ai ei ui ao ou iu ie üe |
| The er final | er |
| Ending in n | an en in un ün |
| Ending in ng | ang eng ing ong |
| Whole syllables | zhi chi shi ri zi ci si yi wu yu ye yue yuan yin yun ying |
The whole syllables are read as one piece instead of being spelled out: zhi, chi, shi, ri, zi, ci and si end in the buzzing i, and yi, wu, yu, ye, yue, yuan, yin, yun and ying are written with y or w. In the tool above, the finals are grouped by their first sound instead.
Spelling rules: y, w, ü and the short forms
- A syllable that starts with i, u or ü is written with y or w: i becomes yi, ia becomes ya, u becomes wu, ua becomes wa, ü becomes yu.
- ü loses its dots after j, q, x and y, because a plain u never follows them: ju, qu, xu and yu are all said with ü. After n and l both exist, so the dots stay: nü and nu, lü and lu.
- Three finals are shortened after a consonant: iou is written iu (liu), uei is ui (gui) and uen is un (lun). The vowel in the middle is still heard, lightly.
- An apostrophe marks where a syllable starts when the split could be unclear: Xi’an is two syllables (xī’ān), xian is one.
- The tone mark goes on a, or else on e, or on the o of ou, or else on the last vowel: hǎo, xiè, gǒu, guì, liù.
Hard sounds for English speakers
Most of pinyin reads easily for an English speaker. These five are where English habits get in the way:
- q, x and j: English has no flat-tongue sounds. Smile, keep the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth and say “chee”, “see”, “jee”. Never read q as “kw” or x as “ks”.
- zh, ch, sh and r: curl the tip of the tongue back. They are close to English j, ch, sh and r, but said deeper in the mouth; English speakers tend to say them too far forward.
- b, d, g against p, t, k: English tells them apart by voice, Mandarin by breath. Say b, d, g softly and without a puff, p, t, k with a strong one.
- ü and the e of hē: neither is in English. ü is “ee” with rounded lips; e is like “uh” said far back.
- The buzzing i of zi, ci, si, zhi, chi, shi and ri: do not say “ee”. Hold the consonant and let the voice come in.
Tones: the marks above the vowels
Every syllable also has a tone, a pitch pattern that changes the meaning: mā “mother”, má “hemp”, mǎ “horse”, mà “to scold”. Pinyin writes it as a mark above the vowel. Hear the four tones and practise them
Every syllable, and the pinyin of any text
This page goes sound by sound. The pinyin chart puts the sounds together: all 403 syllables of Mandarin in one table, each with its tones and audio. Open the pinyin chart
To see the pinyin of a Chinese text, paste it into the converter. Chinese to pinyin converter
Pinyin for the Chinese around you
Knowing the sounds helps once you have the pinyin. For Chinese on a sign, a menu or a page of a book, HanCam reads the characters with the camera of your iPhone or iPad and shows them with their pinyin, tone marks included, and the meaning. It runs on the device, offline once the language pack is downloaded.
Point your iPhone at Chinese and see the pinyin: signs, menus, books and screenshots.
Free: reading is unlimited, copying 10 times a day. One-time Premium purchase, no subscription. iPhone and iPad, iOS 18 or later.
Questions and answers
Does Chinese have an alphabet?
No. Chinese is written in characters, each one a syllable with a meaning. Pinyin, the official Latin spelling of Mandarin since 1958, works like an alphabet for the sounds; in Taiwan, zhuyin (bopomofo) does the same job.
How many letters does the pinyin alphabet have?
It uses the 26 Latin letters, plus ü. v appears only in foreign words and as the keyboard stand-in for ü. The sounds are counted differently: 23 initials and 24 finals in Chinese schools, or 21 initials and about 35 finals in the pinyin chart.
How do you pronounce q, x, zh and c in pinyin?
q is like the ch of “cheese” and x like a soft sh, both with the tongue flat and the lips spread. zh is like the j of “jerk” with the tongue curled back. c is the ts of “cats”, with a puff of air.
What is ü in pinyin and how do you type it?
ü is “ee” said with rounded lips, like the French u or the German ü. After j, q, x and y it is written without the dots. On most pinyin keyboards you type it as v: lv for lü.
Is pinyin pronounced like English?
Only partly. m, f, n, l, s and w are close, but many letters stand for other sounds: q, x, c, z and zh are not what an English reader expects, and b, d, g differ from p, t, k by a puff of air, not by voice.
How many initials and finals are there in pinyin?
Chinese schools teach 23 initials (with y and w), 24 finals and 16 whole syllables. Linguists count 21 initials and about 35 finals. Together they make about 400 syllables, and more than 1200 with the tones.
Where does the sound on this page come from?
From the Chinese text-to-speech voice of your own device: nothing is downloaded and nothing is sent anywhere. A voice reads characters, not letters, so each sound plays in its teaching syllable, such as 玻 bō for b.