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Chinese Pronunciation

ISBN 978-986-6700-02-6

The basic structure of the Chinese syllables:

Structures of a Chinese syllable :

A typical Chinese syllable is composed of three parts : an initial, a final, and a tone.

Not all the syllables have an initial, but every syllable must have a final and a tone.

Initials (Consonant)

bilabial雙脣音b p m

labio-dental唇齒音 f

blade-alveolar舌尖中音d t n l

radical consonants舌根音g k h

dorsal consonant舌面音j q x

retroflex舌尖後音zh ch sh r

alveolar舌尖前音z c s

Finals (Vowel) : Change the shape of your mouth

For the sake of economy, some vowels are omitted in pinyin orthography. For example, iu is pronounced iou, but the o is omitted and it is written as iu. Also, ui and un are pronounced uei and uen, but the e is omitted and they are written as ui and un.

Tones

How to write tones

   1.Tone marks are written above the main vowel of a syllable. The main vowel is determined by this order of precedence : a-o-e-i-u-ü.

       For example, in ao the main vowel is a , and in ei, the main vowel is e.

       However, there is an exception with i and u. That is, wheni and u exist in the same syllable, the tone mark is always placed on   

       the second vowel. For example, niú (cow) and  duì (correct)

    2.The dot in the letter i is removed when a tone mark is placed over it. For example, nǐ (you) and yī (one)

    3.The two dots of group ü finals changes depending on the following situations:

       Remove the two dots: stand alone (yuè , yuán) or combined with j, q, and x (jú , quán)

       Keep the two dots : combine with n and l (nǚ, lǚ)

   4. Capital letters

       Capitalized the letter of all proper nouns. For example,

  kǒngzǐ (Confucius), xiānggǎng(Hong Kong), and Lǐ xiānshēng( Mr. Lee)

      Capitalized the first letter of the first word in a sentence. For example,

  Píngguǒ yì jīn duōshǎo qián? (How much for one 600g of apples?)

   5. PINYIN basically follows the punctuation rules of English. The only difference is that, in Chinese, we use “、” to separate the items.

       For example,Wǒ xǐhuān píngguǒ、xiāngjiāo hàn mùguā. (I like apples, bananas, and papayas.)

   6. In order to avoid confusion, an apostrophe (，) is used to divide two syllables when the combination may cause uncertainty or

      ambiguity. For example, ī’è (hunger) and píng’ān(safty)