Learn how to pronounce Mandarin Chinese like a native by practicing with our audio demonstrations and video explanations for every possible sound combination in the language.
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What is Pinyin?
The word pīnyīn (拼音) in Chinese literally means "spell-sounds". It's the most commonly used system for transcribing or or spelling out the Chinese sounds, and it uses the letters in the Latin alphabet that you are already familiar with.
Pinyin is an extremely useful tool and should be the foundation of your Chinese learning. Plus, it's not just for Chinese learners like yourself. Actually, all native Chinese speakers know pinyin - it's the first thing Chinese children learn at school before learning characters. So even if you don't know Chinese characters, you can type in pinyin and Chinese people will understand.
Every single sound that exists in Chinese can be displayed easily in a pinyin chart like the one above. Once you master these 409 sounds along with the tones, you'll have practically mastered the pronunciation of every single word in the Chinese language. And even better, if you know English you should already know how to correctly pronounce over half of those sounds without any coaching! As for the rest, that's what we're here for! We've built this interactive pinyin chart (above) with demonstrations for how to correctly pronounce every possible sound in the Chinese language. We've also created a series of video lessons (below) with practice tools that enable you to record yourself and listen back to it to ensure your pronunciation matches the examples. Combined with our Tone Pairs practice tool, you now have everything you need to master pinyin, tones, and Chinese pronunciation.
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Frequently Asked Questions
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What is pinyin?
The word pīnyīn (拼音) in Chinese literally means "spell-sounds". It's the most commonly used system for transcribing or or spelling out the Chinese sounds, and it uses the letters in the Latin alphabet that you are already familiar with.
Pinyin is an extremely useful tool and should be the foundation of your Chinese learning. Plus, it's not just for Chinese learners like yourself. Actually, all native Chinese speakers know pinyin - it's the first thing Chinese children learn at school before learning characters. So even if you don't know Chinese characters, you can type in pinyin and Chinese people will understand.
Every single sound that exists in Chinese can be displayed easily in a pinyin chart like the one above. Once you master these 409 sounds along with the tones, you'll have practically mastered the pronunciation of every single word in the Chinese language. And even better, if you know English you should already know how to correctly pronounce over half of those sounds without any coaching! As for the rest, that's what we're here for! We've built this interactive pinyin chart (above) with demonstrations for how to correctly pronounce every possible sound in the Chinese language. We've also created a series of video lessons (below) with practice tools that enable you to record yourself and listen back to it to ensure your pronunciation matches the examples. Combined with our Tone Pairs practice tool, you now have everything you need to master pinyin, tones, and Chinese pronunciation.
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How do I pronounce pinyin?
Good news: if you know English you should already know how to correctly pronounce over half of those sounds without any coaching! As for the rest, that's what we're here for. We've built this interactive pinyin chart (above) with demonstrations for how to correctly pronounce every possible sound in the Chinese language. We've also created a series of video lessons (below) with practice tools that enable you to record yourself and listen back to it to ensure your pronunciation matches the examples. Combined with our Tone Pairs practice tool, you now have everything you need to master pinyin and Chinese pronunciation.
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What are the rules for using pinyin?
First and foremost, do not assume any given syllable in pinyin will be pronounced the same as it would if it were English. About 50% of the time, this is not the case. We've created this series of video lessons that teach the rules for using pinyin, and provide helpful demonstrations and clear explanations of how to pronounce each and every possible pinyin syllable.
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How do I convert Chinese characters to pinyin?
There are many online tools and resources available for converting Chinese characters to pinyin. Some tools allow you to enter the characters manually, while others use optical character recognition (OCR) technology to automatically convert an image of the characters into pinyin. Our personal favorite is the Pleco app.
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Are there any common mistakes to avoid when using pinyin?
The most mistake made my new learners of pinyin is to pronounce it as if it were English. About 50% of the time, this is not the case. For example, the pinyin syllable hē is not pronounced the same as the English word "he"; instead it is pronounced similar to the English sound "huh". We've created this series of video lessons that teach the rules for using pinyin, and provide helpful demonstrations and clear explanations of how to pronounce each and every possible pinyin syllable.
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Can pinyin be used to type Chinese on a computer or phone?
Yes, pinyin can be used to type Chinese on a computer or phone. Most computers and smartphones come with built-in pinyin input methods, which allow you to type Chinese characters by entering the corresponding pinyin. Here is our article explaining how to type pinyin on Windows and Mac OS. And for mobile devices, you just need to set up your Chinese keyboard and then hold down on the vowels to be given tone mark options.
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What is the difference between pinyin and simplified Chinese characters?
Pinyin is a system for transcribing the sounds of the Mandarin Chinese language using the Latin alphabet. It is used by Chinese children and Chinese language learners as they prepare to learn the character-based standard writing system. Simplified Chinese characters are the character-based standard writing system used primarily in mainland China and Singapore; and is a simplified version of traditional Chinese characters.
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What are Chinese tones?
Chinese tones refer to the different pitches and inflections used to pronounce words in Mandarin Chinese. We created this series of video lessons with clear explanations and helpful demonstrations for each of the tones, and we think it's the best way to learn and master them. But here's a brief intro:
There are five tones in Mandarin Chinese: the flat or level tone (e.g. mā), the rising tone (má), the falling then rising tone (mǎ), the falling tone (mà), and the neutral tone (ma). The meaning of a word in Chinese isn't just dependent on the syllabic pronunciation but also on the vocal pitch and inflection (a.k.a. the tone), so it is important to use the correct tone when speaking Mandarin Chinese. Pinyin uses accent marks to indicate the correct tone for each word. For example, the syllable "ma" can have four different meanings depending on the tone used: "mā" (妈) means "mother", "má" (麻) means "hemp", "mǎ" (马) means "horse", "mà" (骂) means "scold", and "ma" (吗) is a particle that turns a statement into a yes or no question.
