Pinyin
Start by reading through the following two tables of initital and final sounds. Then watch the video and pronounce along. There is a lot to absorb here, so it may be better to do one section per day or, if you want to do more, take a break between each section. THese are divided up in teh same way the Chinese divide them, based on the sounds your mouth makes.
You should spend a fair amount of time here and with the links below. Good pronunciation makes a world of difference when speaking with Chinese people.
Consonants/Initials - 23
b: unaspirated "p", like the English "b" but with a bit more pressure
p: as in English
m: as in English
f: as in English
d: unaspirated "t", like the English "d" but with a bit more pressure
t: as in English
n: as in English
l: as in English
g: unaspirated "k", like the English "g" but with a bit more pressure
k: as in English
h: like the English "h" if followed by "a"; otherwise it is pronounced more roughly/guttural (not unlike the Scottish "ch")
z: like the ds in “reds” but with more pressure (unaspirated counterpart of c above)
c: like "ts" in cats
s: as in "sun"
zh: as in English "jungle", but with more pressure (unaspirated counterpart of ch above)
ch: as in "chant"
sh: as in "shin"
r: similar to the English "r" in "rank" with a bit of the initial sound in French "journal" in it
j: like zh, but not as "full", about halfway between zh and z, always followed by a y sound
q: like ch, but not as "full", about halfway between ch and c, always followed by a y sound
x: think of hs or sy. Like sh, but not as "full", about halfway between sh and s
w: as in English
y: as in English; not pronounced at all if followed by i
Vowels/Finals - 32
a: as in "father"
ai: like English "eye" or “Thai” or “my”, but a bit lighter
an: following a ‘y’ or an ‘i’ pronounced like the en in “enter”; otherwise after other consonants like on in “upon”
ang: same as an, but with a ‘g’ sound at the end (even when following ‘i’ or ‘y’).
ao: approximately as in "cow" but without the ending ‘w’ sound, or “ouch”; the a is much more audible than the o
e: a little shorter than the oo in “cook”; when following ‘y’ or ‘i’ pronounced as “yet”
ei: as in "hey" “way” or “weigh”
en: sounds like an when you say quickly “an elephant” or “chicken”
eng: like the ung in “lung”
i: like English "ee", except when preceded by "c", "s", "z"; "zh", “sh”, ch, and r. Here it is pronounced like “shirt” When preceded by c, s, or z, there is almost no sound of the vowel.
ia: as ya in “yacht”
ian: like “yen” (see ‘an’ above)
iang: like “yahng” (not yang) (see ‘ang’ above)
iao: “yow” (rhymes with cow) (see ‘ao’ above), second part of “meow” but as one syllable
ie: the initial i sounds like English "ee", but is very short; e , like ye in “yet” (see ‘e’ above)
in: “in” though slightly longer (approaching “seen”)
ing: as in “sing”
iong: a y sound followed by the ong in “long”
iu: pronounced like yo (though without the attitude) or “O solo mio” but as one syllable
o: follows only m, p, b, and f, where it is the same as ‘uo’ below.
ong: here, o is a sound somewhere in between English "o" as in "song" and English "u" as in "bush"
ou: oe as in “doe” (without a strong ‘w’ sound at the end)
u: like English "oo", except when preceded by y, x, j or q; in this case it is pronounced like ü, or yu, but with a tighter mouth. Pinch your mouth together and say ‘ee’.
ü or uu: as in German "üben" or French "lune." Use 'v' when you type this vowel.
ua: wa as in “want” or “wash”
uai: “why”
uan: wan as in “want”; except when preceded by a j, q, x, or y, when it is pronounced “when”, though with a rounding of the mouth and lips and without any airy ‘wh’ sound.
uang: “wong” or the Korean “won” plus a g sound.
üe: e is pronounced like ê, the ü is short and light, as in “wet”
ui: “way”
un: following j,q,x, or y, pronounced as “win” but with rounded lips
uo: the u is pronounced shorter and lighter than the o , like the wo in “swore”
Differences with English
Note the following letters and syllables are not used in the way they are in English, so can cause confusion if you are not cognizant of the difference. (Look back at the explanations above if you do not remember.)
c
x
z
yan
yuan
i (depending on what consonant precedes it. ci, si, zi, chi, shi, zhi are different.)
eng
ui
iu
Take few minutes now and go here http://www.archchinese.com/chinese_pinyin.htmlor here
http://www.quickmandarin.com/chinesepinyintable/ to practice. Look at any pinyin the table, think about how you would pronounce it, say it aloud, then click on it and choose one of the words that appears at the top of the table (the only difference is the tone) or in the popup to hear it.
Recommended Reading
http://web.mit.edu/%7Ejinzhang/www/pinyin/
http://www.activechinese.com/school/pinyin.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinyin_table
Recommended Listening
http://www.quickmandarin.com/chinesepinyintable/
http://www.chinese-tools.com/learn/chinese/anexe-pinyin.html
iPad http://pinyintutor.com/
Recommended Software
The following program will put a pinyin table, complete with pronunciations, on your computer.
http://www.chinesehour.com/tools/pinyin_chart/
http://chinesepod.com/tools/pronunciation
back to the Pinyin Menu
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on to Conventions