How to read and say Mandarin Chinese

To bridge the gap between recognizing characters and reading out loud, Hanyu pinyin was developed, which uses Latin script as an aid to teaching Chinese. Pronouncing pinyin is not intuitive as certain letters and consonant clusters are used to represent sounds not present in European languages and are thus not pronounced as an English speaker would expect. Nonetheless, learning pinyin at even a basic level has enormous practical value for the traveller. Written pinyin is less useful as most Chinese will not recognize place names or addresses in pinyin, and the same pinyin can be shared by different Chinese characters; it is always better to use characters for written communication.

The pronunciation guide below uses Hanyu pinyin, which is the official romanization of the People's Republic of China and Taiwan. Mainland China uses Hanyu pinyin almost universally, though a few older transliterations remain in names like Tsingtao Beer and Peking University. Taiwan used to use the Wade-Giles system, which is quite different, then in 2002 switched to Tongyong pinyin, only slightly different from Hanyu pinyin, and since 2009 uses Hanyu pinyin just like the People's Republic. However, many older transliterations remain in use in Taiwan, and you may well encounter multiple spellings of the same name (like Tamsui, Tamshui, and Danshui for the town in New Taipei).

Pinyin allows very accurate pronunciation of Mandarin for those who understand it, although the way that it uses letters like q, x, c, z and even i is not at all intuitive to the English speaker since some of these sounds do not exist in English or many other languages. Thus, studying the pronunciation guide below carefully is essential. After you master the pronunciation you will need to move on to the next challenge: using accurate tones whilst speaking.

Some pinyin vowels (especially "e", "i", "ü") can be tricky, so it is best to get a native speaker to demonstrate. Also, beware of the spelling rules listed in the exceptions below.

a

as in father; otherwise

a in ian and yan

as "e" in "bet" or "text" (just the English short "e" sound)

e

unrounded back vowel (IPA [ɤ]), similar to duh; in unstressed syllables, a schwa (IPA [ə]), like idea

i

as in see or key;
after ch, sh, zh, c, s, z or r, not really a vowel at all but just a stretched-out consonant sound

o

as in more
after b, p, m, or f, as in war

u

as in soon; but read ü in ju, qu, yu and xu

ü

as in French lune or German grün; pronounced like "ee" but with rounded lips

Vowel combinations

These are the most important vowel combinations in Chinese:

ai

as in pie

ao

as in pouch

ei

as in pay

ia

as in ya

ia in ian (but not iang)

as in 'yes

iao

as in meow

ie

as in yes

iong

as in Pyongyang

iu

as in yodel

ou

as in mow

ua

as in want

uo

as in war

Consonants

Chinese stops distinguish between aspirated and unaspirated, not unvoiced and voiced as in English, and Chinese lacks voiced stops. Aspirated sounds are pronounced with a distinctive puff of air as they are pronounced in English when at the beginning of a word, while unaspirated sounds are pronounced without the puff, as in English when found in clusters.

Place a hand in front of your mouth and compare pit (aspirated) with spit (unaspirated) to see the difference. Note that the list below only gives approximate pronunciations, as many of these consonants have no equivalent in English. As Mandarin does not have voiced stops or affricates, all the consonants listed in the "unaspirated" column should be pronounced unvoiced.

	Unaspirated		Aspirated
b	as in spot	p	as in pit
d	as in stop	t	as in tongue
g	as in skin	k	as in king
j	as in itchy	q	as in cheap
zh	as in jungle	ch	as in chore
z	as in pizza	c	as in rats

Here are the other consonants in Chinese:

m

as in mow

f

as in fun

n

as in none or none

l

as in lease

h

a throaty h sound as in Scottish loch/Spanish jefe (IPA: [x])

x

as in sheep, but softer than sh

sh

as in shoot

r

as in fair

s

as in sag

ng

as in sing

w

as in wing but silent in wu. Before a, ai, ang, eng, and/or o

y

as in yet but silent in yi, yu

If you think that is a fairly intimidating repertoire, rest assured that many Chinese people, particularly those who are not native Mandarin speakers, will merge many of the sounds above (especially c with ch and z with zh). Other sounds that you may hear merged, depending on the region, include s with sh, f with h, l with n, l with r, i with ü, and n with ng. These are particularly common in southern China, Taiwan and overseas Chinese communities.

Exceptions

There are a fairly large number of niggling exceptions to the basic rules above, based on the position of the sound:

wu-

as u-, so 五百 (五百) wubai is pronounced "ubai"

yi-

as i-, so 一个 (一個) yige is pronounced "ige"

yu-

as ü-, so 豫园 (豫園) Yuyuan is pronounced "ü-üan"

Tones

How do I put my tone marks? If you are confused by how to put tone marks above the Hanyu Pinyin, follow the steps below: Always insert tone marks above the vowels. If there is more than one vowel letter, follow the steps below: (1) Insert it above the 'a' if that letter is present. For example, it is rǎo and not raǒ (2) If not, insert it above 'o'. For example, guó and not gúo (3) Insert it above the letter 'e' if the letters 'a' and 'o' are not present. For example, jué and not júe (4) If only 'i', 'u' and 'ü' are the only present letters, insert it in the letter that occurs last. For example, jiù and not jìu, chuí and not chúi. Note, if the vowel present is ü, the tone mark is put in addition to the umlaut. For example, lǜ

There are five tones in Mandarin that must be followed for proper pronunciation. Never underestimate the importance of these tones. Consider a vowel with a different tone as simply a different vowel altogether, and you will realize why Chinese will not understand you if you use the wrong tone — mǎ is to mā as "I want a cake" is to "I want a coke". Be especially wary of questions that have a falling tone, or conversely exclamations that have an "asking" tone (eg jǐngchá, police). In other words, pronounced like does not imply meaning. While Mandarin speakers also vary their tone just like English speakers do to differentiate a statement from a question and convey emotion, it is much more subtle. Do not try it until you have mastered the basic tones.

1. first tone ( ā )

"high tone": flat, high pitch that is more sung instead of spoken.

2. second tone ( á )

"rising tone": low to middle, rising pitch that is pronounced like the end of a question phrase (Whát?).

3. third tone ( ǎ )

"low tone" or "falling-rising": mid-low to low. For two consecutive syllables in the third tone, the first syllable is pronounced as if it is in the second tone. For example, 打扰 dǎrǎo is pronounced as dárǎo. (When stressed, the third tone is sometimes pronounced mid-low to low to high, dipping pitch.)

4. fourth tone ( à )

"falling tone": high to low, rapidly falling pitch that is pronounced like a command (Stop!).

5. neutral tone ( a )

"toneless": short, unstressed syllable; rarely used by itself (except for phrase particles) but frequently occurs as the second part of a phrase.