Chinese phonetics : The pinyin - Lesson 01

Pinyin 拼音 is the system used for transcribing the sounds of Chinese words into the Latin alphabet. It's a written aid to pronunciation created in China in 1958. Other phonetic transcription systems do exist but are less and less used.

No Alphabet

The Chinese writing does not use an alphabet but many characters made of horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines.

For instance, how do you pronounce this character? 

caractère chinois

By using Pinyin, it is pronounced "gǒu " (and means "dog")

Without knowing the pinyin, it is very difficult to learn Chinese as a foreign language. Chinese students themselves use this method. However, it must remain an aid to pronunciation; the best way to learn the pronunciation of the words and to repeat what we hear.

Composition and Use

When you want to know the pronunciation of a word transcribed into pinyin, separate the initial and the final and look in the following tables how they are individually pronounced.

Table of the 21 initial sounds

Initial
  Prononciation  
Initial
  Pronunciation
b
  like in "boat"
q
  like in "cheese"
p
  like in "pot"
x
  like in "she"
m
  like in "most"
z
  like in "dzêta"
f
  like in "fact"
c
  like in "tse-tse"
d
  like in "dot"
s
  like in "soap"
t
  like in "ten"
zh
  like in "junk"
n
  like in "no"
ch
  like in "chain", tongue curled back
l
  like in "lap"
sh
  like in "shower"
g
  like in "game"
r
  like in "rain"
k
  like in "koala"
w
  like in "whisky"
h
  like in "hay"
y
  like in "yen"
j
  like in "jeep"  

Table of the 35 final sounds

Finale
  Prononciation  
Finale
  Pronunciation
a
  like in "father"
ie
  like in "yes" en anglais
ai
  like in "bike", "high"
in
  like in "mine"
ao
  like in "Macao"
ing
  like in "ding dong"
an
  like in " Russian"
iong
  like in "Jünger"
ang
  like in "bang"
iu
  like in "yukon"
o
  close to "saw"
u
  like in "rude"
ong
  like in "gong"
ua
  like "aqua" in Italian
ou
  like in "go"
uo
  like in "war"
e
  like in "bird"and "sir"
ui
  comme "ouais"
ei
  like in "say"
uai
  comme "why"
en
  like in "men"
uan
  like in "one"
eng
  linke in "sung"
un
  like in "went"
er
  like in "are"  
uang
  oo+ahng
i
  1. like in "sit"
2. like "sir", après "c","ch","r","s","sh","z" et "zh"
 
ü
  like the French "u"
ia
  like in "yak"  
ue
  ü+eh
iao
  like in "yeowl"  
üan
  ü+an
ian
  like in "yen"  
ün
  like in "grün"
iang
  e+yang        

Exercise

Listen to the following pronunciations to train your ear:

1. yi   6. qing   11. quan
2. zhong 7. xie 12. cong
3. cui 8. cai 13. zai
4. qiu 9. ren 14. duo
5. yue 10. shi 15. shang

- Chinese Gratis -