Basics

Chinese from the start

Learn to read pinyin, hear every letter, and read short guides to how Chinese works.

131Letters to learn

4Charts

33Guides

Pinyin

Pinyin spells Mandarin in Latin letters. Each syllable is an initial consonant and a final, the rest of the syllable, said in one of four tones. Several letters don't sound as in English: q is close to ch, x to sh, and zh, ch and sh are said with the tongue curled back. Dictionaries, textbooks and phone keyboards all use it, so it comes first.

Read the guide: Pinyin

Review these lettersSign up to learn them with spaced repetition, as you do words.

Tap a letter to hear it and see how it's written.

Initials (声母)

21 letters

The consonant a syllable starts with, learned in rows that are each said in one place: the lips, the tongue tip behind the teeth, the back of the tongue, the tongue flat on the palate, the tongue curled back, and the tongue tip at the teeth. In each pair b p, d t, g k, j q, zh ch and z c, the second has a strong puff of air and the first none.

Simple finals (单韵母)

6 letters

Finals are the rest of the syllable after the initial. These six vowels are the base of all the others.

Vowel pairs and er (复韵母)

5 letters

Two vowels glide into one syllable. er is a vowel said with the tongue curled back.

Finals with n and ng (鼻韵母)

5 letters

-n is a light n with the tongue tip behind the teeth; -ng is the ng of sing, with the tongue tip down. They make different words: 山 shān mountain, 上 shàng up.

Finals starting with i

9 letters

The i glides into what follows, making one syllable: ia is ya, not ee-a. With no initial these are written with y: see the Spelling rules.

Finals starting with u

8 letters

The u glides into what follows: ua is wa. After j, q and x a u is really ü, so juan and xun belong with the ü finals. With no initial these are written with w.

Finals starting with ü

3 letters

ü glides into what follows. After j, q, x and y the dots are dropped: 学 xué, 远 yuǎn.