The Chinese Phonetic AlphabetThere have been many different systems of transcription used for learning to pronounce Chinese. Today the official transcription accepted on an international basis is the Pinyin alphabet, developed in China at the end of the 1950's.

Initials

A syllable in Chinese is composed of an initial, which is a consonant that begins the syllable, and a final, wich covers the rest of the syllable.

b p m f

d t n l

g k h

j q x

z c s

zh ch sh r

m, f, n, l, h and sh are pronounced as in English. d like "d" in "bed" (unaspirated)

j like "g" in "genius" (unaspirated)z like "ds" in "beds"zh like "j" in "job"b like "p" in "spin" (unaspirated)g a soft unaspirated "k" soundx like "sh" in "sheep" but with the corners of the lips drawn backr somewhat like "r" in "rain"

Particular attention should be paid to the pronunciation of the so-called "aspirated" consonants. It is necessary to breath heavily after the consonant is pronounced.p like "p" in "pope"t like "t" in "tap"k like "k" in "kangaroo"q harder than "ch" in "cheap"c like "ts" in "cats"ch (tongue curled back, aspirated)

Distinction between certain initials:b / p   d / t   g / k   j / q   z / c   zh / ch

Finals

In modern Chinese, there are 38 finals besides the above-represented 21 initials.

i u ü

a ia ua

o uo üe

e ie

er

ai uai

ei uei (ui)

ao iao

ou iou (iu)

an ian uan üan

en in uen (un) üen

ang iang uang

eng ieng ueng

ong iong

ie like "ye" in "yes" e like "e" in "her" er like "er" in "sister" (american pronounciation) ai like "y" in "by" (light) ei like "ay" in "bay" ou like "o" in "go" an like "an" in "can" (without stressing the "n") -ng (final) a nasalized soung like the "ng" in "bang" without pronouncing the "g" uei, uen and iou when preceded by an initial, are written as ui, un and iu

respectivly.

Tones

Mandarin Chinese has four pitched tones and a "toneless" tone.

Tone Mark Description

1st dā High and level

2nd dá Starts medium in tone, then rises to the top

3rd dǎ Starts low, dips to the bottom, then rises toward the top

4th dà Starts at the top, then falls sharp and strong to the bottom

Neutral da Flat, with no emphasis

Tones Changes

A 3rd tone, when immediatlely followed by another 3rd tone, should pe pronounced in the 2nd tone.

Nǐ hǎo = Ní hǎo

Conversation

- Nǐ你hǎo好!！

- Zài再jiàn见!！

你 nǐ (pro) You

好 hǎo (adj) good, well

你好！ nǐhǎo! Hello, How are you?

再 zài (adv) again

见 jiàn (v) see

再见！ zàijiàn! Goodbye!

Calligraphy exercises

4 first chinese characters : 你，好，再 et 见. Learn the stroke order.Click on the picture to get more information about the character.

Learn Chinese Characters

Rules of phonetic spelling

1 zi ci si = z c s

2 zhi chi shi = zh ch sh

3 ju jue juan junqu que quan qunxu xue xuan xun

===

jü jüe jüan jünqü qüe qüan qünxü xüe xüan xün

4 yu yue yuan yun = ü üe üan ün

5 ya ye yao youyan yin ying yangyong

===

ia ie iao iouian in ing iangiong

6 wu wa wo waiwei wan wen wangweng

===

u ua uo uaiuei uan uen uangueng

Anexe : Table of Pinyin Pronunciation

Sound discrimination

1 bo po ba pa bi pi

2 de te da ta di ti

3 ge ke ge ka gu ku

4 ji qi jia qia jiu qiu

5 zi ci za ca ze ce

6 zhi chi zha cha zhe che

7 yin ying lin ling jin jing

8 yan yang gan gang kan kang

9 gen geng men meng fen feng

Anexe : Table of Pinyin Pronunciation

Tone drills

bā bá bǎ bà bū bú bǔ bù

kē ké kě kè qī qí qǐ qì

xiē xié xiě xiè mēi méi měi mèi

guān guán guǎn guàn xī xí xǐ xì

duī duí duǐ duì mīng míng mǐng mìng

tiān tián tiǎn tiàn yī yí yǐ yì

huī huí huǐ huì xiū xiú xiǔ xiù

Anexe : Table of Pinyin Pronunciation

Neutral tone

In Chinese there are a number of syllabes wich are unstressed and take a feeble tone. This is known as the neutral tone wich is shown by the absence of tone-graph.

māma 妈妈 : mum àiren 爱人 : husband, wife

bàba 爸爸 : dad háizi 孩子 : child, children

gēge 哥哥 : elder brother guānxi 关系 : relation

dìdi 弟弟 : younger brother xièxie 谢谢 : thank you

jiějie 姐姐 : elder sister kèqi 客气 : polite

mèimei 妹妹 : younger sister xiūxi 休息 : have a rest

Calligraphy exercices (Click on the character for details)

爸 妈 哥 弟 姐 妹

Retroflex final

The final 儿 "er" is sometimes attached to another final to form a retroflex final and when thus used, it is no longer an independent syllable. A retroflex final is represented by the letter "r" added to the final.

huì + er -> huìr yíhuìr 一会儿 : a moment

diǎn + er -> diǎnr yìdiǎnr 一点儿 : a little

nǎ + er -> nǎr naǎr 哪儿 : where

zhè + er -> zhèr zhèr 这儿 : there

Easy and straightforwardThe Chinese counting system is fairly easy and straightforward. There are not as many number words as in English (where the numbers zero up to twenty require twenty-one different words, plus more words for the tens, e.g. 'forty').

Basic Numbers : from 1 to 10

Chinese Pinyin

1 一 yī

2 二 èr

3 三 sān

4 四 sì

5 五 wǔ

6 六 liù

7 七 qī

8 八 bā

9 九 jiǔ

10 十 shí

0 零 / 〇 líng

Audio file : from 1 to 10.mp3Anexe : Numbers, complicated form

From 11 to 99

Chinese Pinyin Note

11 十一 shíyī 10+1

12 十二 shí'èr 10+2

13 十三 shísān 10+3

19 十九 shíjiǔ 10+9

20 二十 èrshí 2x10

21 二十一 èrshíyī 2x10+1

22 二十二 èrshí'èr 2x10+2

30 三十 sānshí 3x10

40 四十 sìshí 4x10

90 九十 jiǔshí 9x10

99 九十九 jiǔshíjiǔ 9x10+9

Audio file : from 11 to 99.mp3

From 100 to 999

Chinese Pinyin

100 一百 yībǎi

101 一百零一 yībǎilíngyī

110 一百一（十） yībǎiyī(shí)

111 一百一十一 yībǎiyīshíyī

120 一百二十 yībǎi'èrshí

200 二百 èrbǎi

999 九百九十九 jiǔbǎijiǔshǐjiǔ

Audio file : from 100 to 999.mp3

1000 and after

Chinese Pinyin

1 000 一千 yīqiān

1 001 一千零一 yīqiānlíngyī

1 010 一千零一十 yīqiānlíngshí

1 100 一千一百 yīqiānyībǎi

9 999 九千九百九十九 jiǔqiānjiǔbǎijiǔshíjiǔ

10 000 一万 yīwàn

1 000 000 一百万 yībǎiwàn

100 000 000 一亿 yīyì

Audio file : from 1000 to 100 000 000.mp3

Examples

100,004 = 十万〇四 10,050,026 = 一千〇五万〇二十六 or 一千〇五万二十六

Online exercices : http://hua.umf.maine.edu/Chinese/games/numbers/chinese/one.html

Calligraphy exercises

20 new characters. Click on the character to open its page (calligraphy, writing rules, etymology...)

一 二 三 四 五 六 七 八 九 十 百 千 万 亿 零