Lesson 1: The Chinese Phonetic Alphabet

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The Chinese phonetic alphabet is called “Hanyu Pinyin” in Mandarin Chinese.

The Chinese syllable is usually composed of an initial and a final, and each syllable has four different tones.

The initial is a consonant that begins the syllable and the final is the rest of the syllable, for example, “bang” in which “b” is an initial and “ang” is a final.

There are 23 initials in Chinese:

1. b; 2. c; 3. ch; 4. d; 5. f; 6. g; 7. h; 8. j; 9. k; 10. l;

11. m; 12. n; 13. p; 14. q; 15. r; 16. s; 17. sh; 18. t; 19. w; 20. x;

21. y; 22. z; 23. zh

Please bear this in mind: The Chinese initials are not syllabic sounds. No word in Chinese consists of only an initial.

There are 35 finals in Chinese:

1. a; 2. ai; 3. an; 4. ang; 5. ao; 6. e; 7. ei; 8. en; 9. eng; 10. er

11. i; 12. ia; 13. ian; 14. iang; 15. iao; 16. ie; 17. in; 18. ing; 19. iong; 20. iu;

21. o; 22. ong; 23. ou; 24. u; 25. ua; 26. uai; 27. uan; 28. uang; 29. ui; 30. un;

31. uo; 32. ü; 33. üan; 34. üe; 35. ün

You may have noticed that most of the finals in the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet are combinations of more than one vowel sound instead of a single vowel sound.

A final in Chinese is a vowel, which may be a simple vowel (simple final) or a compound vowel (compound final), or a vowel plus a nasal consonant (nasal final). Some syllables may be without an initial, for example, “a” (a modal particle), but no syllable can do without a final.

Lesson 2: Basic Syllables

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Some people say Chinese is a difficult language, but it is not quite so difficult as they think.

There are 408 basic syllables in Chinese. We have worked out a “List of Chinese Basic Syllables” that gives you a bird’s-eye view of all the 408 syllables.

Please note that the pronunciation of each syllable in the following list is only available to enrolled students. To find out how to enrol, please go to the Course Guideline Page.

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A LIST OF CHINESE BASIC SYLLABLES

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A
1. a; 2. ai; 3. an; 4. ang; 5. ao

B
6. ba; 7. bai; 8. ban; 9. bang; 10. bao; 11. bei; 12. ben; 13. beng; 14. bi; 15. bian; 16. biao; 17. bie; 18. bin; 19. bing; 20. bo; 21. bu

C
22. ca; 23. cai; 24. can; 25. cang; 26. cao; 27. ce; 28. cen; 29. ceng; 30. cha; 31. chai; 32. chan; 33. chang; 34. chao; 35. che; 36. chen; 37. cheng; 38. chi; 39. chong; 40. chou; 41. chu; 42. chua; 43. chuai; 44. chuan; 45. chuang; 46. chui; 47. chun; 48. chuo; 49. ci; 50. cong; 51. cou; 52. cu; 53. cuan; 54. cui; 55. cun; 56. cuo;

D
57. da; 58. dai; 59. dan; 60. dang; 61. dao; 62. de; 63. dei; 64. den; 65. deng; 66. di; 67. dian; 68. diao; 69. die; 70. ding; 71. diu; 72. dong; 73. dou; 74. du; 75. duan; 76. dui; 77. dun; 78. duo;

E
79. e; 80. ei; 81. en; 82. er;

F
83. fa; 84. fan; 85. fang; 86. fei; 87. fen; 88. feng; 89. fo; 90. fou; 91. fu;

G
92. ga; 93. gai; 94. gan; 95. gang; 96. gao; 97. ge; 98. gei; 99. gen; 100. geng; 101. gong; 102. gou; 103. gu; 104. gua; 105. guai; 106. guan; 107. guang; 108. gui; 109. gun; 110. guo;

H
111. ha; 112. hai; 113. han; 114. hang; 115. hao; 116. he; 117. hei; 118. hen; 119. heng; 120. hng; 121. hong; 122. hou; 123. hu; 124. hua; 125. huai; 126. huan; 127. huang; 128. hui; 129. hun; 130. huo

J
131. ji; 132. jia; 133. jian; 134. jiang; 135. jiao; 136. jie; 137. jin; 138. jing; 139. jiong; 140. jiu; 141. ju; 142. juan; 143. jue; 144. jun

K
145. ka; 146. kai; 147. kan; 148. kang; 149. kao; 150. ke; 151. kei; 152. ken; 153. keng; 154. kong; 155. kou; 156. ku; 157. kua; 158. kuai; 159. kuan; 160. kuang; 161. kui; 162. kun; 163. kuo

L
164. la; 165. lai; 166. lan; 167. lang; 168. lao; 169. le; 170. lei; 171. leng; 172. li; 173. lia; 174. lian; 175. liang; 176. liao; 177. lie; 178. lin; 179. ling; 180. liu; 181. lo; 182. long; 183. lou; 184. lu; 185. luan; 186. lve; 187. lun; 188. luo

M
189. ma; 190. mai; 191. man; 192. mang; 193. mao; 194. me; 195. mei; 196. men; 197. meng; 198. mi; 199. mian; 200. miao; 201. mie; 202. min; 203. ming; 204. miu; 205. mo; 206. mou; 207. mu

N
208. na; 209. nai; 210. nan; 211. nang; 212. nao; 213. ne; 214. nei; 215. nen; 216. neng; 217. ng; 218. ni; 219. nian; 220. niang; 221. niao; 222. nie; 223. nin; 224. ning; 225. niu; 226. nong; 227. nou; 228. nu; 229. nuan; 230. nve; 231. nuo

O
232. o; 233. ou;

P
234. pa; 235. pai; 236. pan; 237. pang; 238. pao; 239. pei; 240. pen; 241. peng; 242. pi; 243. pian; 244. piao; 245. pie; 246. pin; 247. ping; 248. po; 249. pou; 250. pu

Q
251. qi; 252. qia; 253. qian; 254. qiang; 255. qiao; 256. qie; 257. qin; 258. qing; 259. qiong; 260. qiu; 261. qu; 262. quan; 263. que; 264. qun

R
265. ran; 266. rang; 267. rao; 268. re; 269. ren; 270. reng; 271. ri; 272. rong; 273. rou; 274. ru; 275. ruan; 276. rui; 277. run; 278. ruo

S
279. sa; 280. sai; 281. san; 282. sang; 283. sao; 284. se; 285. sen; 286. seng; 287. sha; 288. shai; 289. shan; 290. shang; 291. shao; 292. she; 293. shei; 294. shen; 295. sheng 296. shi; 297. shou; 298. shu; 299. shua; 300. shuai; 301. shuan; 302. shuang; 303. shui; 304. shun; 305. shuo; 306. si; 307. song; 308. soul 309. sul 310. suan; 311. sui; 312. sun; 313. suo;

T
314. ta; 315. tai; 316. tan; 317. tang; 317. tao; 319. te; 320. tei; 321. teng; 322. ti; 323. tian; 324. tiao; 325. tie; 326. ting; 327. tong; 328. tou; 329. tu; 330. tuan; 331. tui; 332. tun; 333. tuo

W
334. wa; 335. wai; 336. wan; 337. wang; 338. wei; 339. wen 340. weng; 341. wo; 342. wu

X
343. xi; 344. xia; 345. xian; 346. xiang; 347. xiao; 348. xie; 349. xin; 350. xing; 351. xiong; 352. xiu; 353 xu; 354. xuan; 355. xue; 356. xun

Y
357. ya; 358. yan; 359. yang; 360. yao; 361. ye; 362. yi; 363. yin; 364. ying; 365. yo; 366. yong; 367. you; 368. yu; 369. yuan; 370. yue; 371 yun

Z
372. za; 373. zai; 374. zan; 375. zang; 376. zao; 377. ze; 378. zei; 379. zen; 380. zeng; 381. zha; 382. zhai; 383. zhan; 384. zhang; 385. zhao; 386. zhe; 387. zhei; 388. zhen; 389. zheng; 390. zhi; 391. zhong; 392. zhou; 393. zhu; 394. zhua; 395. zhuai; 396. zhuan; 397. zhuang; 398. zhui; 399. zhun; 400. zhuo; 401. zi; 402. zong; 403. zou; 404. zu; 405. zuan; 406. zui; 407. zun; 408. zuo

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Lesson 3: Tones

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When a syllable of Chinese is pronounced in different tones, it has different meanings, for example, da1 (to put up), da2 (to answer), da3 (to beat), da4 (big).

The most difficult part for a foreigner learning Chinese is, perhaps, its tones. Yet it need not be so difficult to learn them, since there are only four basic tones in Chinese.

Now listen to this:

a1 – a2 – a3 – a4

e1 – e2 – e3 – e4

you1 – you2 – you3 – you4

wang1 – wang2 – wang3 – wang4

yuan1 – yuan2 – yuan3 – yuan4

Now you probably have some idea of what the four tones in Chinese are like. However, there is something more you should know: in addition to the four basic tones, there is one special and important change of tone called the neutral tone. The neutral tone is not an independent element that stands by itself; it occurs only in connection with and related to the tone preceding it. But that does not necessarily mean that this neutral tone is less important than the other four tones, since you will never be able to speak Chinese accurately and with a natural flow if you don’t know where to use a neutral tone in your speech.

Now please listen to this – A neutral tone following a first, second, third or fourth tone sounds like this:

ma1ma (mother); bo1li (glass); ta1 ne (how about him);

ye2ye (grandfather); bie2de (else); lai2 le (coming);

jie3jie (elder sister); san3zi (voice); zou3 ba (let’s go);

Xie4xie (thanks); mu4tou (wood); lei4 ma ([you're] tired?)

Please note that, for a neutral tone, no tone-mark is needed.

Here are the main characteristics of each tone: Tone 1 is a high level pitch; Tone 2 is a rising pitch; Tone 3 is a low dipping pitch; Tone 4 is a falling pitch. When practising, please note that if there are two Tone 3 syllables in the same tone combination, the first syllable should be articulated in Tone 2 instead of Tone 3. The neutral tone is short and unstressed.