Pronouncing Pinyin

Pinyin is a written system for the pronounciation of Mandarin Chinese. One will find that Mandarin is a very straightforward language, and it was chosen as the official dialect of China due to its simplicity and consistency. In fact, you will find that written pinyin is very consistent in pronounciation; more so than written English.

Some Chinese terms on this website are written in pinyin (without the tones). Here is a guide on how to pronounce these words.

Initials
c - like ts in hats
j - like j jeans
q - like ch cheek with a puff of air
x - something between s and sh with a puff of air
z - like ds in lids
zh - like g in German
r - like ur in pleasure

The rest of the consonants are like in English.

Finals
a - like a in far
e - uh but when on its own, like e in yes
i - like ee in free, but like i in rip when following ch, c, zh, z, sh and s.
o - like o in more
u - like u in flute, but like ew when following q, j, and x.

Combined Letters
an - like ahn
ang - like ahng
en - like un in under
er - like er in murder
ian - like yen
iang - like yiang
in - like ean in mean
ing - like ing in bling
iong - like yohng
ong - like ohng
uan - like oowahn (oowen after x, j, and q.)
uang - like wahng
un - oohn
uan - like you ahn
ai - like eye
ao - like ow in cow
ei - like ay in hay
ia - like ya in yard
ie - like ye in yesterday
iao - like iao in miaow
iu - like ew in pew
ou - like oh
ua - like wa in waddle
uai - like why
ue - like you-eh
ui - like ay in spay
uo - like oi in coiffed
ue - like ew-eh

(Reference: Mandarin Phrasebook, China Population Publishing House.)

Additionally, there are 4 tones in Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin is tonal, so use of a different tone will change the meaning of the word. This is often the most difficult aspect of Mandarin for English speakers to learn, since different intonation does not change the meaning of an English word.

There are many more rules regarding Chinese grammar and tonal changes that are beyond the scope of this article. If you are interested, I recommend you pick up a book on learning Mandarin or take a course on Chinese Language.

Additional References:

Standard Mandarin at Wikipedia.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Mandarin

Adsotrans.com - tool to translate Chinese to English with pinyin pronounciation.
http://www.adsotrans.com

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