Learn Pinyin with a Chinese Pronunciation Chart130

Pinyin is the official Romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese. It was developed in the 1950s to promote literacy and facilitate communication between Chinese people and foreigners. Pinyin is based on the Latin alphabet, with some modifications to represent Chinese sounds that do not exist in English.

Learning Pinyin is essential for anyone who wants to learn to speak, read, or write Mandarin Chinese. It is also helpful for understanding Chinese characters, as many characters are based on their pronunciation.

The following Pinyin pronunciation chart shows the relationship between Pinyin letters and their corresponding Chinese sounds:

Pinyin
Chinese
IPA


a
阿
ɑ


ai
哀
ɑi


an
安
ɑn


ang
昂
ɑŋ


ao
熬
ɑo


ba
巴
pɑ


bai
拜
pɑi


ban
班
pɑn


bang
帮
pɑŋ


bao
包
pɑo

To use the chart, find the Pinyin letter you are interested in in the first column. Then, look at the corresponding Chinese character and IPA transcription in the second and third columns, respectively. For example, to learn how to pronounce the Pinyin letter "a," look at the first row of the chart. The corresponding Chinese character is "阿" and the IPA transcription is "ɑ."

Note that Pinyin is a tonal language, which means that the pitch of your voice can change the meaning of a word. The four tones of Mandarin Chinese are shown below:

Tone
Description
Example


First tone
High and flat
mā (妈)


Second tone
Rising
má (麻)


Third tone
Dipping and then rising
mǎ (马)


Fourth tone
Falling
mà (骂)

To indicate the tone of a Pinyin syllable, a tone mark is added to the vowel. The tone marks are as follows:

Tone
Tone mark
Example


First tone
No tone mark
mā (妈)


Second tone
Acute accent (´)`
má (麻)


Third tone
Circumflex accent (^)`
mǎ (马)


Fourth tone
Grave accent (`)`
mà (骂)

When you are learning Pinyin pronunciation, it is important to practice listening to and saying the tones correctly. This will help you to improve your comprehension and pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese.

2024-10-25

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