Lesson 1.4: Chinese Phonics

In the last lesson, we introduced all the sounds used in Chinese and how they’re written in Pinyin. Some of them are probably new to you, though, so in this lesson we’ll go through them again and explain the ones that don’t exist in English.

Initials

• b: same as English
• p: same as English
• m: same as English
• f: same as English
• d: same as English
• t: same as English
• n: same as English
• l: same as English
• g: same as English
• k: same as English
• h: Pronounced similarly to the English h, but it’s a bit raspier. To pronounce it, try constricting your throat more while pronouncing an h.
• j: Somewhat similar to the English j, but it’s pronounced with the tongue farther forward. Try pronouncing an English j with your tongue right behind your top front teeth. This sound, along with the following two sounds, should have a sort of “hissing” quality produced by pressing air through the small space between your tongue and your teeth.
• q: Sounds somewhat like the English ch, but again with the tongue farther forward. Do the same drill as for j, but this time with a ch sound.
• x: Halfway between an English s and sh sound. Try pronouncing either the English s or sh, again with your tongue farther forward.
• z: Pronounced like “dz” would be in English
• c: Pronounced like “ts” would be in English. Similar to the previous sound, but with a stronger burst of air.
• s: Same as English
• zh: Almost the same as the English j. Curl your tongue farther back.
• ch: Essentially the same as in English. Curl your tongue back farther.
• sh: Essentially the same as in English. Curl your tongue back farther.
• r: Can sound more like an English w/r mixture or like the “zh” sound, depending on dialect. For the first style, start by pronouncing an English r, then try it while relaxing your lips so that they move more than the rest of your mouth. For the second style, make a similar relaxed lip movement, but pair it with a “zh” sound instead of an English r sound. It’s also common for r to be pronounced as something between these two styles.

Finals

The simple finals:

• a: as in English father
• o: as in English form with a Boston accent
• e: as in English took
• i: as in English beach
• u: as in English move, but deeper and with rounded lips
• ü: as in English too with an Australian accent

The compound finals:

• ai: as in English pie, but with the soft palate higher. (The soft palate is the back of the roof of your mouth; pronounce ai by tightening or contracting the back of your mouth.)
• ei: as in English hey
• ia: as in English yacht
• ao: as in English how, but with the soft palate higher and with less curling of the lips to produce less of a “w” sound at the end
• ou: as in English owe
• uo: Chinese u followed by Chinese o
• ua: as in English water
• iu: as in English yoke; this is actually a contraction of the Pinyin final iou, but it’s always written as iu for short. Thinking of it as iou will make it more obvious how to pronounce it.
• ui: as in English way; contraction of uei
• ie: as in English yes
• üe: like ie but with ü instead of i
• uai: as in English why; same notes as for ai
• iao: as in English meow; same notes as for ao
• er: between English car and her

A note on the nasal finals: when used at the end of a syllable, n and ng don’t quite sound like they do in English. In Chinese, the sounds are stopped earlier. For n, the tongue shouldn’t quite touch the roof of your mouth. For ng, the back of the tongue shouldn’t quite touch the back of your throat.

The nasal finals:

• an: a + n
• en: e + n
• in: similar to “yin” in English
• un: contraction of uen
• ün: ü + n
• ang: a + ng
• eng: e + ng
• ing: like yin, but with different ending consonant
• ong: o + ng
• ian: like “yan” in British English, with a short a sound
• iang: i + ang
• uan: ua + n
• uang: ua + ng
• ueng: like uen, but with different ending consonant
• üan: ü + short a + n
• iong: i + ong

The two “i” sounds

All the Pinyin vowels have exactly one pronunciation except for u, which we discussed in the last lesson, and i, which changes after certain initials. After the initials z, c, s, zh, ch, sh, or r, i is pronounced as i — more like the English “er” sound with clenched teeth.

To memorize those seven initials quickly, think of them in pairs: z and zh, s and sh, c and ch, plus r.

We know you’re probably impatient to start learning to form actual Chinese sentences. Hold on, we’re almost there; there’s just one more concept to learn, which will help you master Chinese handwriting.