How to read Mandarin pinyin, for beginners

Hanyu Pinyin is the romanization used for Standard Mandarin. It spells each syllable with ordinary letters and marks the tone on a vowel, so 你好 is nǐ hǎo. Once you can read it, a Mandarin text with pinyin above it becomes something you can sound out.

What pinyin is

The Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet was published on 1 February 1958. It is the official spelling of Standard Mandarin in the People’s Republic of China. Read the letters as pinyin, not as English words. The same letters do different work in Cantonese Jyutping.

Initials that surprise English readers

• x is a forward “sh”, not the x in extra: 西 xī, 谢 xiè.
• q is a forward “ch”, not the qu in queen: 七 qī.
• j is the unaspirated partner of q, with the tongue forward: 几 jǐ. It is not the j in jam.
• z is like the ds in kids: 字 zì. c is the breathy “ts” partner: 词 cí.
• zh, ch, and sh curl the tongue back: 中 zhōng, 吃 chī, 是 shì.
• r is not the English r: 人 rén, 日 rì.
• b, d, and g have little puff of air. p, t, and k have one: 爸 bà vs 怕 pà.

Vowels, ü, and the apostrophe

• ü (u with two dots) appears after n and l when the sound needs it: 女 nǚ vs 努 nǔ, 绿 lǜ vs 路 lù.
• After j, q, x, and y, that same ü sound is written as u: 去 qù, 鱼 yú, 月 yuè.
• The i in zi, ci, si, zhi, chi, shi, and ri is not the vowel in see. 四 sì and 是 shì are not “see”.
• ui stands for uei, iu stands for iou, and un stands for uen: 水 shuǐ, 六 liù, 春 chūn.
• An apostrophe marks a syllable break that the letters would otherwise hide: 西安 Xī'ān is two syllables, 先 xiān is one.

The four tones, and the neutral tone

The textbook set is the syllable ma. 妈 mā (mother) is high and level. 麻 má (hemp) rises. 马 mǎ (horse) dips, then rises. 骂 mà (scold) falls. The question particle 吗 is ma, with no mark: that is the neutral tone. The mark changes the word, so keep it.

The mark always sits on a vowel. If the syllable has a or e, that letter takes it (there is no syllable with both): 好 hǎo, 学 xué. In ou, the mark goes on o: 走 zǒu. Otherwise it goes on the last vowel: 会 huì, 水 shuǐ, 六 liù. A mark on i replaces the dot.

Practice on real phrases

• 你好 nǐ hǎo: hello.
• 谢谢 xièxie: thank you. The second syllable is neutral and has no mark.
• 我是学生 wǒ shì xuéshēng: I am a student.
• 中国 Zhōngguó: China.
• 北京 Běijīng: Beijing.

Common beginner mistakes

• Reading x, q, or c as English. xī is not “ks-ee”, and qī is not “kwee”.
• Dropping the tone mark, which makes 妈 mā and 骂 mà look like the same word.
• Putting the mark on the wrong vowel. 水 is shuǐ, with the mark on i.
• Keeping the two dots on u after j, q, x, or y, or dropping them after n or l when the sound is ü.
• Reading Jyutping as if it were pinyin. Jyutping uses tone numbers and different letters. See how to read Jyutping.

Practice with a reader

Reading real text is the fastest way to make pinyin automatic. The Mandarin reading guide shows pinyin above any text you paste or import, including Mandarin YouTube subtitles, and lets you hide pinyin when you want to test yourself. Short graded stories start at HSK 1. If a compound is split into the wrong characters, Split (Fix word split) lets you move the break. See learn Mandarin from YouTube.