Pinyin Chart Tone Pairs

What is Pinyin?

Basic construction of a Chinese syllable: initial + final + tone

Pinyin is a very useful tool and should be the foundation of your Chinese learning. Plus, it’s not just for Chinese learners like yourself. Actually, all native Chinese children have to learn pinyin before learning characters. Matering pinyin can also help you type Chinese characters quickly.

Initials function like English consonants. Many initials are pronounced approximately the same as their English counterparts, but watch out for “j, q, x, zh, ch, shi, r, z, c” as their pronunciations are very different.

Tones are the most remarkable characteristic of the Chinese language. Distinguishing between the tones is very important when you speak Chinese. The same syllable with a different tone likely has a different meaning. For beginners, the tones are quite tricky. However, it is the tones that make Chinese sound melodic. We’ve built this interactive pinyin chart (above) with demonstrations for how to correctly pronounce every possible sound in the Chinese language. There are four tones for each sound for you to practice. Some tones might not have matching characters, but it is a good way to give you a feel of how the tones sound.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to use this Pinyin chart?

The horizontal row in blue are initials. The vertical column in black are finals. When you click on a pinyin, you will see 4 tones for this pinyin with the sounds. Follow the sounds and practice tones by clicking on each pinyin.

What are the spelling rules?

  1. When there is no initial before the final ü or a final starting with ü in a syllable, we add y before the final. The two dots about ü are dropped.
  2. When there is no initial before the final i in a syllable, we add y before the final.
  3. When there is no initial before a final starting with i, we change i into y.
  4. When there is no initial before the final u, we add w before the final.
  5. When there is no initial before a final starting with u, we change u into w.
  6. When the final ü or a final starting with ü is preceded by j, q, and x,  the two dots above ü are dropped.
  7. When preceded by initials, the finals iou, uei and uen are shortened as iu, ui and un respectively.

What are rules for marking the tones?

We use the tone marks on the main vowel (the one pronounced the loudest and with the mouth widely open).

  1. When there is only one vowel in the syllable, the tone mark should be put above the vowel.
  2. When there is the vowel a in the syllable, the tone mark should be put above it.
  3. When there are the vowels e, i or ü in the syllable, the tone mark should be put above e.
  4. When there are the vowels o, u or i in the syllable, the tone mark should be put above o.
  5. When there are vowels u and i in the syllable, the tone mark should be put above the latter one.

The rules for spelling and marking the tones are a little bit complicated. Should I learn them now?

It is not necessary to learn these rules with special attention at the beginning. You will be familiar with them gradually as you practice more pinyin by reading and writing them. Then you will master these rules naturally without a special intension to memorize them.
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