Mandarin Chinese Picture Dictionary. Yi Ren
The following Hanyu Pinyin letters have pronunciations which can be slightly different from the standard English pronunciations:
| e | “uh” as in duh, voiced in the back of the throat (In some vowel combinations and syllables ending in consonants, it is pronounced “e” as in bed.) |
| h | “h” as in hotel (some speakers strongly stress the h so that it sounds almost like a Scottish “ch,” as in loch) |
| i | usually pronounced as a long “ee” as in feet (However, after the consonants c, ch, r, s, sh, z, and zh the i is not pronounced as “ee,” but indicates that the consonant should be drawn out with no vowel after it.) |
| o | long “o” as in owe (except after the consonants b, f, m, and p it is pronounced as uo [“oo-uh”].) The word wo 我 [I] takes this same pronunciation: It should be pronounced “woo-uh.”) |
| r | “r” as in rain (Although some northern Chinese speakers pronounce the r at the beginning of a syllable in a more guttural way, almost like zh. At the end of a syllable, r is pronounced as in the “r” in the American pronunciation of start.) |
| u | “oo” as in boot or root |
| ü | “ü” as in German or French (purse your lips while making an “eu” sound.) |
The following Hanyu Pinyin letters are pronounced totally different than in English and so you need to pay special attention to these:
| c | “ts” as in cats |
| q | “ch” as in cheese (spoken with a wide cheeks like you are making an “ee” sound) |
| x | “she” as in she (The sound is closer to a drawn out “s” followed by an “ee,” rather than a simple “sh”.) |
| z | “ds” as in sands |
| zh | a cross between “ch” and “j” (no English equivalent) |
Most vowel and consonant combinations flow naturally from the pronunciations given above. However, be careful of the following:
| ei | “ey” as in hey |
| er | as the English word are; sometimes as err |
| ian | like the word yen, with an unstressed “y” |
| iu | pronounced as iou (e.g., liù 六 [six] should be pronounced Leo as in Leo the Lion, but without stressing the “e”) |
| ou | “o” as in so |
| ui | pronounced as uei (e.g., duì 对 [right, yes] should be pronounced “doo-ey,” and shuǐ 水[water] as “shoo-ey”) |
| uo | “oo-uh” |
| ye | “ye” as in yesterday |
| yi | “ee” as in feet (the y is not pronounced) |
While to a native English speaker, the Pinyin letters ch and q, sh and x, and zh and j may sound identical, native Chinese speakers can hear distinct differences in pronunciation. You should closely listen to the audio to master the differences in these sounds.
Finally, in northern China, it is common to add a guttural /r/ at the end of nouns (to pronounce this sound, imagine a pirate saying “Argh!”). To show this in Pinyin, an “r” is added to the end of a syllable; in Hànzì the character 儿 is used. In most cases, the “r” is merely added to the pronunciation of a syllable. However, when the “r” is used after an i, n, or ng, these sounds are dropped altogether, so yī diǎn 一点 (a little) becomes yī diǎnr 一点儿 (pronounced “ee dee-ar”), and xiǎohái 小孩 (child) becomes xiǎoháir 小孩儿 (pronounced “shee-ow-har”). The retroflex /r/ is generally not used in Pinyin or Hanzi in this book. However, since it is so commonly used in northern China, Mandarin learners should be aware of it.
A word of warning: Pinyin is used for romanizing Chinese words, for teaching Chinese to foreigners, and for some signs and restaurant menus, but it is not generally used for communication within China. Since many people on the street may not be able to read Pinyin that well, do not imagine that it can be used as a substitute for Hànzì or a substitute for oral communication.
Tones
Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. The same syllable can have several different meanings depending on its intonation. As there are four tones, each Chinese syllable usually has at least four different meanings depending on the tone, so you need to learn the tone when you learn the pronunciation of a syllable. Here is an example of the same syllable, but with different tones and different meanings:
| 1st tone | mā 妈 (mother) |
| 2nd tone | má 麻 (hemp) |
| 3rd tone | mǎ 马 (horse) |
| 4th tone | mà 骂 (to curse or to scold someone) |
| 5th (neutral) tone | ma 吗 (question mark or particle) |
The tone of a syllable is commonly written by adding a diacritical mark above the vowel, as shown above. The four tones in Mandarin Chinese can be visualized in the following chart:
The first tone starts high and stays high, like holding a high note when singing.
The second tone begins at a medium pitch,