Pronunciation of Pinyin Finals

The phonetic symbols of Putonghua (Standard Chinese) in Modern Chinese comprises 39 finals that are composed of vowel or vowel followed by nasal consonants. These finals fall into three categories:
　　(1) simple finals which have only a single vowel, e.g.: a, o
　　(2) multi-finals which have two or three vowels, e.g.: ai, ua, iao, iou
　　(3) nasal finals which consist of one or two vowels and a nasal consonant e.g.: an, üan, eng, iong

Chinses Pinyin – Change of Tone

The tone of a word sometimes changes when used in a sentence depending on the tone of the word that preceds or comes after it.

Rule 1: If a 3rd tone is followed by a 3rd tone, the first 3rd tone becomes second tone.

Example: The word for “hello” in Mandarin is: nǐhǎo which literally means “You good.” When these two words are pronounced seperately, they are both pronounced using the third tone. When they are used together to form the word “hello” ni takes the second tone and hao remains in third tone.

Note that the word nǐhǎo is still written with two third tones, but it is said with the the nǐ in second tone.

Rule 2: If a 3rd tone is followed by any tone other than the 3rd tone (covered by rule 1) the 3rd tone changes to a “half 3rd tone.” A “half 3rd tone” is one that falls, but does not rise.

Example: ni mamma

Rule 3: The word “bu” is 4th tone, but when it is followed by another 4th tone, it becomes 2nd tone.

Rule 4: Rules concerning the word “yi.”
The word “yi” is 1st tone when used as part of a number (yi, er, san, … shiyi).
The word “yi” is 4th tone when preceeding 1st, 2nd, or 3rd tones. (yi ge ren)
The word “yi” is 2nd tone when proceeding a 4th tone

Chinese Pinyin tones

 In Mandarin, words that have the same pronunciation can have different meanings depending on how the word is said. The “tone” of a word describes how the pitch changes as the word is said. There are four “tones” in Mandarin. The tones are represented in pinyin by marks above the words and are read from left to right. The absence of a tone also has meaning.

For example, the word “ma” can have a number of different meanings depending on how it is said.

Using tones 1, 3, 4, and 5 in order we can form the sentence: mā mà mǎ ma?
This sentence asks the question: Did mother scold the horse?

The following diagram shows how the tones are pronounced in relation to each other.

Chinese Pinyin Combination Table 3

Combinations of initials and those finals that begin with “u” or “ü“.

Chinese Pinyin Combination Table 2

Combinations of initials and those finals that begin with “i“

Chinese Pinyin Combination Table 1

Combinations of initials and those finals that begin with “a,” “o,” “e,” or “i“

Single syllables in Chinese pinyin group 7

 Group 7

When finals in the columns ‘i’, ‘u’ and ‘ü’ make syllables themselves without preceding, they are written as follows:

i = y

u = w 

ü= yu

Single syllables in Chinese pinyin group 6

 Group 6

‘i’ in the syllables ‘zhi’, ‘chi’, ’shi’ and ‘ri’ is not the common final ‘i’, but a blade-palatal vowel. The pronunciations of the syllables ‘zhi’ , ‘chi’, ’shi’ and ‘ri’ are the same as those of the initials ‘zh’, ‘ch’, ’sh’ and ‘r’.

zhi = zh

chi = ch

shi = sh

ri = r

Single syllables in Chinese pinyin group 5

 Group 5

Group 5 ‘i’ in the syllables ‘zi’, ‘ci’ and ’si’ is not the common final ‘i’, but a blade-alveolar vowel. The pronunciations of the syllables ‘zi’, ‘ci’ and ’si’ are the same as those of the initials ‘z’, ‘c’ and ’s’.

zi = z

ci = c

si = s

Single syllables in Chinese pinyin group 4

 Group 4

The finals in column ‘ü’ should be spelt as ‘u’ when they are used with the initials ‘j’, ‘q’ and ‘x’, and also ‘üen’ changes into ‘un’.

jü = ju 

qü = qu

xü = xu 

jüen = jun

qüen = qun 

xüen = xun