Hanyu Pinyin - an introduction
It can be quite daunting, attempting to learn Chinese. All those beautifully complicated characters which give you no indication of their pronunciation.
Luckily, the Chinese bright sparks have invented Hanyu Pinyin (or more simply, Pinyin). A wonderful representation of Chinese pronunciation, using the English alphabet. Hurrah!
Unfortunately, you can't rely on it 100%, as there are many cases where the Pinyin could be one of several possible characters, all with entirely different meanings. In essence, you should use Pinyin as an aid to learning, but you'll still have to learn the characters in the long-run.
It's highly recommended to get pronunciation practice with a native speaker, if at all possible. Chinese audio CDs and files are readily available at retailers and on the internet.
In most cases, Pinyin is pronounced as you might expect in English, but with a few notable exceptions, which are detailed below. Normally, one Pinyin syllable equates to one Chinese character.
The initial consonants
Apart from two exceptions ("n" and "ng"), consonants don't appear at the end of Chinese syllables.
b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, j, h and s are pronounced much like in English. The interesting consonants are as follows:
| Consonant | Pronunciation |
| j | As in "jeep" and "jean" |
| q | Like a "ch" in "cheese" and "cheap" e.g. "qi" is pronounced like "chee" |
| x | Like an "sh", as in "sheet" or "sheep" e.g. "xi" is pronounced like "she" |
| z | Like "ds", as in "beds" or "needs" |
| c | Like "ts", as in "meats" |
| zh | Like a cross between "j" and "z", as in "duress". Pronounced with the tip of your tongue curled up a bit e.g. "zhong" is pronounced like "jong" |
| ch | Similar to English "church", but with the tip of your tongue curled up a bit |
| sh | Similar to English "wish", pronounced with tip of your tongue curled up a bit |
| r | Much like English, but with tongue tip curled up more |
The vowels and final consonants
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