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Chinese Pinyin — Start Here

Pinyin is the Roman alphabet for Mandarin: every Chinese syllable is an initial + a final + a tone. Learn these three layers and every character you meet later becomes readable. Every sound below plays a real character — no robotic letter names.

1Initials 2Finals 3Tones

声母 Initial + 韵母 Final + 声调 Tone = 音节 Syllable

Initials 声母All 21 consonants, grouped by where they are made: lips, tongue tip, back of the mouth. Each card has an anchor character, native audio and a plain-English guide.Open lesson Finals 韵母The vowels and vowel endings — from a simple a to üe, grouped by mouth shape. Includes the special -i (zhi, zi) and the rhotic er.Open lesson The Four Tones 声调High, rising, dipping, falling — hear each tone on the same syllable, see its pitch curve, and practise with minimal pairs like mā má mǎ mà.Open lesson Pinyin Chart 拼音表Every legal Mandarin syllable in one clickable grid. Tap any cell to hear a real word — the fastest way to see how initials and finals combine.Open lesson Spelling Rules 拼写规则y/w changes, the ü dots, where the tone mark goes, and the most common tone changes — all explained in plain English.Open lesson Next step: HSK 1Once you can read pinyin, start building vocabulary with the HSK 1 word list — 500 must-know words with pinyin and English meanings.Start HSK 1

How blending works

Sounding out a syllable is just gluing the parts together: read the initial lightly, slide into the final, and put the tone on top. Tap each part in order, or press "Step by step" to hear the whole assembly.

b + ao
++
= bāo 包
b + iao
++
= biāo 标
m + a
++
= mā 妈

Why spoken "letters" can sound strange at first. Mandarin initials cannot be pronounced alone — teachers give each one an anchor character (b is taught as 玻 bō, m as 摸 mō, d as 的 de). In class the consonant itself is said very short and light, just long enough to be heard; the classroom name is a full syllable (bō), which is the same standard in a different presentation. That light, short release is exactly what you should aim for when blending.

Once you can read pinyin, continue to the HSK 1 vocabulary list — the next stage of the learning path — or open the full syllable chart and test yourself on any syllable in Mandarin.