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ABC of Chinese Pronunciation
The Chinese Pronunciation System (called "拼音" or "Pin1 Yin1" in China) is similar in some way to that of English, and different in other - although it uses the same set of alphabet, in many cases it's sounds differently. Most of the sounding of the consonants in chinese are basically the same as they sound in English, although there are a few exceptions. For example, b sounds B as in 'baker', p sounds P as in 'Peter', and y sounds like Y as in 'yes' etc, yet c doesn't sound like C as in 'cable', but 'ts' as in 'cats'. Vowels sound most differently from English. Following is a list of chinese pronunciation elements or combination of elements with one or more examples illustrating the point. Hopefully after quickly studying these basic rules, one can get a basic idea:
Vowels and Their Syllables
Syllables => 'How you hear it in Chinese' = PinYin+tone (word meaning in English), how you see it in chinese
a => 'aah', M+a=Ma1 (mother): 妈
ai => 'I', M+ai=Mai3 (buy):买
an => 'aah + n', M+an=Man4 (Slow)慢
ang => 'aah + n + roll back your tongue', M+ang=Mang2 (busy) 忙
ao => 'ow' as in 'ow(l)', B+ao=Bao3 (protect) 保;
e => 'eh', C+e=Ce4 (measure) 测
ei => 'A', F+ei=Fei1 (fly) 飞
en => 'eh + n', G+en=Gen1 (root)根
eng => 'eh + n + roll back your tongue', D+eng=Deng1 (lamp) 灯
er => 'eh + r', er3 (ear) 耳;
i => 'E', J+i=Ji2 (hurry) 急
ian => 'E + aah + n', L+ian=Lian4 (practice) 练
iao => 'E + ow', N+iao=Niao (bird) 鸟
ie => 'E + yea', P+ie=Pie1 (a glance) 瞥
in => 'in', Q+in=Qin1 (invade) 侵
ing => 'in + roll back your tongue', Q+ing=Qing4 (celebrate) 庆;
o => 'a(ll)', B+o=Bo1 (peel) 剥
ong => 'own', G+ong=Gong1 (attack) 攻
ou => O, H+ou=Hou2 (monkey) 猴;
u => 'oo' as in cool, K+u=Ku1 (cry) 哭
Special notes about u:
u or u with two dots (..) on top would be pronounced as 'E + make a piggy mouth (meaning E + pushing your upper and lower lips forward)' if it directly follows J, Q, or X. For example, Ju4 (sentence) 句, Qu4 (go) 去, and Xu4 (order) 序. In the case of u being 'E + make a piggy mouth', u would be spelled as 'Yu' if it's used alone. For example, the word 'rain' pronouns as 'E + make a piggy mouth', the PinYin of 'rain' spells as Yu, not u.
ua => 'oo + ah', K+ua=Kua3 (collapse) 垮
uai => 'oo + I', H+uai=Huai4 (bad) 坏
uan =>'oo + ah + n', T+uan=Tuan (united) 团
uang => 'oo + ah + n + roll back your tongue', K+uang=Kuang2 (crazy) 狂;
ue => 'E + eh', Y+ue=Yue (moon) 月
ui => 'oo + A', H+ui=Hui1 (ash) 灰
un => 'oo + eh + n', K+un=Kun4 (difficulty) 困
uo => 'oo + a(ll)', R+uo=Ruo4 (weak) 弱;
Consonants
b ==> B as in Baker, B+a=Ba4 (dad) 爸
c ==> ts as in 'Cats', ci2 (word) 词
d ==> D as in Daddy, Da4 (big) 大
f ==> F as in Fine, Fu4 (rich) 富
g ==> G as in Good, Gun4 (stick) 棍
h ==> H as in How, Hao3 (good) 好
j ==> J as in Jack, jia1 (family, home) 家
k ==> K as in Keep, kou3 (mouth) 口
l ==> L as in Lead, lao3 (old) 老
m ==> M as in Mom, mu3 (mother) 母
n ==> N as in Nurse, nan2 (south) 南
p ==> P as in Peter, pa4 (scared) 怕
q ==> 'ch' as in cheap, qiu1 (fall) 秋
r ==> R as in Red, ren2, (people, person) 人
s ==> S as in Sam, san1 (three) 三
t ==> T as in Tool, tou2 (head) 头
v ==> surprise! Chinese doesn't have a V sound in its pronunciation.
w ==> W as in Work, wo3 (I) 我
x ==> 'sh' as in sheep, xiao3 (small) 小
y ==> Y as in Yale, yu3 (rain) 雨
z ==> 's' as in adds, zi4 (self) 自
Special Consonants
ch => 'ch' as in church with the tongue roll back, che1 (car) 车
sh => 's' as in sir with the tongue roll back, shi2 (time) 时
zh => 's' as in adds with the tongue roll back, zhe4 (this) 这
Okay, now let's do a test. Can you pronouce these:
Wo - answer: W + o;
Shi - answer: Sh + i;
Lao - answer: L + ao;
Mei - M + ei;
Say them together: Wo Shi Lao Mei - "I am an American"
Tones
One might wonder what are these numbers following the symbol of PinYin above. They are signifying tones. Chinese is a tonal language. For the speaker of English, one of the most difficult parts of learning Chinese is getting used to the tones. Chinese has 4 tones. Almost every character in Chinese has its designated tone. Different tone with the same PinYin can end up with a totally different meaning from it.
Let's use the word 'So' to illustrate these 4 tones:
Tone #1: Tom and Bob got togethter for a drink at a pub with the small talk: "So, what's new?" (So1)
Tone #2: Bob said, "I just finished my Chinese oral exam Thursday, and am ready to go to Beijing next month." Tom, the chinese expert, thought he's lying, "So? can you talk Chinese?" (So2)
Tone #3: Bob spoke in chinese: "Ni2-Hao3! Wo1-Shi4-Lao2-Mei3, Ni2-Xiang-Gan4-Ma2?" ("How're you? I'm an American. What do you want from me?"). Tom was amused,"Wow! You sounded Soooooooooo real! (Noted that the pitch of saying that is like going through a curve of letter V - started from a high pitch, proceeded to low one, and then went back to high pitch again.) (So3)
Tone #4: Bob then boasted, "Of course, Sir. The language talent is in my So-ul!" (So4)
So the tone of a PinYin for a character can be specified by putting one of the four symbols (-, /, v, or \) on top of the vowels or appending a number (1,2,3, or 4) to the end of Syllables of the PinYin.
For example, the first tone of 'So' can be signified as So- or So1; the second tone of 'So' be So/ or So2, third, Sov or So3, and fourth, So\ or So4. If a PinYin doesn't have tone number, it defaults to tone #1.
Another example, 'Ma' is how it sounds when you call your mother. 'ma' in first tone i.e. 'Ma1' in Chinese means 'mother'; 'Ma2' means 'sesame', 'Ma3' means 'horse', and the fourth tone of 'ma', 'Ma4' means 'yell or curse' in Chinese.
That concludes the basics concerning the Chinese pronunciation system a.k.a. PinYin. To learn more, you can enroll in a Chinese language class, or ask a PuTongHua (Mandarin) speaking Chinese friend to sound them out for you.
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