Here is a simple, quick, mini Chinese alphabet (Pinyin) course. Learn to speak good Chinese starting from learning Pinyin, the Chinese phonetic alphabet.
For a full cost-effective Chinese alphabet (Pinyin) course, click here
Lesson 1: what is Pinyin? Is it the Chinese alphabet?
What is Pinyin? Simply saying Pinyin is Chinese phonetic alphabet used to give pronunciations of Chinese characters. Each Chinese character consists of only one syllable. Each syllable contains an initial, (or consonant, or shengmu), a final, (or vowels, or yunmu), and a tone number. Some syllables have no initials at all.
lesson 2: Initials:
The consonants that begin a syllable are called initials.
They are: b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, j, q, x, zh, ch, sh, r, y, w. click here to listen
Lesson3: Finals
The
rest parts after the initials in Chinese syllables are finals.
There are 6 simple finals which are single vowels.
They are: a, o, e, i, u, ¨¹. click here to listen
The others are compound finals.
They
are: ai,
ao, ou,
ei, ia,
ie, iao,
iou, ua,
uo, uai,
uei, ¨¹e
an,
ang, ong,
en, eng, in,
ing, ian, iang, iong,
uen, ueng, uan, uang, ¨¹n, ¨¹an . click here to listen
Lesson4: The tones
First
tone: use sign "
- "
, it is a high tone, pronounced long and even.
Second
tone: use sign "
´
" it is a rising tone, starting low and rising briefly.
Third
tone: use sign "
¡¦ "
it is a low tone, start slightly above the middle of the speaker¡¯s range,
then drops to the bottom, then rise to the middle of the range.
Fourth
tone: use sign " ` " it is a falling tone, starts high and falls.
Syllables with same initials and finals but in different tones are usually having different meanings.
Examples:
m¨¡
m¨¢ m¨£ m¨¤
f¨¡n f¨¢n f¨£n f¨¤n
Click here to listen
The neutral tone: no sign, is a light tone, spoken very quickly and lightly as if it has no tone. For example:
m¨¡ma
Click here to listen
h¨£oba Click here to listen
x¨©ngxing Click here to listen
¡¡
When
reading a syllable, start with the initials if there are any then quickly switch to
the finals and then plus the tones.
Examples:
j¨©n Click here to listen
f¨¤ng Click here to listen
¡¡