Pinyin Chart: Initials, Finals and Whole Syllables

What a pinyin chart is, and what a useful one does

Every syllable in Mandarin is built from at most three parts: an initial (the opening consonant, in Chinese 声母), a final (the vowel or vowel-plus-ending part, 韵母), and a tone. A chart that simply lists the initials and finals in alphabetical order tells you what exists but not how to say it. The ordering used on this page is deliberately a different one: sounds are grouped by where in the mouth they are made and by what the tongue and lips are doing at the moment of production. That arrangement is not decoration. When two sounds sit next to each other on this chart, they are made in nearly the same place, and the small difference between them — aspiration, tongue position, nasality — is exactly the difference learners fail to hear at first.

For the tone system in full, including the neutral tone, third-tone sandhi and erhua, see tone change rules. For the specific contrasts that cause the most trouble at beginner and intermediate level, including a practical drilling order, see commonly mispronounced sounds.

Two conventions used below are worth stating up front, because they trip people up in reading materials. First, pinyin is written with tone marks over the main vowel, and this chart uses the proper diacritics throughout rather than numbers. Second, the choice between the sounds on this chart is rarely free: most initials combine with only some finals, and reading a chart correctly means knowing which combinations actually occur. shuō is a real syllable; fōng is not, even though both are spelled from valid pieces.

The 23 initials, grouped by place and manner of articulation

Mandarin has 21 initials written with a consonant letter plus two more often counted separately (y and w, which are really spelling forms of the vowels i and u in syllable-initial position). Practically, learners work with 21 consonant letters and treat y/w as written variants. Below they are grouped into six families. Within each family, the three-way distinction between an unaspirated stop, an aspirated stop and a fricative or nasal repeats in a very regular way — this is why the chart is organised this way rather than alphabetically.

b p m — bilabial: both lips

These three are made by closing both lips and releasing. b is unaspirated: hold your palm in front of your mouth, say bā (八, "eight"), and you should feel almost no puff of air. p is the same lip position with a strong puff of air: pā (趴, "to lie face down"). The lip closure and release are identical; only the breath differs. m is the nasal counterpart, made with the lips closed and air escaping through the nose: mā (妈, "mother"). The trap here is that English speakers hear pinyin "b" as English /p/ and pinyin "p" as English /p/ too, because English /b/ is voiced while Mandarin "b" is not. You must retrain the ear to hear the aspiration contrast, not the voicing contrast.

f — labiodental

f is made with the upper teeth touching the lower lip, exactly as in English. fān (帆, "sail"). It is grouped alone because Mandarin has no voiced counterpart /v/ and no second sound made in this position. Learners whose first language lacks /f/ substitute a bilabial sound, which audible as a foreign accent but rarely causes confusion.

d t n l — alveolar: tongue tip behind the upper teeth

The tongue tip touches the ridge just behind the upper front teeth. d is unaspirated — dà (大, "big"); t is aspirated — tā (他, "he"). n is nasal, with air through the nose and the tongue still touching the ridge — nǐ (你, "you"). l is a lateral: the tongue tip touches the same spot but the air escapes around the sides of the tongue — lái (来, "to come"). The n/l pair is a genuine source of miscommunication, and it is discussed in detail on the commonly mispronounced sounds page.

g k h — velar: back of the tongue against the soft palate

The back of the tongue rises to touch the soft palate at the back of the mouth. g unaspirated — gāo (高, "tall"); k aspirated — kàn (看, "to look"); h is the fricative made in the same place, with air forced through the narrowed gap — hǎo (好, "good"). Mandarin h is noticeably rougher and further back than the English h; it is closer to the "ch" in Scottish "loch". English speakers systematically under-pronounce it, which is why h/f confusion appears later in this page's companion article.

j q x — alveolo-palatal: tongue blade against the hard palate

The tongue is flat and high, with the blade touching the hard palate just behind the alveolar ridge; the lips are spread, not rounded. j unaspirated — jiā (家, "home"); q aspirated — qiū (秋, "autumn"); x fricative — xià (下, "below"). These three never combine with the finals a, o, e or with the plain u; the u that follows them is always the ü vowel written without its umlaut. That rule is explained below.

zh ch sh r — retroflex: tongue tip curled up and back

The tongue tip curls back towards the hard palate, creating the hollow, "dark" quality English speakers associate with a heavy American r. zh unaspirated — zhōng (中, "middle"); ch aspirated — chī (吃, "to eat"); sh fricative — shū (书, "book"); r is the voiced continuant made in the same curled position — rén (人, "person"). Mandarin r is not the English approximant: it has friction.

z c s — alveolar sibilants: tongue tip behind the teeth, not curled

Same tongue-tip area as d/t/n/l, but instead of a full stop the tongue forms a narrow groove. z unaspirated — zài (在, "at"); c aspirated — cài (菜, "vegetable"); s fricative — sān (三, "three"). The single most important fact on this page is that z c s and zh ch sh are the same three manners in two different tongue positions. Every pair (z/zh, c/ch, s/sh) is one adjustment of the tongue tip: flat versus curled.

Where do y and w belong?

They are not initials in the strict sense. When a syllable would begin with the vowel i or u, pinyin writes y or w to make the syllable boundary unambiguous: i becomes yi, u becomes wu, ü becomes yu. The sound you actually say is the vowel; the letters are a spelling convention that prevents confusion with the previous syllable in running text.

The finals: simple, compound and nasal

Finals are where pinyin looks most intimidating, because the written forms are not one-to-one with what you say. They fall into three groups.

Simple finals (单韵母)

Seven core vowels, each a single steady sound: a, o, e, i, u, ü, plus the special vowel er. Two of these need attention. Mandarin e is not the English "e" in "bed" — it is a back, unrounded vowel like the "u" in "fur" without any r-colouring. Mandarin o is a rounded back vowel closer to "law" than to "oh". The letter ü is a front rounded vowel; the easiest way to find it is to say "ee" and then round your lips without moving your tongue.

There is also an invisible vowel, written i in some syllables but pronounced nothing like it. In zhi chi shi ri zi ci si the letter i does not stand for the vowel /i/. After zh ch sh r it is a voiced continuation of the curled tongue; after z c s it is a voiced continuation of the flat tongue. That is why these seven syllables are taught separately as whole syllables rather than as initial-plus-final.

Compound finals (复韵母)

Two or more vowel targets run together in one syllable: ai ei ao ou ia ie ua uo üe and the three trigraphs iao iu uai ui. The important point is that these are not two separate vowels pronounced in sequence at equal length. One element is the nucleus and the other is a glide; ai is not "a" then "i" but a single movement from an open vowel towards a close one. In iu (a contraction of iou) and in ui (a contraction of uei), the middle vowel is dropped in writing when an initial is present: liù (六, "six") is really liòu, and guì (贵, "expensive") is really guèi. Speak these with the middle element very short; the writing hides it but the ear expects it.

Nasal finals (鼻韵母) — and the front/back split

Nasal finals end either with an alveolar nasal, written -n, or a velar nasal, written -ng. This is the single most consequential distinction in the finals system, because the two endings are contrastive and mixing them changes words.

• Front nasal (前鼻音), final -n: an en in un ün, plus ian uan üan. The tongue tip finishes against the ridge behind the upper teeth, the same position as the initial d. The mouth stays fairly closed. Examples: sān (三, three), mén (门, door), xīn (心, heart), chūn (春, spring).
• Back nasal (后鼻音), final -ng: ang eng ing ong, plus iang uang ueng iong. The back of the tongue finishes against the soft palate, the same position as the initial g. The mouth stays more open and the sound resonates in the back of the head. Examples: sāng (桑, mulberry), méng (蒙, to deceive), xīng (星, star), dōng (东, east).

The minimal pairs that make this concrete are worth memorising as a set: bān (搬, to move) versus bāng (帮, to help); chén (陈, a surname) versus chéng (城, city); jīn (金, gold) versus jīng (京, capital). Practising these six words back to back will make the difference audible within a week, and it is far more efficient than drilling twenty-five finals in isolation.

The 16 whole syllables

Some syllables cannot be read off the chart by combining an initial with a final, because the written vowel does not match the spoken one. These are taught as indivisible units, and Chinese schoolchildren memorise them as a rhyme. There are sixteen:

• zhi — as in zhīdào (知道, to know). The vowel is not /i/.
• chi — as in chīfàn (吃饭, to eat a meal).
• shi — as in shíjiān (时间, time).
• ri — as in rìzi (日子, days).
• zi — as in zìjǐ (自己, oneself).
• ci — as in cídiǎn (词典, dictionary).
• si — as in sì (四, four).
• yi — as in yī (一, one).
• wu — as in wǔ (五, five).
• yu — as in yǔyán (语言, language). Pronounced ü.
• ye — as in yèsè (夜色, the look of the night).
• yue — as in yuèliang (月亮, the moon). Pronounced üe.
• yuan — as in yuányīn (原因, reason). Pronounced üan.
• yin — as in yīnyuè (音乐, music).
• yun — as in yúnyún (云云, and so on); more usefully yùndòng (运动, sport). Pronounced ün.
• ying — as in yīnggāi (应该, ought to).

The first seven are the "empty rime" syllables described above; the last nine are syllables that begin with a vowel but are spelled with y or w. Between them they account for a large share of the highest-frequency characters in the language, so they are worth learning as whole units rather than deriving.

The ü rule: why "ju" is pronounced ü

This is the rule that confuses learners longest, because pinyin deliberately spells two different vowels the same way in different environments. After the initials j, q, x and y, the vowel ü is written as plain u, with the umlaut dropped. So:

• ju (句, sentence) is pronounced jü, not "joo".
• qu (去, to go) is pronounced qü.
• xu (需, to need) is pronounced xü.
• yu (雨, rain) is pronounced yü, which is exactly why yu sits in the whole-syllable list above.

Why the rule exists is worth knowing, because it makes it memorable rather than arbitrary. After j, q, x and y, the plain vowel u never occurs — those initials simply do not combine with it. Since there is no possible confusion, the umlaut is redundant and pinyin drops it for tidiness. After n and l, by contrast, both vowels are possible, so the umlaut must be kept: nü (女, woman) is not nu, and lü (绿, green) is not lu (路, road). That contrast is real and meaning-bearing, which is why nü and lü are among the few places you will see the umlaut in ordinary text.

One further consequence: when a syllable that genuinely contains the vowel u follows j, q, x or y, pinyin spells it the same way, and only your knowledge of the word tells you which vowel it is. In practice this is not a problem, because ju, qu, xu, yu are always ü — there is no plain-u reading of those spellings at all.

The pairs learners confuse most, in priority order

If you are going to spend practice time on this chart, spend it on the contrasts that actually change meaning and that actually resist correction. In rough order of how much they repay the effort:

1. z / zh, c / ch, s / sh — flat versus curled tongue tip, six sounds in three pairs. Getting these right restructures a large part of the vocabulary.
2. Front versus back nasal finals — an/ang, en/eng, in/ing. High frequency in real words and slow to correct without targeted drilling.
3. Aspiration inside each stop family — b/p, d/t, g/k, j/q, zh/ch, z/c. English speakers substitute voicing for aspiration, which produces an accent that is consistently audible.
4. n / l — a genuine merger in several southern varieties of Chinese; not a universal problem, but a hard one where it applies.
5. ü after j, q, x, y versus after n, l — usually a reading problem rather than a speaking problem, and cured by the rule above.

Each of these is worked through with articulatory description, diagnostic word pairs and a drill on the commonly mispronounced sounds page. The chart here tells you what the contrast is; that page tells you how to fix it.

Using this chart to check real readings

A chart answers the question "does this syllable exist, and how is it made?" It does not answer the question "how is this particular character read?" — because most characters have more than one reading, and the right one depends on the word. That second question is covered by common polyphonic characters, and the characters themselves are listed with pinyin by frequency band in 500 essential Chinese characters. If your goal is vocabulary rather than phonetics, start there instead.

Where this chart becomes practically useful is at the point of annotation. When you paste a Chinese passage into the online pinyin tool, every character receives a reading above it: standard characters get their normal reading, and characters with more than one reading are flagged so you can choose. Holding the chart in mind makes that choice faster, because you can see at once which of two candidate readings is phonetically possible in the surrounding syllable. The tool runs entirely in the browser and needs no account, so it is safe to use with your own study texts.

Everything on this page is a reference for adults learning Chinese or preparing materials. Continue to the Tutorials for the rest of the series, or move on to tone change rules — the sounds above are only half of what makes a Mandarin syllable, and tones carry at least as much meaning. When you want to put the chart to work, paste a passage into the online pinyin tool: every character comes back with its reading marked above it, and the groups and contrasts described on this page become something you can check as you read aloud rather than memorise in the abstract.