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Mandarin characters don¡¯t tell you how to pronounce a word.

Pinyin was invented to help those learning Mandarin with pronunciation - Æ´Òô p¨©n y¨©n literally translates to ¡®spell sound¡¯.

As shown, the sound of a character consists of an initial, a final and one of four tones or a neutral tone.

Initials are the consonant at the beginning of the mandarin syllable.

B - °Ö ²ú¨¤ (father)

P - ÅÀ ±è¨¢ (climb)

M - Âè ³¾¨¡ (mother)

F - ³ö·¢ ch¨± f¨¡ (set off)

D - ´ó »å¨¤ (big)

T - Ëû ³Ù¨¡ (he)

N - ÄǸö n¨¤ ge (that one)

L - À± ±ô¨¤ (spicy)

G - ¸ö ²µ¨¨ (measure word)

K - ¿¨ °ì¨£ (card)

H - ºÈ ³ó¨¥ (drink)

J - ¼Ò Âá¾±¨¡ (home)

Q - Æß ±ç¨© (seven)

X - ÏÂÃæ xi¨¤ mi¨¤n (beneath or below)

Zh - Õâ ³ú³ó¨¨ (this)

Ch - ³µ c³ó¨¥ (vehicle)

Sh - Éß ²õ³ó¨¦ (snake)

R - ÈÈ °ù¨¨ (hot)

Z - ×ì ³ú³Ü¨« (mouth)

C - ²Á ³¦¨¡ (wipe)

S - ÑÕÉ« ²â¨¢n s¨¨ (colour)

Y - ÑÀ ²â¨¢ (tooth)

W - ÇàÍÜ ±ç¨©ng w¨¡ (frog)

Did you know?

For many Mandarin sounds, once the pronunciation of their initials and finals is known, the pronunciation of the full word can be figured out by combining the two with their tone, for example:

Initial - j

Final - i and ao

Tone - v (down then up)

Initial - d

Final - u and an

Tone - v (down then up)

Initial - ch

Final - ang

Tone - ? (rising)