Conversational Mandarin Chinese Online

A Brief Introduction to Romanized spelling system of Chinese - Pinyin

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The phonological system of the modern standard language in Chinese, Putonghua or Guoyu, can be represented by letters. Of all the letters of English alphabet, 25 letters are used for Pinyin. Letter 'v' is not used, while letter 'ü' is added to represent the vowel sound 'yu'.

Consonant letters

    There are 20 consonant letters use in Putonghua. Letter 'V' is not used. Three consonants are represented by combinations of two letters - 'zh', 'ch' and 'sh':
 

b	p	m	f
d	t	n	l
g	k	h
j	q	x
z	c	s
zh	ch	sh	r
y	w

Note:

• The actual sound you hear for each letter is a combination of the consonant and a vowel.
• 'y' and 'w' are used for 'i' and 'u' respectively if they appear at the beginning of a syllable: e.g. 'ya [ia]'  'wa [ua]'. Or they are added when 'i' and 'u' are independent syllables, e.g. 'yi [i]', 'wu [u]'

Vowel letters

    There are 6 vowel letters used in Putonghua:
 

a

o

e

i

u

ü

Tones

    There are four tones in Putonghua: the 1st tone, the 2nd tone, the 3rd tone and the 4th tone. They are superimposed over the main vowel of a syllable and represented by diacritic markers.
 

1st ton: high and long	2nd tone: rising and long
3rd tone: low and short	4th tone: falling and short

Syllables

    Syllables are composed by consonants, vowels and tone. According to the trational notation, a syllable is composed by a 'initial' and a 'final'. An initial is the first sound of a syllable, usually, a consonant. A final is the rest part of the syllable. The final can be a single vowel, or a combination of vowels, or combination of vowels and nasals 'n' or 'ng': For example: (the following syllables are not human voice, they are produced by Bell-lab automatic speech synthecizing program)
 

Single vowel	a, i, u
Combination of vowels	ao, ia
Combination of a vowel and a nasal	an, en, in, ang, eng, ing
Combination of vowels and a nasal	uan, uang, iong
Combination of  consonant and a vowel	wǒ, nǐ, tā
Combination of consonant, vowel and consonant	nín, lán, mén, lín
Other possible combinati

Unit 1

Click on the speaker icon of each sentence and listen to the recording. The Chinese characters are in big5 format.

1.      Nǐ hǎo!

Hello!
你 好﹗
 

2.      Wǒ xìng Xiè.

My last name is Xie.
我 姓謝。
 

3.      Wǒ jiào Xiè Tiānwèi.

My full name is Xie Tianwei.
我 叫謝天蔚。
 

4.      Wǒ shì lǎoshī.

I am a teacher.
我 是老師。
 

5.      Zàijiàn!

Good-bye!
再見﹗

Click on the speaker icon of the following sentences and listen to the recording. The Chinese characters are in big5 format.

1.       Nǐ xìng shénme?

What's your last name?
你姓什麼﹖
 

2.       Wǒ xìng Xiè.

My last name is Xie.
我姓謝。
 

3.       Nǐ jiào shénme?.

What's your (full) name?
你叫什麼﹖
 

4.       Wǒ jiàoXiè Tiānwèi.

My (full) name is Xie Tianwei.
我叫謝天蔚。

 Wǒ shì lǎoshī.
I am a teacher.
我是老師。
 

5.      Xièxiè!

Thank you!
謝謝﹗

New Sentence Modules

Listen and Learn 

Click on the speaker icon of each sentence and listen to the recording. The Chinese characters are in big5format.

1.  Zhè shì wǒ bàba.

This is my father.
這是我爸爸。

 2.  Zhè shì wǒ māma.

This is my mother.
這是我媽媽。

3.  Zhè shì wǒ dìdi.

This is my (younger) brother.
這是我弟弟。
 

4.  Zhè shì wǒ tàitai.

This is my wife.
這是我太太。
 

5. Zhè shì wǒ  érzi.

This is my son.
這是我兒子。

1. Wǒ yǒu yí ge dìdi.

I have a (younger) brother.
我有一個弟弟。
 

2. Wǒ méiyou gēge.

I don't have (elder) brothers.
我沒有哥哥。
 

3. Wǒ měiyou jiějiě, yě méiyou, mèimei.

I don't have (elder) sisters and (younger) sisters.
我沒有姐姐﹐也沒有妹妹。
 

4. Wǒ yǒu yí ge érzi.

I have a son.
我有一個兒子。

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New Sentence Modules

 

Listen and Learn

Click on the speaker icon of each sentence and listen to the recording. The Chinese characters are in big5 format.

·  　

1.      Nǐ hǎo! [Hello! 你好﹗]

2.      Zhè shì wǒ bàba. [This is my father. 這是我爸爸。]

3.      Tā zài Zhōngguó. [He is in China. 他在中國。]

4.      Tā bù gōngzuò, tuìxiū le. [He does not work. He has retired. 他不工作﹐退休了。]

1. Zhè shì wǒ dìdi. [This is my (younger) brother. 這是我弟弟。]
2. Tā yě zài Zhóngguó. [He is also in China. 他也在中國。]
3. Tā shì gōngchéngshī. [He is an engineer. 他是工程師。]
4. Tā zài Shànghài gōngzuò. [He works in Shanghai. 他在上海工作。]

New Sentence Modules

Part II: New Sentence Modules

Listen and Learn

Click on the speaker icon of eachsentence and listen to the recording. The Chinese characters are in big5format.

1. Nho! [Hello! 你好﹗]
2. W xngXi. [My last name is Xie.我姓謝。]
3. W jio XiTinwi. [My (full) name is Xie Tianwei. 我叫謝天蔚。]
4. W sh losh, zi Davis gngzu. [I am a teacher. I work in Davis. 我是老師﹐在 Davis 工作。]
5. W zhzi Alvarado ji 606 ho 24 sh. [I live in 606 Alvarado Ave. Apt. 24. 我住在 Alvarado 街 606 號 24 室。]
6. Zh shw de dinhu: 758-7636. [This is my phone number: 758-7636. 這是我的電話﹕758-7636。]
7. Xixie. [Thank you. 謝謝。]
8. B xi.[You're welcome. 不謝。]

1. Zh sh w pngyou. [This is my friend. 這是我朋友。]
   
2. T jio Wng Xiohu. [ His (full) name is Wang Xiaohua. 他叫王小華。]
   
3. T y sh losh, zi San Francisco gngzu. [He is also a teacher. He works in San Francisco. 他也是老師﹐在 San Francisco 工作。]
   
4. T zh zi Geary ji 5690 ho. [He live at 5690 Geary St. 他住在 Geary 街 5690 號。]

Table of Contents

• Unit 0:Introduction to Pinyin
• Unit 1: Let's get toknow each other
• Unit 2: My family
• Unit 3: Where doyou work?
• Unit 4: This is myaddress
• Unit 5: Where areyou from?
• Unit 6: I am learningChinese
• Unit 7: Is Chinesedifficult?
• Unit 8: I understandChinese
• Unit 9: What jobdo you do?
• Unit 10: What timeis it now?
• Unit 11: What day(date) is it today?
• Unit 12: What'sthe weather like here?
• Unit 13: Do youlike Chinese food?
• Unit 14: What gamedo you like?
• Unit 15: I am planningto go to China