Mandarin Pinyin 1

Beginner Level

Mandarin Pinyin

Lesson 1

06/10/18

What is Pinyin

And why

Romanized system for standard Mandarin

Objectives

Basics

Structure

Initials

Finals

Tones

Tone Change Rules

Spelling Rules

Structure

Pronounciation, reading and writing

Initials

21

Consonants at the beginning of a syllable

Finals

36

Vowel or vowel combinations at the end

Initials

Consonants at the beginning of a syllable

"Initials"

Formal Initials

Consonants at the beginning of a syllable

Placeholder for a missing initial

B P M F D T N L G K H J Q X Zh Ch Sh R Z C S

Y W

Finals

Vowel or vowel combinations at the end

Finals

Simple Finals

a o e

i u ü

ai ei ao ou

ia ie

Compound Finals

ua uo

üe

iao iou/iu uai uei/ui

Finals

Vowel or vowel combinations at the end

Nasal Finals

an en in ün

ian üan uan uen/un

ang eng ong ing

iang iong uang ueng

Special Final

er

Tones

01

Pronounciation of charakters

Tones

Fourth

Third

Second

First

Falling

Dipping

Rising

High

Tones

Neutral

Light

Tone Change Rules

Tone Sandhi

1. When two third-tone syllables appear together, the first one changes to the second tone
2. When followed by a fourth tone, 不 (bù) changes to the second tone (bú)
3. When followed by a 4th tone, 一 (yī) changes to 2nd tone (yí). When followed by any other tone, 一 (yī) changes to 4th tone (yì)

Spelling Rules

Tone Marks

Syllables with two or three vowel letters: (i) If the first vowel letter is "i", "u", or "ü", the tone mark is on the vowel letter immediately following these letters (ii) If the first vowel letter is not "i", "u", or "ü", the tone mark is always on the first vowel letter (iii) If the tone mark is on "i", the dot is removed

Syllables with one vowel letter: The tone mark is always on the vowel letter

Syllables With an Initial

Exceptions: (i) If and only if "uo" follows "b", "p", "m", or "f", "u" is dropped, resulting in "bo", "po", "mo", or "fo" (ii) If and only if "ü" follows "j", "q", "x", the umlaut is dropped

Write down the initial, and the final ("i", "u", or "ü", if there is one, followed by the base) with no space in between

Syllables Without an Initial

Syllables starting with "i"

Syllables starting with "a", "o" or "e"

Write down the final

(i) For the single vowel "i", and the nasals "in" and "ing", "y" is added before "i", resulting in "yi", "yin", and "ying" (ii) Spell "you" for "iu"

Syllables Without an Initial

Syllables starting with "ü"

Syllables starting with "u"

Replace "u" with "w" (i) For the single vowel "u", "w" is added before "u", resulting in "wu" (ii) Spell "wen" for "un" (iii) Spell "wei" for "ui"

Replace "ü" with "yu"

R-ending

The "er" (儿) sound can follow finals to from retroflections. Add "r" at the end of the syllable in this case

Characters vs. Words

In order for others to understand more easily, most people write the two pinyin syllables with no space in between if there are two characters in a word And the first letter of a sentence, and the first letters of proper nouns should be capitalized

Practice :D

Time to use your knowledge

四是四 十是十 十四是十四 四十是四十

sì shì sì shí shì shí shí sì shì shí sì sì shí shì sì shí

Thank you!