Interactive Pinyin Chart with Audio
Listen to Mandarin syllables in female and male voices. Use the pinyin chart to compare tones, see example characters and test your listening.
How to use this pinyin chart
The chart groups syllables by initial and final. The initial is the starting consonant. The final is the rest of the syllable. Some syllables have no initial.
Tap a syllable to open its panel and hear its recordings. By default, the chart plays the available recordings for tones 1 to 4 in order. The panel has separate play buttons and example characters for each tone. Each character links to its dictionary entry.
Use “When you tap a syllable” to choose one tone. For example, choose the second tone, then tap ma, mi and mu to hear má, mí and mú.
Search with pinyin such as ma, mǎ, ma3 or lü. You can also search with a character such as 马. With a syllable selected in the grid, use the arrow keys to move. Press the space bar to play it. Press 1, 2, 3 or 4 to play a particular tone.
The four positions below each syllable represent tones 1 to 4. A coloured mark means a recording is available. A hollow mark means the chart lists that reading but has no recording. An empty position means the chart does not list that reading.
Mandarin tones chart
Mandarin has four main tones and a neutral tone. Changing the tone can change the meaning. For example, 妈 (mā) means mum, 麻 (má) means hemp, 马 (mǎ) means horse and 骂 (mà) means to scold.
- The first tone is high and level.
- The second tone rises towards the upper part of your voice.
- The third tone is low. Its full form falls and then rises. You often hear this form when a syllable is said alone.
- The fourth tone falls from high to low.
- The neutral tone is short and unstressed. Its pitch varies with the tone before it.
Before a first, second or fourth tone, a third tone usually stays low without a final rise. This is called a half third tone. Its shape before a neutral tone varies with the word. See “How tones change in words” below for the change before another third tone.
The chart plays neutral-tone examples within words or phrases, such as ma in 好吗. These have separate play buttons.
Use the pitch range of your own voice. The tones have no fixed musical notes. Read more about common advice on Mandarin tones and where to start the second tone.
Pinyin initials
The chart groups initials by where you make them in your mouth.
- For b, p and m, bring both lips together. For f, bring your lower lip towards your upper front teeth.
- For d, t, n and l, the tongue tip touches the ridge just behind the upper front teeth.
- For g and k, the back of the tongue touches the soft palate at the back of the mouth. For h, it comes close enough for air to rub through the gap.
- For j, q and x, raise the front of the tongue towards the hard roof of the mouth. Keep the tip near the lower front teeth. These initials occur with the i and ü groups of finals.
- For zh, ch, sh and r, raise the tongue tip behind the ridge above the upper front teeth. A tight curl is unnecessary.
- For z, c and s, keep the tongue tip or blade near the backs of the upper front teeth.
The pairs b/p, d/t, g/k, j/q, zh/ch and z/c differ in aspiration. Aspiration is the puff of air after the consonant. The sounds p, t, k, q, ch and c have a strong puff. The sounds b, d, g, j, zh and z have little or no puff. Both sounds in each pair are normally voiceless. This means the vocal cords do not vibrate during the consonant.
Pinyin finals
A final can contain one vowel, several vowel sounds or a vowel followed by n or ng. The chart has separate groups for finals beginning with i, u and ü.
The two rows labelled -i have different sounds from the i in ji. After z, c and s, the tongue stays near the upper front teeth. After zh, ch, sh and r, the tongue tip stays raised further back. The final is voiced, with little or no hissing. These sounds are often called apical vowels.
Compare the recordings for zhi, zi and ji to hear all three sounds. You can also compare finals ending in n and ng.
Pinyin spelling rules
Some finals change spelling when they form a syllable. The panel explains the spelling of the syllable you choose.
- With no initial, the i group uses y and the u group uses w. For example, i becomes yi, ia becomes ya, iou becomes you, u becomes wu and uei becomes wei.
- With no initial, the ü group uses y and drops the dots. For example, ü becomes yu and üan becomes yuan.
- After an initial, iou becomes iu, uei becomes ui and uen becomes un. Examples include jiu, gui and lun.
- After j, q and x, ü is written u. Keep the dots after n and l, including in nü, lü, nüe and lüe.
- For a syllable with vowel letters, put the tone mark on a if there is one. Otherwise, use e or o. If none of these is present, mark the last vowel letter. This gives liú and guì. A tone mark replaces the dot on i.
- In nasal syllables without a vowel letter, the tone mark goes on m or n, as in ḿ and ńg.
How tones change in words
A syllable’s tone can change in speech. The dictionary usually shows its original tone. The examples below show both the dictionary pinyin and the spoken tones. Each recording plays the whole word.
When two third-tone syllables are spoken together without a pause, the first is pronounced as a second tone. With longer sequences, the changes depend on how the words are grouped.
- Dictionary pinyin nǐhǎo Spoken tones níhǎo Dictionary entry
- Dictionary pinyin shuǐguǒ Spoken tones shuíguǒ Dictionary entry
- Dictionary pinyin lǎohǔ Spoken tones láohǔ Dictionary entry
一 usually becomes yí before a fourth tone. It becomes yì before a first, second or third tone.
It keeps yī when said alone, when reading digits and in ordinal numbers such as 第一 (dìyī). It also keeps yī at the end of a word such as 统一 (tǒngyī).
Before a neutral tone, the following syllable’s original tone can still affect 一. For example, 一个 is commonly said yí ge, with 个 reduced from gè. Between repeated verbs, 一 can be neutral, as in 看一看 (kàn yi kàn).
- Dictionary pinyin yīdìng Spoken tones yídìng Dictionary entry
- Dictionary pinyin yīyàng Spoken tones yíyàng Dictionary entry
- Dictionary pinyin yībān Spoken tones yìbān Dictionary entry
- Dictionary pinyin yīzhí Spoken tones yìzhí Dictionary entry
- Dictionary pinyin yīqǐ Spoken tones yìqǐ Dictionary entry
- Dictionary pinyin dìyī Spoken tones dìyī Dictionary entry
不 usually becomes bú before a fourth tone. It stays bù before a first, second or third tone, or when said alone.
不 can also be neutral in forms such as 好不好 (hǎo bu hǎo) and 看不见 (kàn bu jiàn).
- Dictionary pinyin bùshì Spoken tones búshì Dictionary entry
- Dictionary pinyin bùduì Spoken tones búduì Dictionary entry
- Dictionary pinyin bùhuì Spoken tones búhuì Dictionary entry
- Dictionary pinyin bùhǎo Spoken tones bùhǎo Dictionary entry
About the recordings
The chart uses the Chinese Boost dictionary’s female and male voices. Each syllable recording comes from a character entry with that pronunciation. The tone-change examples use recordings of whole words.
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