Total Beginner's Guide To Mandarin

Mandarin Starts With Sounds

Mandarin is the spoken language. Chinese characters are the writing system. Pinyin is the Roman-letter pronunciation guide that helps you say words, hear tones, and type characters on a normal keyboard.

For example, 你好 is written in Chinese characters, nǐ hǎo is pinyin, and the English meaning is hello.

What Pinyin Is

Pinyin uses familiar letters, but the letters do not always sound like English. A syllable usually has a starting sound, an ending sound, and a tone. The tone is part of the word, not decoration.

The syllable ma3 can be read as m initial, a final, third tone number, and mǎ tone mark.

The Five Ma Sounds

The same base sound can become different words when the tone changes. Tone numbers are common in study tools; tone marks are common in learner text.

mā means mother, má can mean hemp or numb, mǎ means horse, mà means scold, and neutral ma is used as a question particle.

Pronunciation That Trips People Up

j, q, and x use a tongue position high and forward. zh, ch, sh, and r raise or lightly curl the tongue tip farther back. z, c, and s keep the tongue flatter near the teeth.

Mandarin p, t, and k are strongly puffed. Mandarin b, d, and g are lighter and have little breath. For ü, say ee with rounded lips; on many keyboards, type v for this sound.

Typing Mandarin

Most Chinese keyboards work by typing plain pinyin without tone marks. Type ma, then pick the character you need from the candidate row. Type lv for lü on many keyboards, and use an apostrophe when syllables could split the wrong way, such as xi'an for 西安.