Pronouncing words in Mandarin: Initials

Mandarin characters don’t tell you how to pronounce a word.

Pinyin was invented to help those learning Mandarin with pronunciation – 拼音pīn yīn 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 – 爸bà (father)

P – 爬pá (climb)

M – 妈mā (mother)

F – 出发chū fā (set off)

D – 大dà (big)

T – 他tā (he)

N – 那个nà ge (that one)

L – 辣là (spicy)

G – 个gè (measure word)

K – 卡kǎ (card)

H – 喝hē (drink)

J – 家jiā (home)

Q – 七qī (seven)

X – 下面xià miàn (beneath or below)

Zh – 这zhè (this)

Ch – 车chē (vehicle)

Sh – 蛇shé (snake)

R – 热rè (hot)

Z – 嘴zuǐ (mouth)

C – 擦cā (wipe)

S – 颜色yán sè (colour)

Y – 牙yá (tooth)

W – 青蛙qīng wā (frog)

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)