Pinyin and the four tones
Mandarin uses thousands of characters, but every character has exactly one syllable. Pinyin is the official Latin-letter system that spells those syllables — it's how you'll learn pronunciation, type on a keyboard, and look words up. Each pinyin syllable also carries one of four tones (plus a 'neutral' fifth). The tone is part of the word: change the tone, change the meaning. mā (mom), má (hemp), mǎ (horse), mà (scold) are four different words.
The four tones — drawn on the vowel
Tone 1 (¯) is high and flat, like singing one note: mā. Tone 2 (´) rises like an English question — 'huh?': má. Tone 3 (ˇ) dips down then back up — the trickiest: mǎ. Tone 4 (`) drops sharply, like a stern 'No!': mà. The mark goes on the main vowel: nǐ, hǎo, shì, wǒ. Memorize the tone with the word — mǎ (horse) and mā (mom) are not the same word.
The neutral tone
Some syllables are unstressed and lose their tone — said quickly and lightly. Pinyin writes them with no mark: ma (the question particle), men (the plural marker in wǒmen = we). Don't try to give them a tone; just say them short and soft.
The third-tone change rule
When two third-tone syllables sit next to each other, the first one is actually pronounced as a second tone. nǐ + hǎo is written nǐ hǎo but pronounced ní hǎo. This is the most common 'tone sandhi' rule in Mandarin and it kicks in every time you say 你好 (hello).
Initials and finals
A pinyin syllable splits into an initial (the starting consonant, like n-, h-, sh-, w-) and a final (the rest, like -ǐ, -ǎo, -ì, -ǒ). Most initials are close to English, but watch for: x = soft 'sh' (tongue forward), q = 'ch' with the same forward tongue, zh/ch/sh = retroflex (tongue curled back), r = rolled retroflex, c = 'ts' as in 'cats'. The final -ü (written u after j/q/x/y) is the German ü — purse your lips.
Characters and pinyin together
Each Chinese character is one syllable with one tone. 你 is nǐ (you), 好 is hǎo (good), and 你好 nǐ hǎo literally means 'you good' = hello. You'll learn characters and pinyin side by side. On a phone you type pinyin and pick the right character from a list.
All the initials
Every pinyin syllable starts with one of these 21 initials (or none). Copy the set into your notebook — tap a cell to hear the example syllable.
All the finals
And these are the finals — each with an example syllable you can tap:
