The Introduction of Chinese Pinyin - Initials

Initials


A Chinese character has only one syllable, which consists of two parts: an initial (consonant) and a final (vowel). The consonants always appear initially in a syllable. There are 21 initials for the standard Chinese pronunciation and they fall into six groups as follows:

b	p	m	f
d	t	n	l
g	k	h
j	q	x
z	c	s
zh	ch	sh	r

Pronunciation Hint:

The initials of 'm', 'f', 'n', 'l', 'h', 's', and 'sh' are pronounced the same as their corresponding ones in English.

'b' is analogous to the sound of 'p' in the English word 'spin'. (unaspirated)

'd' is analogous to the sound of 't' in the English word 'straight'.(unaspirated)

'j' is analogous to the sound of 'g' in the English word 'genius'. (unaspirated)

'z' is analogous to the sound of 'ds' in the English word 'beds'.

'zh' is analogous to the sound of 'j' in the English word 'job'.

'g' is analogous to the unaspirated sound 'g' in the English word 'get'.

'x' is analogous to the sound of 'sh' in the English word 'sheep', but with the lip corners tightened up backwards.

'r' is analogous to the sound of 'dge' in the English word 'lodge'.

Please pay attention to the six aspirated 'p', 't', 'k', 'q', 'q', 'c', and 'ch' sounds.

Attentions must be paid to the differences between unaspirated sounds and aspirated sounds.

b/p d/t g/k j/q z/c zh/ch