1st tone · high and level (55)
妈 mā (mother)
Pick a comfortable high note and hold it flat, like a sung note. The common mistake is starting too low, so it sounds bored or slides down.
Mandarin Chinese Pronunciation: The Complete GuidePinyin, the four tones, initials and finals, with audio
Every Mandarin syllable has three parts: an initial (the starting consonant), a final (the vowel part) and a tone (the pitch pattern). Learn the 21 initials, the finals and the four tones, and you can pronounce any word in the language. This guide covers all three, plus the tone changes and the sounds English speakers most often get wrong.
How a Mandarin syllable works
Chinese characters are one syllable each, and Mandarin syllables are short and regular. Pinyin, the official romanisation, writes each one as initial + final with a tone mark over the main vowel:
| Character | Pinyin | Initial | Final | Tone |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 好 | hǎo | h | ao | 3rd |
| 中 | zhōng | zh | ong | 1st |
| 学 | xué | x | üe (written ue) | 2nd |
| 爱 | ài | (none) | ai | 4th |
Not every initial combines with every final, so there are only about 400 valid syllables. The pinyin chart lays them all out in one grid: initials across, finals down, and every cell plays the syllable in all four tones.
The four Mandarin tones (and the neutral tone)
A tone is the pitch pattern of a syllable, and it changes the meaning: ma with four different tones is four different words. Tones are usually described on a 1–5 pitch scale, from 1 (your lowest comfortable pitch) to 5 (your highest).
mā · má · mǎ · mà (mother, hemp, horse, scold)
mā · má · mǎ · mà
Audio uses your browser's built-in Mandarin voice. For higher-quality AI-evaluated practice, try the TonePerfect app.
shī · shí · shǐ · shì (poem, ten, history, to be)
shī · shí · shǐ · shì
Audio uses your browser's built-in Mandarin voice. For higher-quality AI-evaluated practice, try the TonePerfect app.
2nd tone · rising (35)
麻 má (hemp; numb)
Start mid-range and rise, like a surprised "what?" in English. Learners usually rise too little: exaggerate it.
3rd tone · low, dipping (214; mostly 21 in speech)
马 mǎ (horse)
Go low and stay low, with a little creak. The full dip-and-rise is only heard at the end of a phrase or said alone; inside a sentence it is a low tone.
4th tone · falling (51)
骂 mà (to scold)
Start high and drop sharply, like a firm "No!". Keep it short and decisive; a slow fall can sound like a 3rd tone.
Neutral tone · short and light
吗 ma (question particle)
Unstressed and quick. Its pitch depends on the syllable before it: higher after a 3rd tone, lower after a 4th.
Want to see whether you actually hit them? The Mandarin tones test listens to you say real words and marks each tone. For drills, see Mandarin tones: chart and practice exercises.
Tone changes you cannot skip
Some tones change depending on the next syllable (tone sandhi). These four rules cover almost everything a learner meets:
Two 3rd tones in a row
你好 nǐ hǎo → said ní hǎo
The first 3rd tone becomes a 2nd tone. Pinyin keeps writing the 3rd-tone mark, so you have to apply it yourself.
不 bù before a 4th tone
不是 bù shì → said bú shì
不 is 4th tone everywhere else (不好 bù hǎo).
一 yī before a 4th tone
一个 yī gè → said yí gè
Before tones 1, 2 and 3 it becomes 4th tone (一天 yì tiān); alone, in counting and in dates it stays yī.
The "half third"
我们 wǒmen, 很忙 hěn máng
A 3rd tone before any non-3rd tone keeps only its low part: no rise.
More examples: third tone sandhi rules and 一 and 不 tone changes.
The 21 initials (consonants)
Initials are grouped by where the sound is made. The key idea for English speakers is aspiration: b/p, d/t, g/k, z/c, zh/ch and j/q are pairs that differ by a puff of air, not by voicing.
- Lips
- b · p · m · f
- b and p are not voiced/voiceless like English: both are voiceless. b is unaspirated (like the p in "spin"), p is aspirated with a strong puff of air (like "pin"). Hear ba
- Tongue tip on the gum ridge
- d · t · n · l
- Same aspiration contrast: d = unaspirated t, t = aspirated t. Hold a paper strip in front of your mouth: it should only move on t. Hear ta
- Back of the tongue
- g · k · h
- g = unaspirated k, k = aspirated k. h is rougher than English h, closer to the ch in Scottish "loch". Hear ge
- Tongue flat behind the lower teeth
- j · q · x
- Tongue tip down, middle of the tongue raised to the palate, lips spread. j ≈ a light "jee", q ≈ "chee" with a puff, x ≈ between "see" and "she". They only ever come before i or ü. Hear ji
- Tongue tip curled back
- zh · ch · sh · r
- Retroflex: the tongue tip points up and back towards the roof of the mouth. zh is unaspirated, ch aspirated. r is a buzzy, relaxed sound, never the English r. Hear zhi
- Tongue tip behind the upper teeth
- z · c · s
- z ≈ "ds" in "kids", c ≈ "ts" in "cats" with a strong puff, s as in English. The most common learner error is reading c as "k". Hear zi
Retroflex: shī shí shǐ shì
shī · shí · shǐ · shì
Audio uses your browser's built-in Mandarin voice. For higher-quality AI-evaluated practice, try the TonePerfect app.
Palatal: xī xí xǐ xì
xī · xí · xǐ · xì
Audio uses your browser's built-in Mandarin voice. For higher-quality AI-evaluated practice, try the TonePerfect app.
Finals and pinyin spelling rules
Finals are everything after the initial: a simple vowel (a, o, e, i, u, ü), a vowel combination (ai, ao, ou, ia, uo…), or a vowel plus a nasal ending (-n or -ng). They group into four families by their first sound: plain finals, finals starting with i, with u, and with ü.
Plain
a · o · e · ai · ei · ao · ou · an · en · ang · eng · ong · er
Starting with i
i · ia · ie · iao · iu · ian · in · iang · ing · iong
Starting with u
u · ua · uo · uai · ui · uan · un · uang
Starting with ü
ü · üe · üan · ün
Spelling rules that change how pinyin looks
- With no initial, i becomes y and u becomes w: ia → ya, ie → ye, uo → wo, i → yi, u → wu.
- ü is written u after j, q, x and y (ju, qu, xu, yu, yuan, yun) but keeps its dots after n and l (nǚ, lǜ), where nu and lu also exist.
- Three finals are shortened after an initial: iou → iu (liù), uei → ui (guì), uen → un (dùn). The hidden vowel is still faintly there.
- The i in zi, ci, si, zhi, chi, shi and ri is not "ee": it is a buzzing continuation of the consonant.
- The tone mark goes on a, then o or e; in iu and ui it goes on the second letter (liù, guì).
The pinyin chart explained walks through every row and column of the chart.
6 pronunciation mistakes English speakers make
1. Ignoring aspiration
Mandarin does not contrast voiced and voiceless consonants the way English does (b/p, d/t, g/k). It contrasts a puff of air against no puff. Saying b with a voiced English b is understood, but saying p without the puff turns 怕 pà (to fear) into 爸 bà (dad).
2. Merging zh/ch/sh with j/q/x and z/c/s
Three series that all sound like "sh" or "ch" to English ears. shī (诗, poem), xī (西, west) and sī (丝, silk) are different words. The tongue position does the work: curled back, flat behind the lower teeth, or tip behind the upper teeth.
3. The ü sound
Say "ee" and round your lips without moving your tongue. After j, q, x and y the two dots are dropped (ju, qu, xu, yu) but the sound is still ü, not "oo". lù (路, road) and lǜ (绿, green) are different words.
4. -n versus -ng
an/ang, en/eng and in/ing are separate finals. -n ends with the tongue tip on the gum ridge, -ng with the back of the tongue raised and the mouth open. 山 shān (mountain) and 伤 shāng (wound) differ only here.
5. Reading pinyin as English
Pinyin uses Latin letters with Chinese values: c = ts, q = ch, x = a soft sh, zh = j-like, e = a vowel like the u in "duh" said with spread lips, and i after z/c/s/zh/ch/sh/r is a buzz, not "ee" (sì is not "see").
6. Flattening the tones in sentences
Many learners say single words correctly and lose the tones in a sentence. Practise in two-syllable words and short phrases from day one, because that is where tones change and where they carry meaning.
Deep dive: zh, ch, sh vs j, q, x.
How to practise Chinese pronunciation
Reading about tones does not fix them; hearing yourself does. A routine that works:
Step 1
Hear every syllable
Go through the pinyin chart row by row and listen to each syllable in all four tones.
Open the pinyin chart →Step 2
Fix the tones first
Drill tone pairs, minimal pairs and the sandhi rules: the tones carry more meaning than any single consonant.
Mandarin tones: chart and exercises →Step 3
Measure where you are
Take a two-minute test that scores every syllable you say, so you practise the sounds you actually get wrong.
Take the free pronunciation test →Step 4
Practise daily with feedback
Ten minutes a day, recording real words and sentences and correcting each error as it happens.
Use the pronunciation checker →
TonePerfect listens to you speak and scores every syllable for tone, initial and final, then builds a short daily session around the sounds you miss.
Chinese pronunciation: frequently asked questions
Is Chinese pronunciation hard?+
It is different rather than hard. Mandarin has only about 400 distinct syllables, far fewer than English, and pinyin spells them consistently. The hard parts for English speakers are the tones, aspiration, and three groups of hissing sounds (zh/ch/sh, j/q/x, z/c/s). With daily practice and feedback most learners hear the tones within days and produce them reliably within a few weeks.
How many sounds are there in Mandarin Chinese?+
Standard Mandarin has 21 initials (starting consonants) and about 36–38 finals depending on how you count them. They combine into roughly 400 valid syllables, and with four tones plus the neutral tone that gives around 1,300 tone-syllables actually used in the language.
What are the four tones of Mandarin?+
The 1st tone is high and level (mā), the 2nd rises (má), the 3rd is low and dips (mǎ), and the 4th falls sharply (mà). There is also a short, unstressed neutral tone (ma). The same syllable with a different tone is a different word: 妈 mother, 麻 hemp, 马 horse, 骂 to scold.
Should I learn pinyin before characters?+
Yes. Pinyin is how Chinese children, dictionaries and keyboards represent pronunciation. Learning it first gives you a reliable way to read the sound of any new word, and it is how you type Chinese on a phone or computer.
What is the difference between Mandarin and Chinese pronunciation?+
When people say "Chinese pronunciation" they almost always mean Standard Mandarin (Putonghua), the official language of mainland China and Taiwan. Cantonese and other Chinese languages have their own sound systems and more tones; this guide covers Mandarin.
How can I check my Mandarin pronunciation?+
Record yourself and compare against a reference. TonePerfect's free pronunciation test scores every syllable for tone, initial and final, so you see exactly which sound is off, not just an overall grade. The Mandarin tones test checks tones only.
How long does it take to get good Chinese pronunciation?+
With 10–15 minutes of focused daily practice, most learners fix the major tone errors in four to eight weeks. Sounds like the retroflex series and ü take longer to become automatic. Short daily sessions with feedback work far better than long occasional ones.
Free Mandarin pronunciation resources
Pinyin chart with audio
Every Mandarin syllable in all four tones. Click to hear.
Mandarin tones: chart and exercises
Tone chart, tone pairs, minimal pairs and an 8-week drill plan.
Chinese tones explained
What each tone does in the mouth, with audio.
Mandarin tones test
Say words aloud and see which tones you hit.
Chinese pronunciation test
A free 2-minute test scoring tones, initials and finals.
Mandarin pronunciation checker
Check any phrase syllable by syllable.
Third tone sandhi rules
When 3rd tones change, with examples.
zh ch sh vs j q x
The sound pairs English speakers mix up most.
How to read the pinyin chart
Initials, finals and the spelling rules explained.
Printable pinyin chart (PDF)
All 403 syllables on one page, free to print and share.
Pinyin syllable guides
One page per syllable with example words.
The four tones with pitch curves
Hear the tones on real words.
How to pronounce common words
Audio guides for everyday Chinese words.