Learn Pinyin

Mandarin Chinese is the official language of China, and it is the most spoken language in the world due to the largest Chinese population. Mandarin Chinese is also called Putonghua, Huayu, or Guoyu. It is a standardized language of spoken Chinese based on the Beijing dialect. The most difficult part to master Chinese language is the four tones of pinyin and the Chinese characters. However, the grammar is much easier compared to English language. If you are a Chinese beginner, you must learn Pinyin first. If you are an advanced Chinese learner, you must master Chinese pinyin.

Pin Yin is essential and the most fundamental part for all serious Chinese learners. If you are learning Chinese, no matter if you are a beginner or an advanced student, you shall be aware of paramount importance of Pinyin. If you master Pinyin, you can express yourself more clearly in Chinese; it can also help you in archiving better listening comprehension. Before learning how to read, write, or pronounce Chinese characters, you must first learn pinyin.

What is Pinyin?

Hanyu Pinyin or Chinese Pinyin is also called Pinyin or Pin Yin. It literally means “spelled sound”, phonetics. Pin means “spelling” and Yin means “sound”. Pinyin is a system of phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script for Mandarin Chinese langauge. Pinyin was approved in 1958 and adopted in 1979 by the government in the People’s Republic of China.

Pinyin uses Roman letters to represent sounds in Mandarin Chinese. The way these letters represent sounds in Mandarin Chinese differs from how other languages that use the Roman alphabet represent sound. For example, the sounds indicated in Pinyin by ‘b’ and ‘p’ are distinguished from each other by aspiration in a manner different from that of both English, which has voicing and aspiration, and of French, which has voicing alone. Other letters like ’j’, ‘q’, ‘x’ or ‘zh’ indicate sounds that do not correspond to any exact sound in English. Some of the transcriptions in Pinyin such as ‘ang’, do not correspond to English pronunciation, either. Pinyin has also become a useful tool for entering Chinese language text into computers.

How to Learn Pinyin

In order to help you learn and master pinyin, here are some tips for you to refer to.

1. Chinese pronunciation is not related to the writing of Chinese characters, because Chinese is not a phonetic language.
2. Pinyin, Hanyu Pinin or Chinese Pinyin is a way to use Roman letters to represent the pronunciation of the Chinese characters.
3. Pinyin does not represent English pronunciation and should not be pronounced according to English conventions. When you learn Pinyin phonetic conventions, please bear in mind that many sounds have no equivalents in English.
4. There are many homonyms in mandarin Chinese. Pinyin can be ambiguous, especially when transcribing Standard Written Chinese, which uses formal constructions not often found in speech. However, this should not be an issue in the transcription of normal spoken Mandarin conversation since speakers would not use such ambiguous constructions in speech.
5. One more important note on Pinyin is that each syllable represents one character, because each character in Chinese has only one syllable.
6. Since Pinyin only show the sounds of Mandarin Chinese, it is unsuitable for use for speakers of some other Chinese spoken dialects, because the sounds do not correspond to their speech.
7. When learning Pinyin and the tones, we recommend you pronounce LOUDLY with the recording each time you hear one.

Pinyin is the foundation for learning Chinese. If you develop a bad pronunciation habit, it will be very difficult to make a correction. Build a solid Chinese pronunciation foundation, start learning pinyin with authentic pronunciation of a native Chinese speaker. You will learn and master pinyin sooner! Taking pinyin lessons before you start other Chinese Lessons is highly recommended!