Pinyin — The Chinese Pronunciation System

Pinyin (拼音, pīnyīn) is the official romanisation system for Standard Mandarin Chinese, adopted by the People's Republic of China in 1958 and recognised internationally by the United Nations and ISO. The name literally means “spell sounds” — each pinyin syllable is a precise phonetic transcription of how a Mandarin syllable should be pronounced.

Every Mandarin syllable is built from up to three parts: an optional initial (consonant at the start), a final (the vowel nucleus and any trailing nasal), and a tone mark showing which of the four tones applies. Learning this system is the single most important first step for any Mandarin learner — it unlocks every dictionary, input method, and pronunciation guide you will ever encounter.

The pages below cover every aspect of pinyin: the 21 initials, all finals, the four tones and their sandhi rules, spelling conventions, and writing rules for spacing, capitalisation, and diacritic placement.