The Complete Pinyin Chart

First tone

High level — flat and held high

e.g. mā (妈 mother)

Second tone

Rising — like a question in English

e.g. má (麻 hemp)

Third tone

Dipping — falls then rises

e.g. mǎ (马 horse)

Fourth tone

Falling — sharp drop, like a command

e.g. mà (骂 scold)

Neutral tone

Light and short — unstressed syllable

e.g. ma (吗 question particle)

ü → u after j, q, x, y

The letters j, q, x, and y can only combine with the ü vowel, never with plain u. So the umlaut dots are dropped: ju, qu, xu, yu all actually represent the ü sound.

e.g. 鱼 yú (fish) — the u here is really ü

Zero-initial i/u/ü → y/w prefix

Finals starting with i become y-, finals starting with u become w-, and ü becomes yu when there is no initial consonant. This prevents ambiguity in running text.

e.g. ian → yan, uan → wan, üan → yuan

iou / uei / uen abbreviation

When preceded by an initial consonant, the full forms iou, uei, and uen are abbreviated in writing: written as iu, ui, un. The middle vowel is omitted in spelling but pronounced.

e.g. liou → liu, guei → gui, duen → dun

Neutral tone (轻声 qīngshēng)

Certain grammatical particles and the second syllable of some words lose their full tone and become very short and light. Written without a tone mark.

e.g. 吗 ma (question particle), 的 de (possessive), 爸爸 bàba (father)

Syllable separation apostrophe

When a syllable beginning with a, o, or e follows another syllable in a word, an apostrophe is used to prevent misreading the syllable boundary.

e.g. 西安 Xī'ān (Xi'an city) — not Xiān

Tone mark placement priority

When a final contains multiple vowels, the tone mark goes on the vowel that the mouth opens widest for: a and e always win; o wins over u/i; for iu and ui, the tone mark goes on the last vowel.

Priority: a > e > o > i/u/ü (last vowel for iu/ui)