How many initials and finals in chinese

Some other local dialects are notoriously hard to understand. We have 21 initials in the Chinese language. Some people say we have 23 initials, because they also count i and ou, but they are actually finals. The initials of Chinese are:.

Below are the 38 finals grouped by the first vowel. Finals consist of an optional initial vowel, the core vowel and an optional final vowel or the consonants ' n ',' ng ' or ' r '. Chinese has four main tones and a neutral tone. The tones are marked with diacritics above the main vowel. Listen to the following for the various combinations of tones:. Some tones shift depending on the context.

The most notable tone shifts are the following: when two third tones follow each other the first shifts to a rising tone. It has a first tone when used in counting. The letter u is written with a w when no initial is present. The letter i is written with a y when no initial is present. Some Northeners, especially around Beijing, add an er sound to certain words for example: na becomes nar and bian becomes bianr.

However, unless you know that that particular word is used in that manner, do not indiscriminately add an ending er to try to sound more Northern. When the final i follows one of the "sibilant" initials z , c , s it sounds more like "zz". English oua, ua, wa. Spanish ua uai Like English why. English ew-i, why, wi. Spanish uay uan As in Don Juan, except after initials j-, q-, x- and y- see below.

French uan uang Like Wang. English ew-ang, ew-ank, u-ang, wang. English oon, un. French une, unne. English uo, wo. Skip to content Chinese Initials and Finals. Chinese Initials and Finals The pronunciation and spelling of Chinese characters are generally given in terms of initials i. Table 1: Pronunciation of initials Pinyin Sound description European equivalent b Not aspirated, between b and p.

Pronounced strongly aspirated. English ts German z ch Strongly aspirated, as English or Spanish ch chin , chofer or Italian ce cenare. English ch, tsh Spanish ch Italian ce d t not aspirated, between d and t. French dj. English r French j s As English s sun. English s, sh French ch German sch t Strongly aspirated t.

English e, i, y French u, eu, hu, hi, hy h is silent in French z Sounds like d followed by s suds or Italian z pizza. English ds, dz, z Italian z zh Rather like English soft j or g joke , genetic.

English ai, ay, eye, i French ail, aille Italian ai Spanish ai, ay German ai, ei an As in tan , except when following an initial y-; it is then pronounced yen. English ao, ar, aw, ou, ow French ao, ar Italian ao e Like e in her or u in duh. English e, ea, ee, er, or, ur French i, y German eu ia As in yard.

English ea-a, e-a Italian or Spanish ia ian Like yen.