Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
CONSONANTS
Most consonants, as written in
pinyin
, are pronounced in a similar way to their English equi-
valents, with the following exceptions:
c
as in ha
ts
g
is hard as in
g
od (except when preceded by “n”, when it sounds like sa
ng
)
q
as in
ch
eese
x
has no direct equivalent in English, but you can make the sound by sliding from an “s” to
an “sh” sound and stopping midway between the two
z
as in su
ds
zh
as in fu
dg
e
VOWELS AND DIPHTHONGS
As in most languages, the vowel sounds are rather harder to quantify than the consonants.
The examples here give a rough description of the sound of each vowel as written in
pinyin
.
a
usually somewhere between f
a
r and m
a
n
ai
as in
eye
ao
as in c
ow
e
usually as in f
u
r
ei
as in g
ay
en
as in hyph
en
eng
as in s
ung
er
as in b
ar
with a pronounced “r”
i
usually as in b
ee
, except in zi, ci, si, ri, zhi, chi and shi, when i is a short, clipped sound, like
the American military “s
i
r”.
ia
as in
ya
k
ian
as in
yen
ie
as in
yeah
o
as in s
aw
ou
as in sh
ow
ü
as in the German
ü
(make an “ee” sound and glide slowly into an “oo”; at the mid-point
between the two sounds you should hit the ü-sound); in pinyin, it's sometimes written as a V
u
usually as in
fool
, though whenever u follows j, q, x or y, it is always pronounced
ü
ua
as in s
ua
ve
