Chinese phonetics: initials, finals and tones

October 9, 2026 · 8 min read

Chinese phonetics is built on the syllable. Every syllable has three parts: the initial — the consonant at the start, the final — everything that comes after it, and the tone — the melody the syllable is said with. There are 21 initials, about 35 finals and four tones. Get to know these three lists and you can read any Chinese word written in pinyin.

How a Chinese syllable works: initial, final and tone

“Initial” and “final” sound like textbook jargon, but they mean something simple: the beginning of the syllable and its ending. In mā the beginning is m and the ending is a. In zhōng the beginning is zh (two letters, one sound) and the ending is ong. The tone sits on top of the ending.

The initial is always a single consonant: Chinese never starts a syllable with two consonants in a row, so nothing like the “str” of “street”. The final is a vowel, a group of vowels, or a vowel with a nasal n or ng at the end. No other consonant can end a syllable. Some syllables have no initial at all, just a final: 爱 ài — to love, 饿 è — hungry.

That is why Chinese has so few syllables: about 400, or about 1,300 if you count the tones. English, by comparison, has many thousands. The whole set fits into one pinyin chart, where you can listen to every syllable.

Chinese initials chart: how to pronounce the 21 consonants

Initials are learned in groups, by where in the mouth the sound is made. Press a syllable to hear it. The English words in the descriptions are only hints: the sounds are close, not identical.

Two things trip up almost every English speaker.

• b–p, d–t and g–k differ by breath, not by voice. Chinese b is not English b: there is no voice in it. The difference is the puff of air after the consonant. English already has that puff — you just never listen for it. Hold your palm in front of your mouth: on pā you should feel a burst of air, on bā almost nothing. The pairs j–q, zh–ch and z–c work the same way.
• The three rows of “s” and “sh” sounds are three tongue positions. In j q x the tongue lies flat and the sound comes out soft. In zh ch sh the tongue tip is raised and pulled back, and the sound is hard. In z c s the tongue tip is right at the teeth. Compare: xī shī sī.

More on the hard consonants in the article on the sounds of Chinese.

Chinese finals: chart and pronunciation

Finals fall into three groups: simple ones of a single vowel, compound ones of two or three vowels, and nasal ones ending in n or ng.

The nasal group also includes uen, written un after a consonant (kùn), and the rare ueng, which only occurs on its own as the syllable weng. The final er stands apart: it never combines with an initial, but it gives you the word 二 èr — two.

What to know about pronouncing the finals:

• e is not the e of “bed”. The lips are unrounded and slightly spread, the tongue pulled back; it sounds roughly like the “u” in “fun” said further back in the throat: hē gē. But in ie and üe the same letter sounds close to the e of “yes”: xiè.
• ü is “ee” with rounded lips. Say “ee” and, without moving your tongue, round your lips as if to whistle. It is the vowel of French “tu” or German “über”: lǜ. Compare with plain u, like the “oo” in “food”: lù.
• Compound finals are one syllable, not two. ai, ao and iao glide in a single movement: hǎo rhymes with “how”, it is not “ha-o”.
• n and ng are different endings. For n the tongue tip touches the ridge behind the upper teeth. For ng the tip stays down and the back of the tongue rises, as in “song” — with no “g” sound at the end. Compare: sān máng, xīn tīng.
• In ian the a sounds like “e”. diàn sounds like “dyen”, not “dyan”. The same goes for üan: quán.

Which initials and finals combine

Not every initial goes with every final. The chart has many empty cells, and simple rules explain them.

• j q x come only before i and ü. They are followed by finals that start with one of those two vowels: jiā qí xué. There are no syllables ja, qo or xa.
• zh ch sh r, z c s and g k h are the opposite. They never combine with finals in i or ü: there is no gi or shü. The i in zhi, chi, shi, ri, zi, ci, si is not “ee” at all. It is a buzz that just prolongs the consonant while the tongue stays put: shí sì. A real “ee” is what you hear in xǐ and nǐ.
• After j q x the dots on ü are dropped. Plain u never follows them, so there is nothing to confuse: you write ju, qu, xu and read them with ü — jú 去 qù — to go. The dots stay only after n and l, where both vowels are possible: lù and lǜ, 女儿 nǚ’ér — daughter.

There is no need to memorize a list of what is forbidden. Remember the rule for j q x and the “not ee” after zh ch sh r z c s — the rest is visible in the full chart of initials and finals: if a cell is empty, the syllable does not exist.

Pinyin spelling rules: y, w and the short forms iu, ui, un

Pinyin does not always write a final the way it looks in the chart. There are three rules.

• A syllable starting with i is written with y. On their own, i, in and ing get a y in front: yi, yin, ying. In the others the i becomes y: ia → ya, ie → ye, iou → you, ian → yan. Hence 一 yī — one, 也 yě — also, 有 yǒu — to have.
• A syllable starting with u is written with w. A lone u becomes wu; in the others the u becomes w: uo → wo, uei → wei, uen → wen. Examples: 五 wǔ — five, 我 wǒ — I, me, 问 wèn — to ask.
• A syllable starting with ü is written yu, without dots. ü → yu, üe → yue, üan → yuan, ün → yun: 鱼 yú — fish, 月 yuè — moon, month, 云 yún — cloud.

The letters y and w are not initials, just a way of showing where a syllable begins. One more shortcut: after a consonant, the finals iou, uei and uen lose their middle vowel in writing and become iu, ui and un. They are still read in full — the middle vowel is heard, if faintly: 六 liù — six, 贵 guì — expensive, 困 kùn — sleepy.

Tone: the third part of the syllable

An initial and a final make a syllable, but not yet a word. A word appears once a tone is added: māmom and mǎhorse are as different to a Chinese ear as “bat” and “bet” are to yours. The tone mark goes over the vowel of the final. How the four tones sound and when they change is covered in the article on Chinese tones.

Chinese phonetics for beginners takes two or three weeks: listen to and repeat every initial and final, then start putting them together into syllables with tones. After that your ear and tongue keep learning from real words. Where to start and how to plan your practice is in the article on Chinese pronunciation.