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Chinese Pinyin 汉语拼音

The syllabus is a phonetic unit in Chinese, Generally speaking, a syllabus is a Chinese character and it is usually made up of an initial, a final and a tone.

The initial 声母

The initial is the beginning of a syllabus, There are 21 initials in Chinese: b p m f d t n l g k h j q x zh ch sh r z c s

The final 韵母

The final is what follows the initial in a syllabus, There are 39 finals in Chinese.

Single finals 单韵母: a o e i u ü

Compound finals 复韵母: ai ei ao ou ia ie ua uo üe iao iou uai uei

Nasal finals 鼻韵母: an ian uan üan en in uen ün ang iang uang eng ing ueng ong iong

Retroflex finals 卷舌韵母: er

Special finals 特殊的元音韵母: -i（前）-i（后）ȇ

Tone 声调

The tone refer to the rise and fall of a syllabus and it is especially important in Chinese because it is used to differentiate meanings. there are four basic tones in modern Chinese pronunciation. they are marked with this way for example: ē é ě è.

1. the First Tone 第一声 is spoken with a high and level pitch.

2. the Second Tone 第二声 is spoken with a rising pitch.

3. the Third Tone 第三声 is spoken with a dipping pitch.

4. the Fourth Tone 第四声 is spoken with a falling pitch.