The Pinyin Chart Explained: Initials, Finals and Spelling Rules

A Mandarin syllable is usually described in three parts: an initial (声母, the consonant at the start), a final (韵母, the rest of the syllable) and a tone. In mā, m is the initial, a is the final and the flat line is the first tone.

The official source for all of this is the Scheme for the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet (汉语拼音方案), adopted in 1958 and published by China's Ministry of Education (MOE page; PDF). Below, the lists follow that document exactly. Where classroom charts differ, we say so.

The 21 initials (声母)

The scheme's initials table lists 21 initials (汉语拼音方案, section 2):

Group	Initials	Scheme's example characters
Lips	b p m f	玻 坡 摸 佛
Tongue tip	d t n l	得 特 讷 勒
Back of tongue	g k h	哥 科 喝
Tongue front (palatal)	j q x	基 欺 希
Tongue curled back (retroflex)	zh ch sh r	知 蚩 诗 日
Tongue tip, flat (dental)	z c s	资 雌 思

The group names are standard phonetic descriptions added here for teaching; the scheme itself lists the initials in this order with Zhuyin (bopomofo) symbols and example characters.

Notes for English speakers

• b, d, g are not voiced as in English bad. They are unaspirated, while p, t, k are strongly aspirated (a puff of air). Hold a tissue in front of your mouth: it should move for p but hardly for b.
• j, q, x are made with the flat front of the tongue against the hard palate. They only ever combine with i and ü sounds.
• zh, ch, sh, r have the tongue tip curled back. z, c, s have it flat behind the teeth. c sounds roughly like the ts in cats.

What about y and w?

Many children's charts show y and w as initials. In the 1958 scheme they're not: they are spelling devices used when a syllable has no initial and begins with i, u or ü (see the rules below). Teaching them alongside the initials is a classroom convention. It's fine for children, but worth knowing if you're comparing charts.

The finals (韵母)

The scheme's finals table has 35 finals arranged in four columns: finals with no medial vowel, and finals that begin with i, u or ü (汉语拼音方案, section 3).

(no medial)	i-	u-	ü-
	i 衣	u 乌	ü 迂
a 啊	ia 呀	ua 蛙
o 喔		uo 窝
e 鹅	ie 耶		üe 约
ai 哀		uai 歪
ei 欸		uei 威
ao 熬	iao 腰
ou 欧	iou 忧
an 安	ian 烟	uan 弯	üan 冤
en 恩	in 因	uen 温	ün 晕
ang 昂	iang 央	uang 汪
eng	ing 英	ueng 翁
ong	iong 雍

The scheme gives no stand-alone example character for eng and ong. It describes them as "the final of 亨" and "the final of 轰".

Two more finals appear in the scheme's notes:

• er (儿), which is written -r when it is added to the end of another syllable, as in 花儿 huar (note 2).
• ê, written with a circumflex when used on its own (note 3). It's rare in everyday words.

The spelling rules that confuse everyone

The finals in the table are written in their "full" forms. In real spelling, several of them change. All of these rules come from the notes to the 1958 scheme (PDF, p.298–299).

1. zhi, chi, shi, ri, zi, ci, si use the letter i

After these seven initials, the vowel is written i, even though it doesn't sound like the i in mi. Learners often read shi as "she". It's closer to a buzzing continuation of the sh.

2. y and w for syllables with no initial

When a final from the i, u or ü column stands alone, it is spelled with y or w:

• i-column: yi, ya, ye, yao, you, yan, yin, yang, ying, yong
• u-column: wu, wa, wo, wai, wei, wan, wen, wang, weng
• ü-column: yu, yue, yuan, yun (the two dots are dropped)

3. ü loses its dots after j, q, x

After j, q, x the ü is written as plain u: ju 居, qu 区, xu 虚. After n and l the dots stay, because nu and nü (or lu and lü) are different syllables: 女 nǚ, 吕 lǚ.

A simple rule for children: j, q, x never meet a real u, so a u after them is always ü.

4. iou, uei, uen shorten after an initial

When there's an initial in front, these finals drop their middle letter: iou → iu (牛 niu), uei → ui (归 gui), uen → un (论 lun). Without an initial they're written you, wei, wen.

5. The apostrophe

When a syllable starting with a, o or e follows another syllable and the boundary could be misread, an apostrophe separates them. The scheme's example is 皮袄 pi'ao (section 5).

6. Where the tone mark goes

The national orthography standard GB/T 16159-2012 places the tone mark on the main vowel. In iu and ui it goes on the second letter, and the dot of i is dropped under a tone mark (§6.5.1). So: liú, guì, nǐ.

"Whole syllables" (整体认读音节)

If your child is taught with Chinese school materials, you will meet 整体认读音节, syllables that children learn to read as a whole rather than sounding out initial plus final. China's 2022 curriculum standard lists reading these accurately as a grade 1–2 goal, alongside initials, finals and tones (义务教育语文课程标准（2022年版）, p.7). The exact list comes from textbooks rather than from the 1958 scheme, so follow your child's book. Syllables like zhi, chi, shi, ri, zi, ci, si and yi, wu, yu are typical examples.

How to practise the chart

• Little and often. Pick one row of initials or one column of finals a week.
• Say, then spell. Have your child say a syllable, then build it from an initial card and a final card.
• Use real characters. Paste a few words using this week's sounds into the worksheet generator and print a full-mode sheet. Your child reads the pinyin, points out the initial and final, then traces the character.
• Dictation mode for review. Once a row is familiar, print the same words in blank mode and have your child write the characters from the pinyin.

Download the data

The initials and finals on this page are also available as structured data for teachers and developers in our initials and finals files, each with links back to the official scheme.

Sources

• Ministry of Education: 汉语拼音方案 (PDF)
• GB/T 16159-2012 Basic rules of the Chinese phonetic alphabet orthography (transcription; official standard record)
• Ministry of Education: 义务教育语文课程标准（2022年版）