Pinyin Pronunciation Guide

Tones---Syllables in Mandarin Chinese have four tones which affect the meaning of words， so they are very important.

1stTone(hight level)	spoken hight and neither rises or falls
2ndTone(rising)	starts low and ends hight (like English “huh”)
3rdTone(falling-rising)	dips down and then rise
4thTone(falling)	starts hight andends low(like English”No!”)

Consonants and Vowels----A lot of pinyin letters are pronunced almost the same astney are in English， with the following exceptions:

i - Like “ee” in “bee”(after c， s， z， ch， sh， zh，r-like “e” in “her”)
o - Like “aw”in “saw”	ou - like “ou”in “soul”
ian - like “yen”	ui - like “way”
ei - Like “ay”in “way”	c - like “ts”in “nuts”
q - Like “ch”in “cheap”	x - Like “sh”in “sheep”
z - like “ds”in “libs”	zh - Like “j”in “jug”
g - always like “g”in “ give”	r - like “r”with your tongue rolled back

Useful Phrases

source: http://sie.gxmu.edu.cn/file/201106/3012194896.html

Mandarin Teacher - Ms Siu