Chinese Pinyin Lesson 2: Initials

In the first pinyin lesson, we introduced syllables and tones. This lesson covers the initial consonants: the sounds at the beginning of syllables such as m in mā.

What is an initial?

Mandarin teaching charts normally list 21 consonant initials. A syllable can also begin without a consonant initial, as in 爱 (ài, love). The letters y and w help spell certain syllables with no consonant initial; they are discussed separately below.

Listen before relying on English comparisons. Mandarin contrasts several consonants through aspiration—a puff of air—rather than the English voiced/unvoiced distinction. Hold a tissue loosely in front of your mouth while comparing b/p, d/t and g/k. It should move more for p, t and k.

Group 1: b, p, m, f

Close both lips for b, p and m. For f, let air pass between your lower lip and upper teeth. The key contrast is aspiration: p has a clear puff of air; b has much less. Mandarin b is not simply the voiced English b.

Group 2: d, t, n, l

Use the tip of your tongue near the ridge behind your upper teeth. In d and t, briefly stop and release the air: t is aspirated; d is unaspirated. Air passes through your nose for n and around the sides of your tongue for l.

Group 3: g, k, h

For g and k, the back of the tongue makes a brief closure against the soft palate. K has aspiration; g does not. For h, leave a narrow opening so the air produces friction: it is usually stronger and farther back than English h.

Group 4: j, q, x

Keep the tongue tip down, near the lower front teeth, and raise the front of the tongue towards the hard palate. J is an unaspirated affricate, q its aspirated counterpart, and x a fricative. English j, ch and sh are only rough reminders: they do not have the same tongue position.

Group 5: z, c, s

Keep the tongue tip near the back of the upper front teeth. Z and c start with a brief closure followed by friction, rather like a joined t+s; c has a puff of air and z does not. S is a continuous hissing sound.

Group 6: zh, ch, sh, r

These are commonly called retroflex initials. Move the tongue tip farther back than for z, c and s; do not force an exaggerated curl. Zh is unaspirated and ch aspirated. Sh has continuous friction; r is voiced. Mandarin r does not sound exactly like English r. Listen to the contrast between z/zh, c/ch and s/sh.

The ü spelling after j, q and x

The written u in ju, qu and xu represents ü, not the u sound in lu. The dots are omitted after j, q and x. For example, 去 is qù. After n and l, retain the dots where needed: 女 (nǚ, woman) and 绿 (lǜ, green).

Spelling with y and w

Y and w are spelling conventions for syllables whose finals begin with i, ü or u and have no consonant initial. Some beginner charts include them alongside initials for convenience, but they are not additional members of the standard 21-initial list.

Notice the spelling changes below. The left column shows a final before it is written as a complete syllable; it is not necessarily a standalone pinyin spelling. In particular, uei becomes wei and uen becomes wen, not “wui” or “wun”. Ü is written without dots after y: yu.

Keep practising

Practise the initial together with its final and tone. Read bà, pǎo, dà, tā, gē and kè, paying attention to the puff of air. Then compare jī with zhī, and xīn with shī. Ask a teacher or fluent Mandarin speaker to check the differences.

Next, study pinyin finals. For additional listening and spelling practice, see Hong Kong Polytechnic University’s pinyin spelling lesson.