MEDICAL CHINESE

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Guide to Hanyu Pinyin

Initial+Final+Tone=syllable.

Initial sounds
b^2	ball
c^1	“ts” as in its
ch^1,3	church
d	date
f	fork
g^2	girl
h^1	her
j	“jee” as in jeep
k^1	kurt
l	let
m	more
n	nice
p^1	pop
q	“chee” as in cheese
r	rubber
s	sit
sh^3	shirt
t^1	tell
v	used only for foreign words
w	want
x	“shee” as in sheep
y	yet
z	“ds” as in reads
zh^3	“j” as in jump
^1strongly aspirated ^2not aspirated ^3put tip of tongue to roof of mouth

Final Sounds*
a	“ah” as in father
ai	“eye”
an	“ahn” as in fiancé
ang	“ahng”
ao	“ow” as in how
ar	bar
e	“o” as in oh when not a diphthong
e	“a” as in say when in a diphthong
en	“un" as in under
eng	“ung” as in lung
ei	eight
er	her
i	“ea” as in eat
i	sir when in syllables beginning with c, ch, r, s, sh, z, and zh
in	bin
ing	sing
o	“aw” as in law
ou	“oe” as in hoe
u	“oo” as in too
ue	diphthong “i” as in ship
ui	diphthong “wee”
un	fun

*not all finals have been listed.  Some compound finals consist of a combination of the above finals.  Please refer to the websites below.

Tone	Mark	Description
1	dā	High and level.
2	dá	Starts medium in tone, then rises to the top.
3	dă	Starts low, dips to the bottom, then rises toward the top.
4	dà	Starts at the top, then falls sharp and strong to the bottom.
Neutral	da	Flat, with no emphasis.

The following websites contain more detailed information on Hanyu pinyin, as well as online Mandarin lessons.

http://www.chinawestexchange.com

http://www.learn-chinese-language-online.com