• can be conceptualized as pitch moving across five levels that divide the natural comfortable voice range

• 4 tones and neutral

  • 1 flat 5 ā
  • 2 rising 2-5 á
  • 3 deep 2-1-3, 2-1 ǎ
  • 4 falling 5-2 à
  • 0 quickly/lightly no-pitch-change a
• pitch changes start with the tonal vowel and end at the end of the word
• word combining all tones: 三十九岁 sānshíjiǔ suì

• exceptions not reflected in pinyin

  • third tones followed by a third tone become second tone. 33 -> 23, 333 -> 223

  • 不 bu4 is second tone when followed by a fourth tone. 44 -> 24

  • 一 yi1 is pronounced like 不 except it is pronounced as first tone when it stands alone. 13/12/11 -> 43/42/41, 14 -> 24

• sound examples for all common initials, finals, and tone pairs
• pronunciation dictionary
• distinguish "j q x zh ch sh r z c s"
• five sounds of e
• pinyin to ipa: a a, ai aɪ, ao aʊ, b p, ch ʈʂʰ, c tsʰ, d t, e ɤ, ei eɪ, en ən, eng əŋ, er ɚ, f f, g k, h x, -ian jɛn, -ie jɛ, -i i, -i- j, j tɕ, k kʰ, l l, m m, -ng ŋ, n n, -ong oŋ, -ou oʊ, ou oʊ, p pʰ, q tɕʰ, r ʐ, sh ʂ, s s, t tʰ, -üan yɛn, -üe yɛ, -uo wɔ, -u u, -ü- ɥ, -u- w, -ü y, wo wɔ, wu u, w- w, x ɕ, yan jɛn, ye jɛ, yi i, y- j, yuan yɛn, yue jɛ, yu- ɥ, yu y, zh ʈʂ, z ts
• ipa to pinyin: a a, er ɚ, aɪ ai, aʊ ao, ɕ x, eɪ ei, e ye, ə ən, əŋ eng, jɛn ian/yian/yuan/üan, yɛ ie/ye/yue/üe, i i/yi/i, j j/-i-, k g, kʰ k, l l, m m, n n, ŋ ng, oʊ ou, oŋ ong, o wo/ouo, ɔ wɔ/uo/ou, p p, pʰ p, s s, ʂ sh, t t, tʰ t, tɕ tɕ, tɕʰ q, ts c, ts z, ʈʂ zh, ʈʂʰ ch, u u, w w, ɥ yu/ü-, y y, ɔ o, j j

• tones are marked with numbers

  • a number for the tone, between one to five, is placed after each syllable
  • easy to type
  • easy to read
  • examples: a1 a2 a3 a4 a bei3jing1
  • for the neutral/fifth tone, the number can be left out. some use 0 or 5

• tones are alternatively marked with diacritics

  • more difficult to input on a computer
  • more difficult to read because they are small. especially on lower resolution displays, or with smaller fonts, or from a distance
  • introduces the complication of where to place the diacritic. if the first vowel is a medial (i, u or ü), the tone mark is on the vowel letter immediately following the medial. otherwise the tone mark is on the first vowel letter
  • suggests that the marked vowel is pronounced with a tone, whereas the whole syllable is pronounced using the tone
  • more complicated to search for because tone insensitive search requires checking all variations with diacritics
  • all characters with diacritics: āáǎàēéěèīíǐìōóǒòūúǔùǖǘǚǜü
• apostrophe is used to delimit ambiguous syllable combinations
• input methods commonly use pinyin to type chinese characters. lv is used for lü
• silent i: chi, ci, ri, shi, si, zhi, zi
• written u but read ü: yuan juan quan xuan, yue jue que xue, yu ju qu xu, yun jun qun xun
• same pronounciation but different writing as initial or final: wai uai, wang uang, wa ua, wei ui, wen un, wo uo, wu u, ya ia, yang iang, ye ie, yi i, yong iong, you iu, yuan uan, yue üe ue, yun ün un, yu ü u

• cc-cedict chinese to english dictionary database
• edict english to chinese dictionary database
• hsk 3.0 word list
• make-me-a-hanzi data for drawing characters and character graphics
• hanyu source code for the dictionary mentioned above and other lists and data files

• frequency lists

  • frequency list 1 50000 entries

  • frequency list 2 9933 entries

  • frequency list 3 10000 entries

名词 noun, 代词 pronoun, 动词 verb, 形容词 adjective, 副词 adverb, 数词 numeral, 量词 measure word, 连词 conjunction, 介词 preposition, 助词 particle, 叹词 interjection, 拟声词 onomatopoeia

主语 subject, 谓语 predicate, 宾语 object, 定语 attributive, 状语 adverbial, 补语 complement, 短语 phrase, 分句 clause, 句子 sentence

• mandarin corner listening practice

  • stories
  • walk around
• etgushi reading practice
• chinese poetry on github
• chinese text project pre-modern chinese texts

• beginner

  • slow & clear chinese channel

  • learn chinese with yi zhao

  • pronunciation guide - vowels

  • pronunciation guide - tones

  • duolingo

• yoyo chinese
• kids yay
• children's stories and songs
• difference between simplified and traditional chinese in unicode
• color-code characters by tone
• list of internet resources
• cjk unified ideographs relevant unicode blocks

• programming

  • pinyin-utils

  • hanzi-tools

• within a number: a single zero is read between non-zero digits. 205 is e4ling2wu3.
• consecutive zeros: only one zero is pronounced, even if multiple zeros appear consecutively. 1004 is yi1ling2si4
• ending zeros: zeros at the end of a number are not pronounced. 1200 is yi1qian1er4bai3
• beginning zeros: a zero at the start of a number is typically omitted. 012 is shi2er4