• 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 another third tone are pronounced as second tone; for example, 33 -> 23. longer sequences, such as 333, may become 233 or 223, depending on phrasing

    • 很好看 223, 老板娘 233, 你很努力 323_

  • 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
• pronunciation guide - vowels
• pronunciation guide - tones

shared component
  same pinyin -> hit
  same syllable
    same tone -> hit
    different tone -> contrast cue
  same syllable prefix -> cue
  same syllable suffix -> cue
  similar phonetic prefix (c/z, s/sh, j/q, zh/ch, k/g, t/d) -> cue
  same tone -> weak cue
  opposite tone (2/4) -> strong contrast cue (if same syllable)
uniqueness (unique pinyin-tone combination) -> hit
same pinyin -> hit
same syllable
  same syllable prefix -> cue
  same syllable suffix -> cue
  same tone -> weak cue
similar phonetic prefix -> cue
same tone -> weak cue
opposite tone (2/4) -> contrast cue (if tone contrast is known)
visual similarity -> rough cue
same field -> weak cue
opposites -> weak cue
rarity (<3 contexts) -> ad-hoc mnemonic

• focus priority: shared component > syllable > tone > uniqueness > similar phonetic prefix > suffix/prefix > opposite tone
• disambiguation: always look up confused characters
• casually practice the tone series when characters are grouped by component
• studying the set of pinyin readings with only one character (even if just in the top4000) can be useful

• 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

• reading

  • chinese hsk reading
  • hsk reading
  • chinese text project pre-modern chinese texts
  • chinese poetry on github

• listening

  • learn chinese with yi zhao
  • mandarin corner, walk around
  • slow & clear chinese channel
  • little fox: bat and friends
  • learn chinese essentials: natural chinese
  • shuoshuochinese
  • mandarin click
  • kaki says

• beginner

  • duolingo

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

• reading

  • travel blogs

• programming

  • pinyin-utils

  • hanzi-tools