Chinese Pinyin

There are three parts in Chinese Pinyin: the initial, the final, and the tone. In Chinese pinyin, the tone, initial, and final are represented as follows:

Tone

The tone is represented by a tone mark placed on top of the syllable. There are exactly four tone marks: ˉ, ˊ, ˇ, and ˋ. The two dots on ü (like a German umlaut) do not have to do with the tone, so if you see ǖ, ǘ, ǚ, or ǜ, the symbol above the dots represents the tone.

Initial

The initial is:

* at the front of the syllable
* a consonant (not including y, or w)
* usually one letter, except for:zh, ch, sh

Final

The final is made up of the letter(s) after a syllable’s initial, not including the tone mark. A final:

* begins with a vowel
* can be made of 1-4 characters
* end with a vowel, n, ng, or r

Exceptions to initial-final combinations in syllables

Some syllables have no initial or no final. In Pinyin, this is shown as follows:

* For syllables with no final:
o an unpronounced i is added to the end of the syllable
o Occurs only with the following initials:zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s
* For syllables with no initial:
o if the final begins with an i, it is replaced with a y
o if the final begins with an u, it is replaced with a w
o if the final begins with an ü, it is replaced with yu
o Exceptions to the above:
+ i alone is replaced by yi
+ iu is replaced by you
+ in is replaced by yin
+ ing is replaced by ying
+ u alone is replaced by wu
+ ui is replaced by wei
+ un is replaced by wen
+ ueng is replaced by weng

One other exception:

* when combined with initials j, q, any ü in a final is changed to u