What is pinyin?
Pinyin is the most widely-used system of writing Mandarin Chinese and uses the Latin alphabet. It is a great tool to help you learn the accurate pronunciation of Mandarin words.
First, you need to learn how to read pinyin, as Mandarin contains some sounds which do not exist in English.
Have a look at our guide, listen to the voices in Real Chinese and our tone and character games to hear how native speakers pronounce the sounds.
Don’t worry if you don’t get it right first time, learning pinyin needs a fair bit of practice.
Pinyin lesson:
http://www.ctcfl.ox.ac.uk/Pinyin_Notes.htm#1.%20Vowels
Pinyin practice:
http://www.pinyinpractice.com/tones.htm
Learn more about pinyin at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/chinese/real_chinese/mini_guides/pinyin/
Highly recommended: Instant speak Chinese.com offers a great drill on pinyin practice and it is free, check it out at: http://www.instantspeakchinese.com/pinyin/pinyinInitials.cfm
Youtube pinyin videos
Chinese Mandarin Pronounciation 60分鐘學國語及漢語拼音
Chinese pinyin in 6 mins
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