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Learn Pinyin

Get Mandarin sounds and tones right from day one with Pinyin.

Free to start. Built from a single prompt. No credit card.

Pinyin, short for Hanyu Pinyin, is the official romanization of Standard Mandarin, adopted in China in 1958. It spells Chinese sounds with Latin letters and marks the four tones with accents: mā, má, mǎ and mà, plus an unmarked neutral tone. Many letters do not sound like English: q is close to ch, x close to sh, and c is ts. Pinyin is also how most people type Chinese characters on phones and computers. Learning it well is the fastest way to accurate Mandarin pronunciation. Learnr builds a personalized Pinyin course from a single prompt and teaches it through short, interactive lessons.

How to learn Pinyin, step by step

Learn the initials and their real sounds. Pinyin b, d and g are unaspirated, while p, t and k have a strong puff of air. Learn the three tricky groups: z, c, s; zh, ch, sh, r; and j, q, x, which are made with the tongue in different positions.
Learn the finals and spelling shortcuts. Learn finals like ai, ao, ou, an, ang, en and eng, and note spelling shortcuts: iou is written iu, uei is written ui and uen is written un. After j, q, x and y, ü is written as u.
Master the four tones and the neutral tone. Practice the high level first tone, rising second, dipping third and falling fourth on the same syllable. Then practice the neutral tone in words like māma and xièxie, where the second syllable is short and light.
Practice tone pairs and tone changes. Drill all two-syllable tone combinations. Learn that two third tones in a row change to second plus third, so nǐ hǎo sounds like ní hǎo, and that yī and bù change tone before other syllables.
Learn where tone marks go. Put the tone mark on a or e if present, on o in ou, and otherwise on the last vowel, as in guì and liù. Use an apostrophe to separate syllables in words like Xī'ān.
Read and type Pinyin daily. Read words aloud with tones and type them with a Pinyin keyboard to pick characters. Short daily Learnr lessons with audio help you lock in sounds and tones before moving on to characters.

What you'll learn

Pronounce every Mandarin initial and final in Pinyin
Read and write tone marks on the right vowel
Apply tone changes such as third tone sandhi and the changes of yī and bù
Distinguish aspirated and unaspirated consonants
Type Chinese characters using Pinyin input

What's inside your Pinyin course

A sample path Learnr builds for Pinyin. Your real course adapts to your goal and level.

1. Initials: the consonants of Mandarin
2. Finals: vowels and endings
3. The four tones and the neutral tone
4. Tone changes and tone pairs
5. Spelling rules and tone mark placement
6. Reading and typing with Pinyin

How long does it take to learn Pinyin?

With daily practice, most learners can read Pinyin and pronounce its sounds within 2 to 4 weeks. Producing tones reliably in natural speech takes longer, often a few months of listening and speaking. Pinyin is a foundation, so you keep refining it as you learn Mandarin.

What you need before you start

No knowledge of Chinese is needed, and Pinyin is usually the first thing learners study before characters.

Common mistakes to avoid

Reading Pinyin with English sounds, saying q as k or x as ks, which makes words unrecognizable to Mandarin speakers.
Treating tone marks as optional, then building vocabulary with wrong tones that are hard to correct later.
Practicing tones only on single syllables, when tone changes and tone pairs are what appear in real speech.

How Learnr builds your course

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Pinyin questions, answered

Do I need Pinyin if I want to learn Chinese characters?

Yes. Pinyin shows how characters are pronounced, appears in dictionaries and learner materials, and is the most common way to type Chinese. It is the foundation for both speaking and reading.

Is Pinyin used in Taiwan?

Hanyu Pinyin is now common in Taiwan for signs and romanization, but many Taiwanese learn Zhuyin, also called Bopomofo, a phonetic system with its own symbols, especially in schools and for typing.