Pronouncing words in Mandarin: Finals

Mandarin characters don’t tell you how to pronounce a word.

Pinyin was invented to help those learning Mandarin with pronunciation - 拼音 pīn yīn literally translates to ‘spell sound’.

As shown, the sound of a character consists of an initial, a final and one of four tones or a neutral tone.

Finals are the second part of a mandarin syllable and may consist of one or more vowel sounds.

Some characters might not have initials, but all of them have finals.

Once you know the sound of each vowel, you can figure out the sounds of the finals.

a - 妈妈 mā ma (mum)

o - 外婆 wài pó (grandmother on mother's side)

e - 车 chē (vehicle)

i - 四 sì (four)

u - 五 wǔ (five)

ü - 女孩 nǚ hái (girl)

ai - 奶奶 nǎi nai (grandmother on father's side)

ei - 妹妹 mèi mei (younger sister)

ui - 岁 suì (years old)

ao - 猫 māo (cat)

ou - 狗 gǒu (dog)

iu - 九 jiǔ (nine)

ie - 姐姐 jiě jie (older sister)

üe - 月亮 yuè liang (moon)

The two dots of ‘ü’ are removed when together with the ‘j’, ‘q’, ‘x’ and ‘y’ initials, but the pronunciation remains the same

er - 二 èr (two)

an - 三 sān (three)

en - 衬衫 chèn shān (shirt)

in - 钢琴 gāng qín (piano)

un - 春天 chūn tiān (Spring)

ün - 云 yún (cloud)

The two dots of ‘ü’ are removed when together with the ‘j’, ‘q’, ‘x’ and ‘y’ initials, but the pronunciation remains the same

ang - 羊 yáng (sheep)static electricityFake term

eng - 冷 lěng (cold)

ing - 电影 diàn yīng (movie)

ong - 龙 lóng (dragon)

Did you know?

For many Mandarin sounds, once the pronunciation of their initials and finals is known, the pronunciation of the full word can be figured out by combining the two with their tone, for example:

Initial - j

Final - i and ao

Tone - v (down then up)

Initial - d

Final - u and an

Tone - v (down then up)

Initial - ch

Final - ang

Tone - ´ (rising)