Let's take a word “妈” for example, this word is pronounced 'mā' in Pinyin, which means mother in English. What does Pinyin consist of? The Components of Pinyin That's why Pinyin is important to learn for Chinese learners. But only by its strokes, you can't tell how to pronounce it unless you have learned Pinyin. Here is a word “你好”, which means 'Hello' in English. Nowadays, this standardization of Pinyin also makes it much easier for Chinese learners around the world to read Mandarin Chinese.Īs Chinese characters you see in your daily life, they are made of many strokes. So Pinyin was created to help people pronounce Chineese characters in a united way.

Why was Pinyin created and is important to learn nowadays? Back in the 1950s, Chinese scholars realized that it is important to standardize the pronunciation of Chinese characters, because there are 56 ethnic groups speaking different dialects all across China. Learning Pinyin needs a fair bit of practice. However, you need to learn how to read Pinyin, as Mandarin contains some sounds that do NOT exist in English phonetic symbols. Have a look at all of our videos, listen to the voices in Real Chinese and our tones to hear how native speakers pronounce the sounds.ĭon't worry if you don't get it right first time. Like English phonetic symbols, Pinyin also uses the modern alphabet to build its system.

Most importantly, it's a great tool to help you learn the accurate pronunciation of Mandarin words and input Chinese characters on your computer or smartphone. It is the most widely-used system of writing Mandarin Chinese that uses the Latin alphabet. Teacher of Pinyin Lessons What is Pinyin? Pinyin is the phonetic system of Chinese language.

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