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Complete pinyin chart: every syllable in Mandarin Chinese

How many syllables does Chinese have?

Very few. The linguist San Duanmu counts about 400 syllables without tone and about 1,300 with tone; English, by contrast, has around 10,000 different one-syllable words. With the consonants and vowels of Chinese you could build about 2,000 combinations, but the language uses only about 400.

On top of that, not every syllable exists with all four tones. In Duanmu's count, out of 402 syllables, 178 have all four tones, 130 have three, 59 have two and 35 have just one. With so few syllables there are lots of homophones; it helps that the average Chinese word has about two syllables, and context does the rest.

The 21 initials

The initial is the consonant at the start. The 汉语拼音方案 lists them in this order, grouped by the part of the mouth where they're made, and gives an example character for each one:

Y and w aren't on the list: they aren't initials, but the way to write syllables that start with i, u or ü when there's no consonant in front (yi, wu, yu). How each initial sounds, compared with English, is in the pinyin pronunciation guide.

The 35 finals

The final is everything that comes after the initial. The 汉语拼音方案 sorts them into four columns: the basic ones and the ones that start with i, with u or with ü.

On top of these 35 come three special cases: the i of zhi, chi, shi, ri, zi, ci and si, which doesn't sound like an i; er, as in 二 èr (two); and ê, which only appears in a few interjections. The finals iou, uei and uen are written iu, ui and un when there's an initial in front: 牛 niú, 归 guī, 论 lùn.

The complete syllable chart

Each row is an initial, with every syllable that exists with it, without tones. The last row has the syllables with no initial, which are written with y or w when they start with i, u or ü.

We built the list from Wikipedia's “Pinyin table” and checked it against the CC-CEDICT dictionary and the list on Chinese Wikipedia: all 407 syllables appear in all three. We included lia (from 俩 liǎ, “two, both”), which Wikipedia marks as nonstandard but which is very common in speech. Left out: consonant-only interjections (m, n, ng, hm, hng), ê, regional or slang syllables (like biang or duang) and the ones ending in -r, like 花儿 huār. Some syllables in the chart are extremely rare, like eng, nun or chua: they appear in only one or two uncommon characters.

Spelling rules worth knowing

• Y and w at the start. If the syllable has no initial, i is written yi or y; u, wu or w; and ü, yu: 衣 yī, 烟 yān, 乌 wū, 弯 wān, 迂 yū, 冤 yuān.
• ü without dots. After j, q, x and y it's written u, but pronounced ü: ju, qu, xu, yu. After n and l the dots stay, because nu and lu also exist: 女 nǚ, 吕 lǚ. On a keyboard, that ü is typed with v: nv, lv.
• Short forms. iou, uei and uen are written iu, ui and un after an initial: liù, guì, lùn. With no initial, they're written in full: you, wei, wen.
• The apostrophe. If a syllable starting with a, o or e follows another one and the boundary could be unclear, they're separated with an apostrophe: 西安 Xī'ān (two syllables) isn't xian (one).
• The tone mark goes on the main vowel: if there's an a or an e, on that; in ou, on the o; otherwise, on the last vowel (liù, guì). On an i, the mark replaces the dot: nǐ. The neutral tone isn't marked. We explain it in the 4 Mandarin tones.

How to use the chart

• Read it out loud row by row and compare yourself with audio: each row repeats the same consonant with different finals, which trains your mouth.
• Compare the rows that get mixed up most: z, zh and j; c, ch and q; s, sh and x.
• Use it to spell correctly. If a syllable isn't there, it's probably misspelled: there's no “xü” (it's written xu) and no “fong” (it's feng).
• Don't memorize it. Syllables stick inside words you hear and repeat with their tone. For that, practice with tone pairs.

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Frequently asked questions

How many syllables are there in Mandarin Chinese?

About 400 if you don't count tones, and about 1,300 if you do. Not every syllable exists with all four tones.

How many initials and finals does pinyin have?

The official scheme, the 汉语拼音方案, lists 21 initials and 35 finals in its tables, plus three special cases: the i of zhi or zi, er and ê. Y and w aren't initials: they're used to write syllables that start with i, u or ü.

Why is it written ju and not jü?

Because u never comes after j, q and x, so the dots aren't needed. It's written ju, qu, xu and yu, but pronounced ü. After n and l, the dots are written: nü, lü.

How do you type ü on a keyboard?

With the v key. The Chinese keyboard standard uses V for the ü that keeps its dots: lü is typed lv and nü is typed nv.

Do I need to memorize the pinyin chart?

No. It's a map for reading and writing correctly. Syllables stick better inside words you hear and repeat with their tone.

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