pinyin

Everyday

1. Pinyin is the official way of writing Chinese (Mandarin) words with the Latin letters we use for English. tree →
2. It also shows the tones of Mandarin with little marks over the vowels, such as mā, má, mǎ, mà. tree →

In the lessons

In language lessons pinyin helps learners read and say Mandarin before they know Chinese characters. Children in China learn pinyin at school, and it is used for typing Chinese on phones. Place names like Beijing are written in pinyin. A word in pinyin (ming, mei, ni hao) is Chinese, not English.

Examples

• "Nǐ hǎo" is "hello" written in pinyin. tree →
• We learnt the pinyin for numbers one to ten. tree →
• The card had the Chinese character and the pinyin underneath. tree →
• In pinyin, "Beijing" replaced the old spelling "Peking". tree →
• My cousin types Chinese messages using pinyin. tree →
• The little marks in pinyin show the four tones. tree →
• Pinyin letters do not always sound like English letters: "x" sounds a bit like "sh". tree →

Note

Pinyin is not a language; it is a way of spelling Mandarin. Its letters have their own sounds: q is like "ch", x like "sh", zh like "j". Usually written without a capital, though some books write Pinyin. Uncountable.