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What are initials?

Mandarin pronunciation - an initial, a final and a tone.

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

Pinyin was invented to help those learning Mandarin with pronunciation - 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.

Initials are the consonant at the beginning of the mandarin syllable.

Mandarin pronunciation - an initial, a final and a tone.

How do you pronounce initials?

B - 产à (father)

P - 辫á (climb)

M - 尘ā (mother)

F - chū fā (set off)

D - 诲à (big)

T - 迟ā (he)

N - nà ge (that one)

L - 濒à (spicy)

G - 驳è (measure word)

K - 办ǎ (card)

H - 丑ē (drink)

J - 箩颈ā (home)

Q - 辩ī (seven)

X - xià miàn (beneath or below)

Zh - 锄丑è (this)

Ch - c丑ē (vehicle)

Sh - 蝉丑é (snake)

R - 谤è (hot)

Z - 锄耻ǐ (mouth)

C - 肠ā (wipe)

S - 测án sè (colour)

Y - 测á (tooth)

W - 辩īng wā (frog)

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)

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