These days, more and more international people are keen on learning Chinese. Therefore today I will cover Phonetics, something every Chinese learner should thoroughly study.
First of all, most Chinese syllables are composed of initials, finals and tones. For example, “bà” “mā” “hǎo”, are all syllables. Initials are consonants found at the beginning of a syllable, such as b、m、h. The other parts are finals, like à、ā、ǎo. Did you know Mandarin Chinese has more than 400 syllables?
Next, I would like to give some examples about difficult pronunciation and usage.
1. The Pin yin C: This one is more difficult for foreigners to say. For example, the “ts” in “cats” is the same as Chinese pin yin “C”.
2. The Pin yin Z This pronunciation is similar to the pin yin C. We can derive this one from the, “ds” in “beds”, The pronunciation is the same as pin yin “Z”.
3. The pin yin ü About this one, I have a story to share with everyone, which will help you remember it more easily.. The ü is very naughty and so the whole family doesn’t like to play with him. One day, this made him cry. When he cried, , J、q、x、y were four kids who saw this. They said, “don’t cry ,we can play with you,” When ü heard that, he was very happy, He wiped his tears and went away with them.. So when ü met J、q、x、y, he found four good friends and so the dots disappeared.
There are many more things to talk about pinyin but I feel like these simple points are a good place to begin. I hope this can give actual help to foreign people who will learn Chinese, and help everyone make learning Chinese a fun activity.