Mandarin Chinese ---Lesson 6 (Chinese alphabet--the whole syllables)

Lesson 6 –Chinese Language Learning 

Program (whole syllable)

Hello, everyone. It’s so nice to have you back to Baixue’s Chinese Language Learning Program. This is our lesson 5, from our previous classes, we have already known that Chinese character has only one syllable and each syllable has three parts: Initial (consonant) + final (vowel) + tone (4). I hope you have already known how to pronounce all of the consonant initials and vowels finals with or without tones. Today, we are going to learn how to read the whole syllable of Chinese mandarin pinyin.

What is the whole syllable? The whole syllables in Chinese language are some fixed matches of some specific initials and finals. The pronunciation of the whole syllable will remain the same as the consonant even after adding a vowel behind the consonant or these syllables are to be read directly without being spelling from consonant to vowel.

We have learned some of the whole syllables in our lesson 3. In lesson 3 we talked about simple final “i”, and I made a note for simple final “i”. Let’s take a quick look.

When “i” is with z c s zh ch shi r, its sound is different. It is not “i”.  For example:

zǐ   zì 紫   字	zhī  zhǐ 知    纸
cí   cì 辞   次	chī  chì 吃   斥
sī  sì 丝  四	shí  shì 时   是
dì    qí 地   骑	rì 日

So, you can see that these are totally different pronunciation when “I” is with different consonants. When “i” is with z c s zh ch shi r to make syllables, these syllables are the whole syllables.

There are 16 whole syllables in Chinese mandarin pinyin. Please read after me.

Please read after me with four tones.

zhī	zhí	zhǐ	zhì		chī	chí	chǐ	chì
shī	shí	shǐ	shì		rī	rí	rǐ	rì
zī	zí	zǐ	zì		cī	cí	cǐ	cì
sī	sí	sǐ	sì		wū	wú	wǔ	wù
yī	yí	yǐ	yì		yǖ(ū)	yǘ(ú)	yǚ(ǔ)	yǜ(ù)
yē	yé	yě	yè		yǖe	yǘe	yǚe	yǜe
yūan	yúan	yǔan	yùan		yīn	yín	yǐn	yìn
yūn	yún	yǔn	yùn		yīng	yíng	yǐng	yìng

yü(u): Some time when ü is with y we write it as u, but we still pronounce it as ü, because there is no such pronunciation yu in Chinese language pinyin. So, next time when you see yu, you will know how to pronounce it.

Now, we are done with the whole syllable of Chinese mandarin (language) pinyin. Today’s homework is to practice the pronunciation of these 16 whole syllables. The more you practice, the better your pronunciation becomes.

 Ok, that is all for today. We will learn some “mix vowels” in our next class.

xìe   xìe  (Thanks!)

谢    谢

 zài  jiàn  (Bye! Or See you next time!)

再   见