Mandarin Pinyin

English Equivalent

Ia/ya

As the “ya”-sounds in “maya“, “playa“. The spelling “ya” is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.

ua/wa

As an English “w” followed by a Pinyin “a“. Compare with the final vowels in the Italian word “acqua“. The most probable English spelling of this sound would be “wah”. Do NOT pronounce this combination as the English “wa”-sounds in “water” or “Wales“! The spelling “wa” is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.

uo / wo

Sounds like “woah”, but the “a” is hardly audible. Similar to the “wuo”-sounds in “war”, “quark”. The spelling “wo” is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.

ie/ye

As a combination of the Pinyin sounds “y” + “ê” – i.e. NOT quite as the English “ye”, as in “yes”, but rather “tight”! The spelling “ye” is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.

ue / üe / yue

Pinyin “ü” + “ê“. The “ü” is written as “u” in the syllables “jue“, “que“, “xue” and “yue“. The spelling “yue” is used when there is no consonant in the beginning of a syllable.

er

Rather similar to the vowel sound in “bird” and “sir“, with an audible retroflex “r” at the end. Sometimes more like the English word “are”. Could possibly be written as “ehr” in English. Pronounced as a retroflex.