Pinyin

**Hanyu Pinyin**, often abbreviated to **pinyin**, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China and to some extent in Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese, which is normally written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones. Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet, and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters.

The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by many linguists, including Zhou Youguang, based on earlier forms of romanizations of Chinese. It was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted pinyin as an international standard in 1982, and was followed by the United Nations in 1986. The system was adopted as the official standard in Taiwan in 2009, where it is used for international events rather than for educational or computer-input purposes. But "some cities, businesses, and organizations, notably in the south of Taiwan, did not accept this, as it suggested that Taiwan is more closely tied to the PRC", so it remains one of several rival romanization systems in use.

The word *Hànyǔ* (simplified Chinese: 汉语; traditional Chinese: 漢語) means 'the spoken language of the Han people', while *Pīnyīn* (Chinese: 拼音; ) literally means 'spelled sounds'.

When a foreign writing system with one set of coding/decoding system is taken to write a language, certain compromises may have to be made. The result is that the decoding systems used in some foreign languages will enable non-native speakers to produce sounds more closely resembling the target language than will the coding/decoding system used by other foreign languages. Native speakers of English will decode pinyin spellings to fairly close approximations of Mandarin except in the case of certain speech sounds that are not ordinarily produced by most native speakers of English: *j* [tɕ], *q* [tɕʰ]*, x* [ɕ], *z* [ts], *c* [tsʰ], *zh* [ʈʂ], *ch* [ʈʂʰ], *sh* [ʂ], *h* [x], and *r* [ɻ] exhibiting the greatest discrepancies.

In this system, the correspondence between the Roman letter and the sound is sometimes idiosyncratic, though not necessarily more so than the way the Latin script is employed in other languages. For example, the aspiration distinction between *b*, *d*, *g* and *p*, *t*, *k* is similar to that of these syllable-initial consonants English (in which the two sets are however also differentiated by voicing), but not to that of French. Letters *z* and *c* also have that distinction, pronounced as [ts] and [tsʰ] (whilst reminiscent of both of them being used for the phoneme /ts/ in the German language and Latin script-using Slavic languages respectively). From *s, z, c* come the digraphs *sh, zh, ch* by analogy with English *sh, ch*. Although this introduces the novel combination *zh*, it is internally consistent in how the two series are related, and reminds the trained reader that many Chinese people pronounce *sh, zh, ch* as *s, z, c* (and English-speakers use *zh* to represent /ʒ/ in foreign languages such as Russian anyway). In the *x, j, q* series, the pinyin use of *x* is similar to its use in Portuguese, Galician, Catalan, Basque, and Maltese; and the pinyin *q* is akin to its value in Albanian; both pinyin and Albanian pronunciations may sound similar to the *ch* to the untrained ear. Pinyin vowels are pronounced in a similar way to vowels in Romance languages.

The pronunciation and spelling of Chinese words are generally given in terms of initials and finals, which represent the *segmental phonemic* portion of the language, rather than letter by letter. Initials are initial consonants, while finals are all possible combinations of medials (semivowels coming before the vowel), a nucleus vowel, and coda (final vowel or consonant).

## History

### Background: romanization of Chinese before 1949

In 1605, the Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci published *Xizi Qiji* (Chinese: 《西字奇蹟》; **pinyin**: *Xīzì Qíjī*; Wade–Giles: Hsi-tzu Ch'i-chi; literally "Miracle of Western Letters") in Beijing. This was the first book to use the Roman alphabet to write the Chinese language. Twenty years later, another Jesuit in China, Nicolas Trigault, issued his *Xi Ru Ermu Zi* (Chinese: 《西儒耳目資》; Wade–Giles: Hsi Ju Erh-mu Tzu; literally "Aid to the Eyes and Ears of Western Literati") at Hangzhou. Neither book had much immediate impact on the way in which Chinese thought about their writing system, and the romanizations they described were intended more for Westerners than for the Chinese.

One of the earliest Chinese thinkers to relate Western alphabets to Chinese was late Ming to early Qing dynasty scholar-official, Fang Yizhi (Chinese: 方以智; **pinyin**: *Fāng Yǐzhì*; Wade–Giles: Fang I-chih; 1611–1671).

The first late Qing reformer to propose that China adopt a system of spelling was Song Shu (1862–1910). A student of the great scholars Yu Yue and Zhang Taiyan, Song had been to Japan and observed the stunning effect of the *kana* syllabaries and Western learning there. This galvanized him into activity on a number of fronts, one of the most important being reform of the script. While Song did not himself actually create a system for spelling Sinitic languages, his discussion proved fertile and led to a proliferation of schemes for phonetic scripts.

#### Wade–Giles

Main articles: Wade–Giles
The Wade–Giles system was produced by Thomas Wade in 1859, and further improved by Herbert Giles in the Chinese–English Dictionary of 1892. It was popular and used in English-language publications outside China until 1979.

#### Sin Wenz

Main articles: Latinxua Sin Wenz
In the early 1930s, Communist Party of China leaders trained in Moscow introduced a phonetic alphabet using Roman letters which had been developed in the Soviet Oriental Institute of Leningrad and was originally intended to improve literacy in the Russian Far East. This Sin Wenz or "New Writing" was much more linguistically sophisticated than earlier alphabets, but with the major exception that it did not indicate tones of Chinese.

In 1940, several thousand members attended a Border Region Sin Wenz Society convention. Mao Zedong and Zhu De, head of the army, both contributed their calligraphy (in characters) for the masthead of the Sin Wenz Society's new journal. Outside the CCP, other prominent supporters included Dr. Sun Yat-sen's son, Sun Fo; Cai Yuanpei, the country's most prestigious educator; Tao Xingzhi, a leading educational reformer; and Lu Xun. Over thirty journals soon appeared written in Sin Wenz, plus large numbers of translations, biographies (including Lincoln, Franklin, Edison, Ford, and Charlie Chaplin), some contemporary Chinese literature, and a spectrum of textbooks. In 1940, the movement reached an apex when Mao's Border Region Government declared that the Sin Wenz had the same legal status as traditional characters in government and public documents. Many educators and political leaders looked forward to the day when they would be universally accepted and completely replace Chinese characters. Opposition arose, however, because the system was less well adapted to writing regional languages, and therefore would require learning Mandarin. Sin Wenz fell into relative disuse during the following years.

#### Yale romanization

Main articles: Yale romanization of Mandarin
In 1943, the U.S. military engaged Yale University to develop a romanization of Mandarin Chinese for its pilots flying over China. The resulting system is very close to *pinyin*, but does not use English letters in unfamiliar ways; for example, *pinyin* **x** for [ɕ] is written as **sy** in the Yale system. Medial semivowels are written with **y** and **w** (instead of *pinyin* **i** and **u**), and apical vowels (syllabic consonants) with **r** or **z**. Accent marks are used to indicate tone.

### Emergence and history of Hanyu Pinyin

Pinyin was created by Chinese linguists, including Zhou Youguang, as part of a Chinese government project in the 1950s. Zhou is often called "the father of pinyin," Zhou worked as a banker in New York when he decided to return to China to help rebuild the country after the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949. He became an economics professor in Shanghai, and in 1955, when China's Ministry of Education created a Committee for the Reform of the Chinese Written Language, Premier Zhou Enlai assigned Zhou Youguang the task of developing a new romanization system, despite the fact that he was not a professional linguist.

*Hanyu Pinyin* was based on several existing systems: *Gwoyeu Romatzyh* of 1928, *Latinxua Sin Wenz* of 1931, and the diacritic markings from *zhuyin* (bopomofo). "I'm not the father of pinyin," Zhou said years later; "I'm the son of pinyin. It's [the result of] a long tradition from the later years of the Qing dynasty down to today. But we restudied the problem and revisited it and made it more perfect."

A draft was published on February 12, 1956. The first edition of *Hanyu Pinyin* was approved and adopted at the Fifth Session of the 1st National People's Congress on February 11, 1958. It was then introduced to primary schools as a way to teach Standard Chinese pronunciation and used to improve the literacy rate among adults.

Beginning in the early 1980s, Western publications addressing Mainland China began using the Hanyu Pinyin romanization system instead of earlier romanization systems; this change followed the normalization of diplomatic relations between the United States and the PRC in 1979. In 2001, the PRC Government issued the *National Common Language Law*, providing a legal basis for applying pinyin. The current specification of the orthographic rules is laid down in the National Standard GB/T 16159-2012.

## Initials and finals

Unlike European languages, clusters of letters — initials (simplified Chinese: 声母; traditional Chinese: 聲母; **pinyin**: *shēngmǔ*) and finals (simplified Chinese: 韵母; traditional Chinese: 韻母; **pinyin**: *yùnmǔ*) — and not consonant and vowel letters, form the fundamental elements in pinyin (and most other phonetic systems used to describe the Han language). Every Mandarin syllable can be spelled with exactly one initial followed by one final, except for the special syllable *er* or when a trailing *-r* is considered part of a syllable (see below, and see erhua). The latter case, though a common practice in some sub-dialects, is rarely used in official publications.

Even though most initials contain a consonant, finals are not always simple vowels, especially in compound finals (simplified Chinese: 复韵母; traditional Chinese: 複韻母; **pinyin**: *fùyùnmǔ*), i.e. when a "medial" is placed in front of the final. For example, the medials [i] and [u] are pronounced with such tight openings at the beginning of a final that some native Chinese speakers (especially when singing) pronounce *yī* (Chinese: 衣, clothes, officially pronounced /í/) as /jí/ and *wéi* (simplified Chinese: 围; traditional Chinese: 圍, to enclose, officially pronounced /uěi/) as /wěi/ or /wuěi/. Often these medials are treated as separate from the finals rather than as part of them; this convention is followed in the chart of finals below.

### Initials

In each cell below, the bold letters indicate pinyin and the brackets enclose the symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet.

1 *y* is pronounced [ɥ] (a labial-palatal approximant) before *u*.
2 The letters *w* and *y* are not included in the table of initials in the official pinyin system. They are an orthographic convention for the medials *i, u* and *ü* when no initial is present. When *i, u*, or *ü* are finals and no initial is present, they are spelled *yi*, *wu*, and *yu*, respectively.

The conventional lexicographical order (excluding *w* and *y*), derived from the zhuyin system ("bopomofo"), is:

### Finals

**Standard Chinese vowels (with IPA and Pinyin)**

i ⟨i⟩ • y ⟨ü⟩

ɨ ⟨i⟩

u ⟨u⟩

ɤ ⟨e⟩ • o ⟨o⟩

e̞ ⟨ê⟩

ɚ ⟨er⟩

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin for a standalone (no-initial) form, and the third indicates pinyin for a combination with an initial. Other than finals modified by an *-r*, which are omitted, the following is an exhaustive table of all possible finals.1

The only syllable-final consonants in Standard Chinese are *-n* and *-ng*, and *-r*, which are attached as a grammatical suffix. A Chinese syllable ending with any other consonant either is from a non-Mandarin language (a southern Chinese language such as Cantonese, or a minority language of China; possibly reflecting final consonants in Old Chinese), or indicates the use of a non-pinyin romanization system (where final consonants may be used to indicate tones).

1 [aɚ̯] is written *er*. For other finals formed by the suffix *-r*, pinyin does not use special orthography; one simply appends *r* to the final that it is added to, without regard for any sound changes that may take place along the way. For information on sound changes related to final *r*, please see Erhua#Rules.

2 *ü* is written as *u* after *j, q*, or *x*.

3 *uo* is written as *o* after *b, p, m, f,* or *w*.

Technically, *i, u, ü* without a following vowel are finals, not medials, and therefore take the tone marks, but they are more concisely displayed as above. In addition, *ê* [ɛ] (simplified Chinese: 欸; traditional Chinese: 誒) and syllabic nasals *m* (Chinese: 呒, Chinese: 呣), *n* (Chinese: 嗯, Chinese: 唔), *ng* (Chinese: 嗯, Chinese: 𠮾) are used as interjections.

#### The *ü* sound

An umlaut is placed over the letter *u* when it occurs after the initials *l* and *n* when necessary in order to represent the sound [y]. This is necessary in order to distinguish the front high rounded vowel in *lü* (e.g. simplified Chinese: 驴; traditional Chinese: 驢; literally "donkey") from the back high rounded vowel in *lu* (e.g. simplified Chinese: 炉; traditional Chinese: 爐; literally "oven"). Tonal markers are added on top of the umlaut, as in *lǘ*.

However, the *ü* is *not* used in the other contexts where it could represent a front high rounded vowel, namely after the letters *j*, *q*, *x*, and *y*. For example, the sound of the word 鱼/魚 (fish) is transcribed in pinyin simply as *yú*, not as *yǘ*. This practice is opposed to Wade–Giles, which always uses *ü*, and *Tongyong Pinyin*, which always uses *yu*. Whereas Wade–Giles needs of using the umlaut to distinguish between *chü* (pinyin *ju*) and *chu* (pinyin *zhu*), this ambiguity does not arise with pinyin, so the more convenient form *ju* is used instead of *jü*. Genuine ambiguities only happen with *nu*/*nü* and *lu*/*lü*, which are then distinguished by an umlaut.

Many fonts or output methods do not support an umlaut for *ü* or cannot place tone marks on top of *ü*. Likewise, using *ü* in input methods is difficult because it is not present as a simple key on many keyboard layouts. For these reasons *v* is sometimes used instead by convention. For example, it is common for cellphones to use *v* instead of *ü*. Additionally, some stores in China use *v* instead of *ü* in the transliteration of their names. The drawback is that there are no tone marks for the letter *v*.

This also presents a problem in transcribing names for use on passports, affecting people with names that consist of the sound *lü* or *nü*, particularly people with the surname 吕 (*Lǚ*), a fairly common surname, particularly compared to the surnames 陆 (Lù), 鲁 (Lǔ), 卢 (Lú) and 路 (Lù). Previously, the practice varied among different passport issuing offices, with some transcribing as "LV" and "NV" while others used "LU" and "NU". On 10 July 2012, the Ministry of Public Security standardized the practice to use "LYU" and "NYU" in passports.

Although *nüe* written as *nue*, and *lüe* written as *lue* are not ambiguous, *nue* or *lue* are not correct according to the rules; *nüe* and *lüe* should be used instead. However, some Chinese input methods (e.g. Microsoft Pinyin IME) support both *nve*/*lve* (typing *v* for *ü*) and *nue*/*lue*.

### Approximation from English pronunciation

Most rules given here in terms of English pronunciation are approximations, as several of these sounds do not correspond directly to sounds in English.

#### Pronunciation of initials

\* Note on *y* and *w*

*Y* and *w* are equivalent to the semivowel medials *i, u*, and *ü* (see below). They are spelled differently when there is no initial consonant in order to mark a new syllable: *fanguan* is *fan-guan*, while *fangwan* is *fang-wan* (and equivalent to *\*fang-uan)*. With this convention, an apostrophe only needs to be used to mark an initial *a, e*, or *o: Xi'an* (two syllables: [ɕi.an]) vs. *xian* (one syllable: [ɕi̯ɛn]). In addition, *y* and *w* are added to fully vocalic *i, u*, and *ü* when these occur without an initial consonant, so that they are written *yi, wu*, and *yu*. Some Mandarin speakers do pronounce a [j] or [w] sound at the beginning of such words—that is, *yi* [i] or [ji], *wu* [u] or [wu], *yu* [y] or [ɥy],—so this is an intuitive convention. See below for a few finals which are abbreviated after a consonant plus *w/u* or *y/i* medial: *wen* → C+*un*, *wei* → C+*ui*, *weng* → C+*ong*, and *you* → C+*iu*.

\*\* Note on the apostrophe

The apostrophe (') (Chinese: 隔音符號; **pinyin**: *géyīn fúhào*; literally "syllable-dividing mark") is used before a syllable starting with a vowel (a, o, or e) in a multiple-syllable word when the syllable does not start the word (which is most commonly realized as [ɰ]), unless the syllable immediately follows a hyphen or other dash. This usage is done to remove ambiguity that could arise, as in *Xi'an*, which consists of the two syllables xi ("Chinese: 西") an ("Chinese: 安"), compared to such words as xian ("Chinese: 先"). (This ambiguity does not occur when tone marks are used: the two tone marks in Xīān unambiguously show that the word consists of two syllables. However, even with tone marks, the city is usually spelled with an apostrophe as Xī'ān.) This apostrophe is not used in the Taipei Metro names.

#### Pronunciation of finals

 File:IPA vowel chart 2005.png
The following is a list of finals in Standard Chinese, excepting most of those ending with *r*.

To find a given final:

1. Remove the initial consonant. *Zh*, *ch*, and *sh* count as initial consonants.
2. Change initial *w* to *u* and initial *y* to *i*. For *weng*, *wen*, *wei*, *you*, look under *ong*, *un*, *ui*, *iu*.
3. For *u* after *j*, *q*, *x*, or *y*, look under *ü*.

## Tones

The pinyin system also uses diacritics to mark the four tones of Mandarin. The diacritic is placed over the letter that represents the syllable nucleus, unless that letter is missing (see below).

Many books printed in China use a mix of fonts, with vowels and tone marks rendered in a different font from the surrounding text, tending to give such pinyin texts a typographically ungainly appearance. This style, most likely rooted in early technical limitations, has led many to believe that pinyin's rules call for this practice, e.g. the use of a Latin alpha (**ɑ**) rather than the standard style (**a**) found in most fonts, or **g** often written with a Single-story g. The rules of *Hanyu Pinyin*, however, specify no such practice.

1. The first tone (Flat or High Level Tone) is represented by a macron (ˉ) added to the pinyin vowel:
ā ē ī ō ū ǖ Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū Ǖ
2. The second tone (Rising or High-Rising Tone) is denoted by an acute accent (ˊ):
á é í ó ú ǘ Á É Í Ó Ú Ǘ
3. The third tone (Falling-Rising or Low Tone) is marked by a caron/háček (ˇ). It is not the rounded breve (˘), though a breve is sometimes substituted due to font limitations.
ǎ ě ǐ ǒ ǔ ǚ Ǎ Ě Ǐ Ǒ Ǔ Ǚ
4. The fourth tone (Falling or High-Falling Tone) is represented by a grave accent (ˋ):
à è ì ò ù ǜ À È Ì Ò Ù Ǜ
5. The fifth tone (Neutral Tone) is represented by a normal vowel without any accent mark:
a e i o u ü A E I O U Ü

In dictionaries, neutral tone may be indicated by a dot preceding the syllable; for example, *·ma*. When a neutral tone syllable has an alternative pronunciation in another tone, a combination of tone marks may be used: *zhī·dào* (知道).
These tone marks normally are only used in Mandarin textbooks or in foreign learning texts, but they are essential for correct pronunciation of Mandarin syllables, as exemplified by the following classic example of five characters whose pronunciations differ only in their tones:
Template:Chinese tones

媽 (mā)
麻 (má)
馬 (mǎ)
罵 (mà)
 Simplified characters:
妈 (mā)
麻 (má)
马 (mǎ)
骂 (mà)
吗 (·ma)

The words are "mother", "hemp", "horse", "scold", and a question particle, respectively.

### Numerals in place of tone marks

Before the advent of computers, many typewriter fonts did not contain vowels with macron or caron diacritics. Tones were thus represented by placing a tone number at the end of individual syllables. For example, *tóng* is written *tong²*.
The number used for each tone is as the order listed above, except the neutral tone, which is either not numbered, or given the number 0 or 5, e.g. *ma⁵* for 吗／嗎, an interrogative marker.

### Rules for placing the tone mark

Briefly, the tone mark should always be placed by the order—*a, o, e, i, u, ü*, with the only exception being *iu*, where the tone mark is placed on the *u* instead. Pinyin tone marks appear primarily above the nucleus of the syllable, for example as in *kuài*, where *k* is the initial, *u* the medial, *a* the nucleus, and *i* the coda. The exception is syllabic nasals like /m/, where the nucleus of the syllable is a consonant, the diacritic will be carried by a written dummy vowel.

When the nucleus is /ə/ (written *e* or *o*), and there is both a medial and a coda, the nucleus may be dropped from writing. In this case, when the coda is a consonant *n* or *ng*, the only vowel left is the medial *i, u*, or *ü*, and so this takes the diacritic. However, when the coda is a vowel, it is the coda rather than the medial which takes the diacritic in the absence of a written nucleus. This occurs with syllables ending in *-ui* (from *wei*: (wèi → -uì) and in *-iu* (from *you: yòu → -iù*.) That is, in the absence of a written nucleus the finals have priority for receiving the tone marker, as long as they are vowels: if not, the medial takes the diacritic.

An algorithm to find the correct vowel letter (when there is more than one) is as follows:

1. If there is an *a* or an *e*, it will take the tone mark
2. If there is an *ou*, then the *o* takes the tone mark
3. Otherwise, the second vowel takes the tone mark

Worded differently,

1. If there is an *a, e*, or *o*, it will take the tone mark; in the case of *ao*, the mark goes on the *a*
2. Otherwise, the vowels are *-iu* or *-ui*, in which case the second vowel takes the tone mark

If the tone is written over an *i*, the tittle above the *i* is omitted, as in *yī*.

#### Phonological intuition

The placement of the tone marker, when more than one of the written letters *a, e, i, o*, and *u* appears, can also be inferred from the nature of the vowel sound in the medial and final. The rule is that the tone marker goes on the spelled vowel that is not a (near-)semi-vowel. The exception is that, for triphthongs that are spelled with only two vowel letters, both of which are the semi-vowels, the tone marker goes on the second spelled vowel.

Specifically, if the spelling of a diphthong begins with *i* (as in *ia*) or *u* (as in *ua*), which serves as a near-semi-vowel, this letter does not take the tone marker. Likewise, if the spelling of a diphthong ends with *o* or *u* representing a near-semi-vowel (as in *ao* or *ou*), this letter does not receive a tone marker. In a triphthong spelled with three of *a, e, i, o*, and *u* (with *i* or *u* replaced by *y* or *w* at the start of a syllable), the first and third letters coincide with near-semi-vowels and hence do not receive the tone marker (as in *iao* or *uai* or *iou*). But if no letter is written to represent a triphthong's middle (non-semi-vowel) sound (as in *ui* or *iu*), then the tone marker goes on the final (second) vowel letter.

### Using tone colors

In addition to tone number and mark, tone color has been suggested as a visual aid for learning. Although there are no formal standards, there are a number of different color schemes in use.

* Dummitt's color scheme was one of the first to be used. It is tone 1 - red, tone 2 - orange, tone 3 - green, tone 4 - blue, and neutral tone - black.
* The Unimelb color scheme is tone 1 - blue, tone 2 - green, tone 3 - purple, tone 4 - red, neutral tone - grey
* The Hanping color scheme is tone 1 - blue, tone 2 - green, tone 3 - orange, tone 4 - red, neutral tone - grey.
* The Pleco color scheme is tone 1 - red, tone 2 - green, tone 3 - blue, tone 4 - purple, neutral tone - grey
* The Thomas color scheme is tone 1 - green, tone 2 - blue, tone 3 - red, tone 4 - black, neutral tone - grey

### Third tone exceptions

In spoken Chinese, the third tone is often pronounced as a "half third tone", in which the pitch does not rise. Additionally, when two third tones appear consecutively, such as in 你好 (nǐhǎo, hello), the first syllable is pronounced with the second tone — this is called tone sandhi. In pinyin, words like "hello" are still written with two third tones (nǐhǎo).

## Orthographic rules

### Letters

See also: Pinyin table
Pinyin differs from other romanizations in several aspects, such as the following:

* Syllables starting with *u* are written as *w* in place of *u* (e.g., \**uan* is written as *wan*). Standalone *u* is written as *wu*.
* Syllables starting with *i* are written as *y* in place of *i* (e.g., \**ian* is written as *yan*). Standalone *i* is written as *yi*.
* Syllables starting with *ü* are written as *yu* in place of *ü* (e.g., \**üe* is written as *yue*).
* *ü* is written as *u* when there is no ambiguity (such as *ju*, *qu*, and *xu*), but written as *ü* when there are corresponding *u* syllables (such as *lü* and *nü*). In such situations where there are corresponding *u* syllables, it is often replaced with *v* on a computer, making it easier to type on a standard keyboard.
* When preceded by a consonant, *iou*, *uei*, and *uen* are simplified as *iu*, *ui*, and *un* (which do not represent the actual pronunciation).
* As in zhuyin, what are actually pronounced as *buo*, *puo*, *muo*, and *fuo* are given a separate representation: *bo*, *po*, *mo*, and *fo*.
* The apostrophe (') is used before a syllable starting with a vowel (*a*, *o*, or *e*) in a multiple-syllable word when the syllable does not start the word (which is most commonly realized as [ɰ]), unless the syllable immediately follows a hyphen or other dash. This is done to remove ambiguity that could arise, as in *Xi'an*, which consists of the two syllables *xi* (Chinese: 西) *an* (Chinese: 安), compared to such words as *xian* (Chinese: 先). (This ambiguity does not occur when tone marks are used: The two tone marks in "Xīān" unambiguously show that the word consists of two syllables. However, even with tone marks, the city is usually spelled with an apostrophe as "Xī'ān".)
* *Eh* alone is written as *ê*; elsewhere as *e*. Schwa is always written as *e*.
* *zh*, *ch*, and *sh* can be abbreviated as *ẑ*, *ĉ*, and *ŝ* (*z*, *c*, *s* with a circumflex). However, the shorthands are rarely used due to difficulty of entering them on computers and are confined mainly to Esperanto keyboard layouts. Early drafts and some published material used diacritic hooks below instead: *ᶎ* (*ȥ/ʐ*), *ꞔ*, *ʂ* (*ᶊ*).
* *ng* has the uncommon shorthand of *ŋ* (which was also used in early drafts).
* Early drafts also contained the letter *ɥ* or *ч*, borrowed from the Cyrillic script, in place of later *j*.
* The letter *v* is unused (except in spelling foreign languages, languages of minority nationalities, and some dialects), despite a conscious effort to distribute letters more evenly than in Western languages. However, sometimes, for ease of typing into a computer, the *v* is used to replace a *ü*.

Most of the above are used to avoid ambiguity when writing words of more than one syllable in pinyin. For example, *uenian* is written as *wenyan* because it is not clear which syllables make up *uenian*; *uen-ian*, *uen-i-an*, and *u-en-i-an* are all possible combinations whereas *wenyan* is unambiguous because *we*, *nya*, etc. do not exist in pinyin. See the pinyin table article for a summary of possible pinyin syllables (not including tones).

### Words, capitalization, initialisms and punctuation

Although Chinese characters represent single syllables, Mandarin Chinese is a polysyllabic language. Spacing in pinyin is usually based on words, and not on single syllables. However, there are often ambiguities in partitioning a word. *The Basic Rules of the Chinese Phonetic Alphabet Orthography* (simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音正词法基本规则; traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音正詞法基本規則; **pinyin**: *Hànyǔ Pīnyīn Zhèngcífǎ Jīběn Guīzé*) were put into effect in 1988 by the National Educational Commission (simplified Chinese: 国家教育委员会; traditional Chinese: 國家教育委員會; **pinyin**: *Guójiā Jiàoyù Wěiyuánhuì*) and the National Language Commission (simplified Chinese: 国家语言文字工作委员会; traditional Chinese: 國家語言文字工作委員會; **pinyin**: *Guójiā Yǔyán Wénzì Gōngzuò Wěiyuánhuì*). These rules became a Guobiao standard in 1996 and were updated in 2012.

1. **General**
	1. **Single meaning:** Words with a single meaning, which are usually set up of two characters (sometimes one, seldom three), are written together and not capitalized: *rén* (Chinese: 人, person); *péngyou* (Chinese: 朋友, friend); *qiǎokèlì* (Chinese: 巧克力, chocolate)
	2. **Combined meaning (2 or 3 characters):** Same goes for words combined of two words to one meaning: *hǎifēng* (simplified Chinese: 海风; traditional Chinese: 海風, sea breeze); *wèndá* (simplified Chinese: 问答; traditional Chinese: 問答, question and answer); *quánguó* (simplified Chinese: 全国; traditional Chinese: 全國, nationwide); *chángyòngcí* (simplified Chinese: 常用词; traditional Chinese: 常用詞, common words)
	3. **Combined meaning (4 or more characters):** Words with four or more characters having one meaning are split up with their original meaning if possible: *wúfèng gāngguǎn* (simplified Chinese: 无缝钢管; traditional Chinese: 無縫鋼管, seamless steel-tube); *huánjìng bǎohù guīhuà* (simplified Chinese: 环境保护规划; traditional Chinese: 環境保護規劃, environmental protection planning); *gāoměngsuānjiǎ* (simplified Chinese: 高锰酸钾; traditional Chinese: 高錳酸鉀, potassium permanganate)
2. **Duplicated words**
	1. **AA:** Duplicated characters (AA) are written together: *rénrén* (Chinese: 人人; , everybody), *kànkan* (Chinese: 看看, to have a look), *niánnián* (Chinese: 年年, every year)
	2. **ABAB:** Two characters duplicated (ABAB) are written separated: *yánjiū yánjiū* (Chinese: 研究研究, to study, to research), *xuěbái xuěbái* (Chinese: 雪白雪白, white as snow)
	3. **AABB:** Characters in the AABB schema are written together: *láiláiwǎngwǎng* (simplified Chinese: 来来往往; traditional Chinese: 來來往往, come and go), *qiānqiānwànwàn* (simplified Chinese: 千千万万; traditional Chinese: 千千萬萬, numerous)
3. **Prefixes** (Chinese: 前附成分; **pinyin**: *qiánfù chéngfèn*) **and Suffixes** (simplified Chinese: 后附成分; traditional Chinese: 後附成分; **pinyin**: *hòufù chéngfèn*): Words accompanied by prefixes such as *fù* (Chinese: 副, vice), *zǒng* (simplified Chinese: 总; traditional Chinese: 總, chief), *fēi* (Chinese: 非, non-), *fǎn* (Chinese: 反, anti-), *chāo* (Chinese: 超, ultra-), *lǎo* (Chinese: 老, old), *ā* (Chinese: 阿, used before names to indicate familiarity), *kě* (Chinese: 可, -able), *wú* (simplified Chinese: 无; traditional Chinese: 無, -less) and *bàn* (Chinese: 半, semi-) and suffixes such as *zi* (Chinese: 子, noun suffix), *r* (simplified Chinese: 儿; traditional Chinese: 兒, diminutive suffix), *tou* (simplified Chinese: 头; traditional Chinese: 頭, noun suffix), *xìng* (Chinese: 性, -ness, -ity), *zhě* (Chinese: 者, -er, -ist), *yuán* (simplified Chinese: 员; traditional Chinese: 員, person), *jiā* (Chinese: 家, -er, -ist), *shǒu* (Chinese: 手, person skilled in a field), *huà* (Chinese: 化, -ize) and *men* (simplified Chinese: 们; traditional Chinese: 們, plural marker) are written together: *fùbùzhǎng* (simplified Chinese: 副部长; traditional Chinese: 副部長, vice minister), *chéngwùyuán* (simplified Chinese: 乘务员; traditional Chinese: 乘務員, conductor), *háizimen* (simplified Chinese: 孩子们; traditional Chinese: 孩子們, children)
4. **Nouns and names** (simplified Chinese: 名词; traditional Chinese: 名詞; **pinyin**: *míngcí*)
	1. Words of position are separated: *mén wài* (simplified Chinese: 门外; traditional Chinese: 門外, outdoor), *hé li* (simplified Chinese: 河里; traditional Chinese: 河裏, under the river), *huǒchē shàngmian* (simplified Chinese: 火车上面; traditional Chinese: 火車上面, on the train), *Huáng Hé yǐnán* (simplified Chinese: 黄河以南; traditional Chinese: 黃河以南, south of the Yellow River)
		1. Exceptions are words traditionally connected: *tiānshang* (Chinese: 天上, in the sky or outerspace), *dìxia* (Chinese: 地下, on the ground), *kōngzhōng* (Chinese: 空中, in the air), *hǎiwài* (Chinese: 海外, overseas)
	2. Surnames are separated from the given names, each capitalized: *Lǐ Huá* (simplified Chinese: 李华; traditional Chinese: 李華), *Zhāng Sān* (simplified Chinese: 张三; traditional Chinese: 張三). If the surname and/or given name consists of two syllables, it should be written as one: *Zhūgě Kǒngmíng* (simplified Chinese: 诸葛孔明; traditional Chinese: 諸葛孔明).
	3. Titles following the name are separated and are not capitalized: *Wáng bùzhǎng* (simplified Chinese: 王部长; traditional Chinese: 王部長, Minister Wang), *Lǐ xiānsheng* (Chinese: 李先生, Mr. Li), *Tián zhǔrèn* (Chinese: 田主任, Director Tian), *Zhào tóngzhì* (simplified Chinese: 赵同志; traditional Chinese: 趙同志, Comrade Zhao).
	4. The forms of addressing people with suffixes such as *Lǎo* (Chinese: 老), *Xiǎo* (Chinese: 小), *Dà* (Chinese: 大) and *Ā* (Chinese: 阿) are capitalized: *Xiǎo Liú* (simplified Chinese: 小刘; traditional Chinese: 小劉, [young] Ms./Mr. Liu), *Dà Lǐ* (Chinese: 大李, [great; elder] Mr. Li), *Ā Sān* (Chinese: 阿三, Ah San), *Lǎo Qián* (simplified Chinese: 老钱; traditional Chinese: 老錢, [senior] Mr. Qian), *Lǎo Wú* (simplified Chinese: 老吴; traditional Chinese: 老吳, [senior] Mr. Wu)
		1. Exceptions include *Kǒngzǐ* (Chinese: 孔子, Confucius), *Bāogōng* (Chinese: 包公, Judge Bao), *Xīshī* (Chinese: 西施, Xishi), *Mèngchángjūn* (simplified Chinese: 孟尝君; traditional Chinese: 孟嘗君, Lord Mengchang)
	5. Geographical names of China: *Běijīng Shì* (Chinese: 北京市, city of Beijing), *Héběi Shěng* (Chinese: 河北省, province of Hebei), *Yālù Jiāng* (simplified Chinese: 鸭绿江; traditional Chinese: 鴨綠江, Yalu River), *Tài Shān* (Chinese: 泰山, Mount Tai), *Dòngtíng Hú* (Chinese: 洞庭湖, Dongting Lake), *Táiwān Hǎixiá* (simplified Chinese: 台湾海峡; traditional Chinese: 臺灣海峽, Taiwan Strait)
		1. Monosyllabic prefixes and suffixes are written together with their related part: *Dōngsì Shítiáo* (simplified Chinese: 东四*十*条; traditional Chinese: 東四*十*條, Dongsi 10th Alley)
		2. Common geographical nouns that have become part of proper nouns are written together: *Hēilóngjiāng* (simplified Chinese: 黑龙江; traditional Chinese: 黑龍江, Heilongjiang)
	6. Non-Chinese names are written in Hanyu Pinyin: *Āpèi Āwàngjìnměi* (simplified Chinese: 阿沛·阿旺晋美; traditional Chinese: 阿沛·阿旺晉美, Ngapoi Ngawang Jigme); *Dōngjīng* (simplified Chinese: 东京; traditional Chinese: 東京, Tokyo)
5. **Verbs** (simplified Chinese: 动词; traditional Chinese: 動詞; **pinyin**: *dòngcí*): Verbs and their suffixes *-zhe* (simplified Chinese: 着; traditional Chinese: 著), *-le* (Chinese: 了) or *-guo* ((simplified Chinese: 过; traditional Chinese: 過) are written as one: *kànzhe* (simplified Chinese: 看着; traditional Chinese: 看著, seeing), *jìnxíngguo* (simplified Chinese: 进行过; traditional Chinese: 進行過, have been implemented). *Le* as it appears in the end of a sentence is separated though: *Huǒchē dào le.* (simplified Chinese: 火车到了; traditional Chinese: 火車到了, The train [has] arrived).
	1. Verbs and their objects are separated: *kàn xìn* (Chinese: 看信, read a letter), *chī yú* (simplified Chinese: 吃鱼; traditional Chinese: 吃魚, eat fish), *kāi wánxiào* (simplified Chinese: 开玩笑; traditional Chinese: 開玩笑, to be kidding).
	2. If verbs and their complements are each monosyllabic, they are written together; if not, they are separated: *gǎohuài* (simplified Chinese: 搞坏; traditional Chinese: 搞壞, to make broken), *dǎsǐ* (Chinese: 打死, hit to death), *huàwéi* (simplified Chinese: 化为; traditional Chinese: 化為, to become), *zhěnglǐ hǎo* (Chinese: 整理好, to sort out), *gǎixiě wéi* (simplified Chinese: 改写为; traditional Chinese: 改寫為, to rewrite as)
6. **Adjectives** (simplified Chinese: 形容词; traditional Chinese: 形容詞; **pinyin**: *xíngróngcí*): A monosyllabic adjective and its reduplication are written as one: *mēngmēngliàng* (Chinese: 矇矇亮, dim), *liàngtángtáng* (Chinese: 亮堂堂, shining bright)
	1. Complements of size or degree such as *xiē* (Chinese: 些), *yīxiē* (Chinese: 一些), *diǎnr* (simplified Chinese: 点儿; traditional Chinese: 點兒) and *yīdiǎnr* (simplified Chinese: 一点儿; traditional Chinese: 一點兒) are written separated: *dà xiē* (Chinese: 大些), a little bigger), *kuài yīdiǎnr* (simplified Chinese: 快一点儿; traditional Chinese: 快一點兒, a bit faster)
7. **Pronouns** (simplified Chinese: 代词; traditional Chinese: 代詞; **pinyin**: *dàicí*)
	1. Personal pronouns and interrogative pronouns are separated from other words: *Wǒ ài Zhōngguó.* (simplified Chinese: 我爱中国。; traditional Chinese: 我愛中國。, I love China); *Shéi shuō de?* (simplified Chinese: 谁说的？; traditional Chinese: 誰說的？, Who said it?)
	2. The demonstrative pronoun *zhè* (simplified Chinese: 这; traditional Chinese: 這, this), *nà* (Chinese: 那, that) and the question pronoun *nǎ* (Chinese: 哪, which) are separated: *zhè rén* (simplified Chinese: 这人; traditional Chinese: 這人, this person), *nà cì huìyì* (simplified Chinese: 那次会议; traditional Chinese: 那次會議, that meeting), *nǎ zhāng bàozhǐ* (simplified Chinese: 哪张报纸; traditional Chinese: 哪張報紙, which newspaper)
		1. Exception—If *zhè*, *nà* or *nǎ* are followed by *diǎnr* (simplified Chinese: 点儿; traditional Chinese: 點兒), *bān* (Chinese: 般), *biān* (simplified Chinese: 边; traditional Chinese: 邊), *shí* (simplified Chinese: 时; traditional Chinese: 時), *huìr* (simplified Chinese: 会儿; traditional Chinese: 會兒), *lǐ* (simplified Chinese: 里; traditional Chinese: 裏), *me* (simplified Chinese: 么; traditional Chinese: 麼) or the general classifier *ge* (simplified Chinese: 个; traditional Chinese: 個), they are written together: *nàlǐ* (simplified Chinese: 那里; traditional Chinese: 那裏, there), *zhèbiān* (simplified Chinese: 这边; traditional Chinese: 這邊, over here), *zhège* (simplified Chinese: 这个; traditional Chinese: 這個, this)
8. **Numerals** (simplified Chinese: 数词; traditional Chinese: 數詞; **pinyin**: *shùcí*) **and measure words** (simplified Chinese: 量词; traditional Chinese: 量詞; **pinyin**: *liàngcí*)
	1. Numbers and words like *gè* (Chinese: 各, each), *měi* (Chinese: 每, each), *mǒu* (Chinese: 某, any), *běn* (Chinese: 本, this), *gāi* (simplified Chinese: 该; traditional Chinese: 該, that), *wǒ* (Chinese: 我, my, our) and *nǐ* (Chinese: 你, your) are separated from the measure words following them: *liǎng gè rén* (simplified Chinese: 两个人; traditional Chinese: 兩個人, two people), *gè guó* (simplified Chinese: 各国; traditional Chinese: 各國, every nation), *měi nián* (Chinese: 每年, every year), *mǒu gōngchǎng* (simplified Chinese: 某工厂; traditional Chinese: 某工廠, a certain factory), *wǒ xiào* (Chinese: 我校, our school)
	2. Numbers up to 100 are written as single words: *sānshísān* (Chinese: 三十三, thirty-three). Above that, the hundreds, thousands, etc. are written as separate words: *jiǔyì qīwàn èrqiān sānbǎi wǔshíliù* (simplified Chinese: 九亿七万二千三百五十六; traditional Chinese: 九億七萬二千三百五十六, nine hundred million, seventy-two thousand, three hundred fifty-six). Arabic numerals are kept as Arabic numerals: *635 fēnjī* (simplified Chinese: 635 分机; traditional Chinese: 635 分機, extension 635)
	3. According to 汉语拼音正词法基本规则 6.1.5.4, the *dì* (Chinese: 第) used in ordinal numerals is followed by a hyphen: *dì**-**yī* (Chinese: 第一, first), *dì**-**356* (Chinese: 第 356, 356th). The hyphen should not be used if the word in which *dì* (第) and the numeral appear does not refer to an ordinal number in the context. For example: *Dìwǔ* (第五, a Chinese compound surname). The *chū* (Chinese: 初) in front of numbers one to ten is written together with the number: *chūshí* (Chinese: 初十, tenth day)
	4. Numbers representing month and day are hyphenated: *wǔ-sì* (Chinese: 五四, May fourth), *yīèr-jiǔ* (Chinese: 一二·九, December ninth)
	5. Words of approximations such as *duō* (Chinese: 多), *lái* (simplified Chinese: 来; traditional Chinese: 來) and *jǐ* (simplified Chinese: 几; traditional Chinese: 幾) are separated from numerals and measure words: *yībǎi duō gè* (simplified Chinese: 一百多个; traditional Chinese: 一百多個, around a hundred); *shí lái wàn gè* (simplified Chinese: 十来万个; traditional Chinese: 十來萬個, around a hundred thousand); *jǐ jiā rén* (simplified Chinese: 几家人; traditional Chinese: 幾家人, a few families)
		1. *Shíjǐ* (simplified Chinese: 十几; traditional Chinese: 十幾, more than ten) and *jǐshí* (simplified Chinese: 几十; traditional Chinese: 幾十, tens) are written together: *shíjǐ gè rén* (simplified Chinese: 十几个人; traditional Chinese: 十幾個人, more than ten people); *jǐshí* (simplified Chinese: 几十根钢管; traditional Chinese: 幾十根鋼管, tens of steel pipes)
	6. Approximations with numbers or units that are close together are hyphenated: *sān-wǔ tiān* (Chinese: 三五天, three to five days), *qiān-bǎi cì* (Chinese: 千百次, thousands of times)
9. Other **function words** (simplified Chinese: 虚词; traditional Chinese: 虛詞; **pinyin**: *xūcí*) are separated from other words
	1. Adverbs (simplified Chinese: 副词; traditional Chinese: 副詞; **pinyin**: *fùcí*): *hěn hǎo* (Chinese: 很好, very good), *zuì kuài* (Chinese: 最快, fastest), *fēicháng dà* (Chinese: 非常大, extremely big)
	2. Prepositions (simplified Chinese: 介词; traditional Chinese: 介詞; **pinyin**: *jiècí*): *zài qiánmiàn* (Chinese: 在前面, in front)
	3. Conjunctions (simplified Chinese: 连词; traditional Chinese: 連詞; **pinyin**: *liáncí*): *nǐ hé wǒ* (Chinese: 你和我, you and I/me), *Nǐ lái háishi bù lái?* (simplified Chinese: 你来还是不来？; traditional Chinese: 你來還是不來？, Are you coming or not?)
	4. "Constructive auxiliaries" (simplified Chinese: 结构助词; traditional Chinese: 結構助詞; **pinyin**: *jiégòu zhùcí*) such as *de* (Chinese: 的/地/得), *zhī* (Chinese: 之) and *suǒ* (Chinese: 所): *mànmàn de zou* (Chinese: 慢慢地走), go slowly)
		1. A monosyllabic word can also be written together with *de* (Chinese: 的/地/得): *wǒ de shū* / *wǒde shū* (simplified Chinese: 我的书; traditional Chinese: 我的書, my book)
	5. Modal auxiliaries at the end of a sentence: *Nǐ zhīdào ma?* (simplified Chinese: 你知道吗？; traditional Chinese: 你知道嗎？, Do you know?), *Kuài qù ba!* (Chinese: 快去吧！, Go quickly!)
	6. Exclamations and interjections: *À! Zhēn měi!* (Chinese: 啊！真美！), Oh, it's so beautiful!)
	7. Onomatopoeia: *mó dāo huòhuò* (Chinese: 磨刀霍霍, honing a knife), *hōnglōng yī shēng* (simplified Chinese: 轰隆一声; traditional Chinese: 轟隆一聲, rumbling)
10. **Capitalization**
	1. The first letter of the first word in a sentence is capitalized: *Chūntiān lái le.* (simplified Chinese: 春天来了。; traditional Chinese: 春天來了。, Spring has arrived.)
	2. The first letter of each line in a poem is capitalized.
	3. The first letter of a proper noun is capitalized: *Běijīng* (Chinese: 北京, Beijing), *Guójì Shūdiàn* (simplified Chinese: 国际书店; traditional Chinese: 國際書店, International Bookstore), *Guójiā Yǔyán Wénzì Gōngzuò Wěiyuánhuì* (simplified Chinese: 国家语言文字工作委员会; traditional Chinese: 國家語言文字工作委員會, National Language Commission)
		1. On some occasions, proper nouns can be written in all caps: *BĚIJĪNG*, *GUÓJÌ SHŪDIÀN*, *GUÓJIĀ YǓYÁN WÉNZÌ GŌNGZUÒ WĚIYUÁNHUÌ*
	4. If a proper noun is written together with a common noun to make a proper noun, it is capitalized. If not, it is not capitalized: *Fójiào* (Chinese: 佛教, Buddhism), *Tángcháo* (Chinese: 唐朝, Tang dynasty), *jīngjù* (simplified Chinese: 京剧; traditional Chinese: 京劇, Beijing opera), *chuānxiōng* (Chinese: 川芎, Szechuan lovage)
11. **Initialisms**
	1. Single words are abbreviated by taking the first letter of each character of the word: ***B**eǐ**j**īng* (Chinese: 北京, Beijing) → *BJ*
	2. A group of words are abbreviated by taking the first letter of each word in the group: ***g**uójiā **b**iāozhǔn* (simplified Chinese: 国家标准; traditional Chinese: 國家標準, Guobiao standard) → *GB*
	3. Initials can also be indicated using full stops: *Beǐjīng* → *B.J.*, *guójiā biāozhǔn* → *G.B.*
	4. When abbreviating names, the surname is written fully (first letter capitalized or in all caps), but only the first letter of each character in the given name is taken, with full stops after each initial: *Lǐ Huá* (simplified Chinese: 李华; traditional Chinese: 李華) → *Lǐ H.* or *LǏ H.*, *Zhūgě Kǒngmíng* (simplified Chinese: 诸葛孔明; traditional Chinese: 諸葛孔明) → *Zhūgě K. M.* or *ZHŪGĚ K. M.*
12. **Line Wrapping**
	1. Words can only be split by the character:
	*guāngmíng* (Chinese: 光明, bright) → *guāng-
	míng*, not *gu-
	āngmíng*
	2. Initials cannot be split:
	*Wáng J. G.* (simplified Chinese: 王建国; traditional Chinese: 王建國) → *Wáng
	J. G.*, not *Wáng J.-
	G.*
	3. Apostrophes are removed in line wrapping:
	*Xī'ān* (Chinese: 西安, Xi'an) → *Xī-
	ān*, not *Xī-
	'ān*
	4. When the original word has a hyphen, the hyphen is added at the beginning of the new line:
	*chēshuǐ-mǎlóng* (simplified Chinese: 车水马龙; traditional Chinese: 車水馬龍, heavy traffic: "carriage, water, horse, dragon") → *chēshuǐ-
	-mǎlóng*
13. **Hyphenation**: In addition to the situations mentioned above, there are four situations where hyphens are used.
	1. Coordinate and disjunctive compound words, where the two elements are conjoined or opposed, but retain their individual meaning: *gōng-jiàn* (Chinese: 弓箭, bow and arrow), *kuài-màn* (Chinese: 快慢, speed: "fast-slow"), *shíqī-bā suì* (simplified Chinese: 十七八岁; traditional Chinese: 十七八歲, 17–18 years old), *dǎ-mà* (simplified Chinese: 打骂; traditional Chinese: 打罵, beat and scold), *Yīng-Hàn* (simplified Chinese: 英汉; traditional Chinese: 英漢, English-Chinese [dictionary]), *Jīng-Jīn* (Chinese: 京津, Beijing-Tianjin), *lù-hǎi-kōngjūn* (simplified Chinese: 陆海空军; traditional Chinese: 陸海空軍, army-navy-airforce).
	2. Abbreviated compounds (simplified Chinese: 略语; traditional Chinese: 略語; **pinyin**: *lüèyǔ*): *gōnggòng guānxì* (simplified Chinese: 公共关系; traditional Chinese: 公共關係, public relations) → *gōng-guān* (simplified Chinese: 公关; traditional Chinese: 公關, PR), *chángtú diànhuà* (simplified Chinese: 长途电话; traditional Chinese: 長途電話, long-distance calling) → *cháng-huà* (simplified Chinese: 长话; traditional Chinese: 長話, LDC).
	Exceptions are made when the abbreviated term has become established as a word in its own right, as in *chūzhōng* (Chinese: 初中) for *chūjí zhōngxué* (simplified Chinese: 初级中学; traditional Chinese: 初級中學, junior high school). Abbreviations of proper-name compounds, however, should always be hyphenated: *Běijīng Dàxué* (simplified Chinese: 北京大学; traditional Chinese: 北京大學, Peking University) → *Běi-Dà* (Chinese: 北大, PKU).
	3. Four-syllable idioms: *fēngpíng-làngjìng* (simplified Chinese: 风平浪静; traditional Chinese: 風平浪靜), calm and tranquil: "wind calm, waves down"), *huījīn-rútǔ* (simplified Chinese: 挥金如土; traditional Chinese: 揮金如土, spend money like water: "throw gold like dirt"), *zhǐ-bǐ-mò-yàn* (simplified Chinese: 纸笔墨砚; traditional Chinese: 紙筆墨硯, paper-brush-ink-inkstone [four coordinate words]). (The AA-BB reduplication above is an instance of this.)
		1. Other idioms are separated according to the words that make up the idiom: *bēi hēiguō* (simplified Chinese: 背黑锅; traditional Chinese: 背黑鍋, to be made a scapegoat: "to carry a black pot"), *zhǐ xǔ zhōuguān fànghuǒ, bù xǔ bǎixìng diǎndēng* (simplified Chinese: 只许州官放火，不许百姓点灯; traditional Chinese: 只許州官放火，不許百姓點燈, Gods may do what cattle may not: "only the official is allowed to light the fire; the commoners are not allowed to light a lamp")
14. **Punctuation**
	1. The Chinese full stop (。) is changed to a western full stop (.)
	2. The hyphen is a half-width hyphen (-)
	3. Ellipsis can be changed from 6 dots (......) to 3 dots (...)
	4. The enumeration comma (、) is changed to a normal comma (,)
	5. All other punctuation marks are the same as the ones used in normal texts

## Comparison with other orthographies

Pinyin is now used by foreign students learning Chinese as a second language, as well as Bopomofo.

Pinyin assigns some Latin letters sound values which are quite different from that of most languages. This has drawn some criticism as it may lead to confusion when uninformed speakers apply either native or English assumed pronunciations to words. However, this problem is not limited only to pinyin, since many languages that use the Latin alphabet natively also assign different values to the same letters. A recent study on Chinese writing and literacy concluded, "By and large, pinyin represents the Chinese sounds better than the Wade–Giles system, and does so with fewer extra marks."

Because Pinyin is purely a representation of the sounds of Mandarin, it completely lacks the semantic cues and contexts inherent in Chinese characters. Pinyin is also unsuitable for transcribing some Chinese spoken languages other than Mandarin, languages which by contrast have traditionally been written with Han characters allowing for written communication which, by its unified semanto-phonetic orthography, could theoretically be readable in any of the various vernaculars of Chinese where a phonetic script would have only localized utility.

## Usage

Pinyin superseded older romanization systems such as Wade–Giles (1859; modified 1892) and postal romanization, and replaced zhuyin as the method of Chinese phonetic instruction in mainland China. The ISO adopted pinyin as the standard romanization for modern Chinese in 1982 (ISO 7098:1982, superseded by ISO 7098:2015). The United Nations followed suit in 1986. It has also been accepted by the government of Singapore, the United States's Library of Congress, the American Library Association, and many other international institutions.

The spelling of Chinese geographical or personal names in pinyin has become the most common way to transcribe them in English. Pinyin has also become the dominant method for entering Chinese text into computers in Mainland China, in contrast to Taiwan; where Bopomofo is most commonly used.

Families outside of Taiwan who speak Mandarin as a mother tongue use pinyin to help children associate characters with spoken words which they already know. Chinese families outside of Taiwan who speak some other language as their mother tongue use the system to teach children Mandarin pronunciation when they learn vocabulary in elementary school.

Since 1958, pinyin has been actively used in adult education as well, making it easier for formerly illiterate people to continue with self-study after a short period of pinyin literacy instruction.

Pinyin has become a tool for many foreigners to learn Mandarin pronunciation, and is used to explain both the grammar and spoken Mandarin coupled with Chinese characters (simplified Chinese: 汉字; traditional Chinese: 漢字; **pinyin**: *Hànzì*). Books containing both Chinese characters and pinyin are often used by foreign learners of Chinese. Pinyin's role in teaching pronunciation to foreigners and children is similar in some respects to furigana-based books (with hiragana letters written above or next to kanji, directly analogous to zhuyin) in Japanese or fully vocalised texts in Arabic ("vocalised Arabic").

The tone-marking diacritics are commonly omitted in popular news stories and even in scholarly works. This results in some degree of ambiguity as to which words are being represented.

### Computer input systems

Simple computer systems, able to display only 7-bit ASCII text (essentially the 26 Latin letters, 10 digits, and punctuation marks), long provided a convincing argument for using unaccented pinyin instead of Chinese characters. Today, however, most computer systems are able to display characters from Chinese and many other writing systems as well, and have them entered with a Latin keyboard using an input method editor. Alternatively, some PDAs, tablet computers, and digitizing tablets allow users to input characters graphically by writing with a stylus, with concurrent online handwriting recognition.

Pinyin with accents can be entered with the use of special keyboard layouts or various character map utilities. X keyboard extension includes a "Hanyu Pinyin (altgr)" layout for AltGr-triggered dead key input of accented characters.

### Pinyin in Taiwan

See also: Chinese language romanization in Taiwan
Taiwan (Republic of China) adopted *Tongyong Pinyin*, a modification of *Hanyu Pinyin*, as the official romanization system on the national level between October 2002 and January 2009, when it decided to promote *Hanyu Pinyin*. *Tongyong Pinyin* ("common phonetic"), a romanization system developed in Taiwan, was designed to romanize languages and dialects spoken on the island in addition to Mandarin Chinese. The Kuomintang (KMT) party resisted its adoption, preferring the *Hanyu Pinyin* system used in Mainland China and in general use internationally. Romanization preferences quickly became associated with issues of national identity. Preferences split along party lines: the KMT and its affiliated parties in the pan-blue coalition supported the use of Hanyu Pinyin while the Democratic Progressive Party and its affiliated parties in the pan-green coalition favored the use of Tongyong Pinyin.

*Tongyong Pinyin* was made the official system in an administrative order that allowed its adoption by local governments to be voluntary. Locales in Kaohsiung, Tainan and other areas use romanizations derived from Tongyong Pinyin for some district and street names. A few localities with governments controlled by the KMT, most notably Taipei, Hsinchu, and Kinmen County, overrode the order and converted to *Hanyu Pinyin* before the January 1, 2009 national-level decision, though with a slightly different capitalization convention than mainland China. Most areas of Taiwan adopted Tongyong Pinyin, consistent with the national policy. Today, many street signs in Taiwan are using *Tongyong Pinyin*-derived romanizations, but some, especially in northern Taiwan, display *Hanyu Pinyin*-derived romanizations. It is not unusual to see spellings on street signs and buildings derived from the older Wade–Giles, MPS2 and other systems.

The adoption of *Hanyu Pinyin* as the official romanization system in Taiwan does not preclude the official retention of earlier spellings. International familiarity has led to the retention of the spelling *Taipei* ("Taibei" in pinyin systems) and even to its continuation in the name of New Taipei, a municipality created in 2010. Personal names on Taiwanese passports honor the choices of Taiwanese citizens, who often prefer the Wade–Giles romanization of their personal names, though the official online conversion tool lists pinyin before other systems. Transition to Hanyu Pinyin in official use is also necessarily gradual. Universities and other government entities retain earlier spellings in long-established names, and budget restraints preclude widespread replacement of signage and stationery in every area. Primary education in Taiwan continues to teach pronunciation using *zhuyin* (MPS or Mandarin Phonetic Symbols).

### Pinyin for other languages

See also: SASM/GNC romanization, Tibetan pinyin, Guangdong Romanization
Pinyin-like systems have been devised for other variants of Chinese. Guangdong Romanization is a set of romanizations devised by the government of Guangdong province for Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka (Moiyen dialect), and Hainanese. All of these are designed to use Latin letters in a similar way to pinyin.

In addition, in accordance to the *Regulation of Phonetic Transcription in Hanyu Pinyin Letters of Place Names in Minority Nationality Languages* (simplified Chinese: 少数民族语地名汉语拼音字母音译转写法; traditional Chinese: 少數民族語地名漢語拼音字母音譯寫法) promulgated in 1976, place names in non-Han languages like Mongolian, Uyghur, and Tibetan are also officially transcribed using pinyin in a system adopted by the State Administration of Surveying and Mapping and Geographical Names Committee known as SASM/GNC romanization. The pinyin letters (26 Roman letters, plus ü and ê) are used to approximate the non-Han language in question as closely as possible. This results in spellings that are different from both the customary spelling of the place name, and the pinyin spelling of the name in Chinese:

*Tongyong Pinyin* was developed in Taiwan for use in rendering not only Mandarin Chinese, but other languages and dialects spoken on the island such as Taiwanese, Hakka, and aboriginal languages.

## Notes

1. ↑ This was part of the Soviet program of Latinization meant to reform alphabets for languages in that country to use Latin characters.