Transliteration/Romanization Systems

Zhuyin ('Zhuyin fuhao' or  'BoPoMoFo')
Pinyin ('Hanyu Pinyin')

There is no true alphabet in written Chinese. A system of ‘idea-pictures’ or characters is used, with each character representing a different word or syllable. Linguists assert that there are more than 50,000 Chinese characters in existence, but many of the words are outdated. About 5,000 characters are in use today. 2,000 of these are very commonly used and are considered the minimum needed to read a newspaper. In the 1960's in mainland China, a system of simplified characters was introduced by the government to help improve literacy because of the fact that some written characters contain upwards of 30 strokes to write! In Taiwan, Hong Kong, and most Chinese communities outside of China however, the older, traditional (‘complex’) characters are still used (and are used exclusively on this site.)

To teach children, the Taiwanese (and other Chinese speaking countries) use a system of 37 pseudo-characters (similar to an alphabet) which contain all the basic sounds associated with Mandarin Chinese and it is officially called 'MPS', or the 'Mandarin Phonetic System' and in Chinese, 'Zhuyin fuhao' (also known colloquially as "Bo Po Mo Fo" based on the sounds of the first 4 'characters.) These ‘characters’ are also used in most dictionaries to locate a particular character as well as on computer keyboards to help find a particular Chinese character while typing.

Written Chinese is extremely difficult to master, but spoken Chinese isn’t so difficult to learn (once you get the tones down.)

Initials	Finals
MPS Pinyin b p m f d t n l g k h j q x zh(i) ch(i) sh(i) r(i) z(i) c(i) s(i) MPS Pinyin a o e ai ei ao ou an en ang eng er yi,-i wu,-u yu,-u/ MPS Pinyin ya,-ia yo ye, yie yao,-iao you,-iu yan,-ian yin,-in yang,-iang ying,-ing wa,-ua wo,-uo wai,-uai wei,-ui wan,-uan wen,-un wang,-uang weng,-ong yue,-e yuan,-an yun,- n yong,-iong

Pinyin - Hanyu Pinyin

Chinese can be written using the Roman alphabet with added tone marks, (which not readily available on most computers, but which can be downloaded from sites in our ‘Chinese language study links’ section). There are three systems used for Romanisation (transliteration to a Roman alphabet), but the most popular is the Pinyin system and there are important differences in the way Chinese consonants are represented. Mainland China has instituted the most widely accepted system over the last 15 years called simply, Pinyin or Hanyu Pinyin. Previously, the Yale system was the most accepted and was created by Yale University in the US. Because of the polical differences between the PRC (People's Republic of China) and Taiwan (ROC), Taiwan has decided not to embrace the Pinyin system, and instead chose the Wade-Giles system as their official system.

Basically, if you are reading this then you are probably interested in at least learning Chinese at some level and thus you should wean yourself off these systems as soon as possible. Although Pinyin is helpful as well as 'Bopomofo', you may find that you will want to use your own system because you will realize that none of the systems is perfect and since this is only a system for learning to pronounce Chinese using English letters, use it until you don’t need it anymore and can read Chinese traditional characters strictly.

Wade-Giles, unfortunately is the official system used in Taiwan for street signs, maps, books, newspapers, and name cards (because mainland China exclusively uses the more accurate 'Pinyin' system and Taiwan doesn't want to acquiesce to any system used by the mainland, no matter if it is better in this case). One example of how confusing these systems can be is when you read the name of the city Kaohshiung, spelled like Gaoxiung and the like. The northern city of Keelung is actually pronounced Jee-lung with the ‘K’ pronounced like the sound when you say the letter ‘J’. However, it is widely agreed that the 'Pinyin' system of Romanization is the best and easiest system to learn world-wide.

Pinyin Pronounciation:

Most letters are pronounced as in

English, except for the following: