Pronunciation - The Finals

A Chinese character's pronunciation is basically a combination of an "initial" and a "final", or just "final" alone. Finals must consist of at least one vowel. The "vowel" or combination of vowels behind the initial are all referred to as “finals”.

In Chinese, there are 6 major "vowels" (a, e, i, o, u, ü) and they can combine with each other to produce even more sounds. 

Alert: Both “e” and “i” are special as they have 2 different sounds, depends on what initials in front of them.

a : a-rm, o-nion

e : a-go, a-fraid

e : e-skimo, a-pple (only when combined with initial “y” or combined with vowel "i" or "ü")

i : i-nk, ee-l

i : bu-zz (only when combined with initial zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s)

o : o-range, o-ffice

u : oo-ze, u-zbekistan

ü : u-ee (u sound as in u-nion, ee sound as in ee-l)

Two vowels (finals) can be combined to produce more sounds.

Combination of 2 vowels - take note that it's pronunciation is exactly the combination of the two vowels' pronunciation

ai : i-ce, I

ao : ou-ch, owl

ei : e-ee (e sound as in a-go, ee sound as in ee-l)

ia : ee-a (ee sound as in ee-l, a sound as in a-rm)

ie : ee-e (ee sound as in ee-l, e sound as in e-skimo) *Note e sound NOT as a-go  

iu : ee-u (ee sound as in ee-l, u sound as in oo-ze)

ou : o-u (o sound as in o-wn, u sound as in oo-ze) *Note o sound NOT as o-ffice

ua : u-a (u sound as in oo-ze, a sound as in a-rm)

ui : u-i (u sound as in oo-ze, i sound as in ee-l)

uo : u-o (u sound as in oo-ze, o sound as in o-ffice)

üe : ooee-e (e sound as in e-skimo) *Note e sound NOT as a-go  

Please notice that not all combination are valid. There are no pinyin such as: au, eo, io, oa, oe etc.

The finals can also be a combination of vowel and consonant to produce even more sounds. The consonants allowed to do this are only “n” and “ng”.

an : un-der

ang : h-ung

en : earn, f-ern

eng : earn-g

in : in

ing : fly-ing

ong : oh-ng  *Note o sound NOT as o-ffice

un : pr-une

ün : u-in (u sound as u-nion)

ian : ee-yen (ee sound as in ee-l, yen sound as in Japanese yen) *Note -an sound NOT as un-der

iang : ee-young  (ee sound as in ee-l)

iong : ee-ong  (ee sound as in ee-l)  *Note o sound NOT as o-ffice

iao : ee-owl  (ee sound as in ee-l)

uan : oo-under (oo sound as in oo-ze)

uang : oo-hung (oo sound as in oo-ze)

uai : oo-i (oo sound as in oo-ze, i sound as in i-ce)

üan : ooee-end (oo sound as in oo-ze, ee sound as in ee-l) *Note -an sound NOT as un-der

Not all sounds of pinyin have an English sound to link to. Some are just approximate sound only.

If you are a beginner in learning Chinese language, do not feel overwhelmed by this information. You do not need to memorize all of them now, but just learn by heart a few first, which are the pronunciation of "a, e, i, o, u & ü". After this, just refer to this page if you are not sure of other initials/finals' pronunciation you encounter, as unfortunately, to master the pinyin, you have to know all the sounds of initials & finals inside out.