Mandarin Chinese/Pinyin/U

This lesson you will learn: The letters U and Ü Compound and Nasal finals containing the letter U Tones NG The Letter U "U" is pronounced "oo". The "u" after x, q and j is not really a "u" it is really "ü". This also applies for compound finals starting with "u" Compound and Nasal Finals Containing U ou- oh iou- yo uo- woah uei- way ua- water uai- why uan- wahn uen- wuhn iou, uei, and uen change when they have initials. They become iu, ui and un respectively Like with "i", "u" become "w" initially. Tones As many know, Chinese is a tonal language. This means that the way you pronounce a word can change its meaning. For example: You do not need to learn these characters (at least not yet) CharacterMeaningPinyinTone妈妈MomMāmaFlat麻HempMáRising马HorseMǎChange骂To ScoldMàFalling吗Question ParticleMaNeutral The flat line means your voice is Higher and Level: āēīōūǖ The falling line means your voice drops, like you are angry: àèìòùǜ The line going down and up means your voice drops and rises again: ǎěǐǒǔǚ The rising line means your voice goes up, like you are asking a question: áéíóúǘ No line means you voice is Lower and Level: aeiouü Ü is the ONE vowel sound in Chinese but not English. If you know German, yes, it is the same sound, and to those who know French it is a "U". But for the rest of us... The Letter Ü Pronounce this vowel "ee" but with your lips rounded like you were pronouncing "oo" Rules About, and Compounds With Ü üe- +eh ün- +n üan- +ahn Like i become y and u becomes w, ü becomes yu. The finals after this rule FinalWithout Initialüyuüeyueünyunüanyuan NG NG acts just like N in a nasal final. And here they are: ang, iang, uang, eng, ing, yong, ong