拼写规则Spelling Rules
Hanyu Pinyin is the official romanization system for Mandarin in mainland China. Once you know the sounds, these are the rules that govern how they’re actually written down — spacing, capitals, tone-mark placement, and the quiet substitutions like i→y and ü→yu.
Spacing & capital letters
Words are written together, with no spaces between the syllables that make them up.
The first letter of the first word in a sentence is capitalized.
Proper nouns and names are capitalized.
Special substitutions
When a syllable has “uo” right after b, p, m, or f, the “u” is dropped — leaving “bo”, “po”, “mo”, or “fo”.
When a syllable has “ü” right after j, q, or x, the two dots are dropped from the spelling.
Where the tone mark goes
For syllables with just one vowel letter, the tone mark always sits on that vowel.
For syllables with two or three vowel letters: if the first vowel isn’t a medial (“i”, “u”, or “ü”), the mark goes on that first vowel.
But if the first vowel is a medial, the mark moves to the second vowel instead.
If the mark lands on “i”, the dot above it is dropped.
“i”, “u”, “ü” with no initial
When a syllable starts with the “i” sound and has no initial in front of it, “i” is replaced with y.
iáng → yáng (羊, sheep) · iào → yào (要, want) · iòng → yòng (用, use)
- The single vowel “i”, and the nasals “in” / “ing”, get a “y” added in front instead — becoming “yi”, “yin”, “ying”.
- Standing alone, “iu” is spelled “you”.
When a syllable starts with the “u” sound and has no initial in front of it, “u” is replaced with w.
uǎn → wǎn (碗, bowl) · uài → wài (外, outside) · uǎng → wǎng (網网, net)
- The single vowel “u” gets a “w” added in front instead — becoming “wu”.
- Standing alone, “un” is spelled “wen”.
- Standing alone, “ui” is spelled “wei”.
When a syllable starts with “ü”, it’s replaced with yu.
ǚ → yǔ (雨, rain) · ǚn → yún (雲云, cloud) · ǚan → yuǎn (遠远, far)
Ending “r” — erhua
The “er” sound can attach onto other finals to form a retroflex ending. When it does, just add “r” to the end of the syllable.
Spot the correct spelling — 10 questions
Each pair has one correctly-spelled form and one that breaks a rule from this page. Pick the correct one.
