The below table indicates possible combinations of initials and finals in Standard Mandarin, but does not indicate tones, which are equally important to the proper pronunciation of Chinese. Although some initial-final combinations have some syllables using each of the 5 different tones, most do not. Some utilize only one tone.

Pinyin entries in this page can be compared to syllables using the (non-romanized) Zhuyin phonetic system in the Zhuyin table page.

NOTE: many syllables are not pronounced similarly to the English conventions. For a more thorough explanation, please refer to the main Pinyin article.

Finals are grouped into subsets a, i, u and ü.

i, u and ü groupings indicate a combination of those finals with finals from Group a. For example:

• Group i: i+ao=iao, i+ê=ie, i+ou=iu
• Group u: u+ai=ui, u+ing=ong
• Group ü: ü+ê=ue, ü+ing=iong

Most syllables are a combination of an initial and a final. However, some syllables have no initials. This is shown in Pinyin as follows:

• if the final begins with an i, it is replaced with a y
• if the final begins with an u, it is replaced with a w
• if the final begins with an ü, it is replaced with yu
• exceptions to the rules above are indicated by yellow in the table's no initial column:

Note that the y, w, and yu replacements above do not change the pronunciation of the final in the final-only syllable. They are used to avoid ambiguity when writing words in pinyin. For example, instead of:

• "uen" and "ian" forming "uenian", which could be interpreted as:
• "uen-ian"
• "uen-i-an" or
• "u-en-i-an"
• the syllables are written "wen" and "yan" which results in the more distinct "wenyan"

There are discrepancies between the bopomofo tables and the pinyin table due to the few standardization differences of a few slight characters between the mainland standard putonghua and the Taiwanese standard guoyu. For example, the variant sounds 挼(ruá; ㄖㄨㄚˊ), 扽(dèn; ㄉㄣˋ), 忒(tēi; ㄊㄟ) are not used in guoyu. Likewise the variant sound 孿 (lüán; ㄌㄩㄢˊ) is not recognized in putonghua, or it is folded into (luán; ㄌㄨㄢˊ).

Colour Legend:

"regular" initial or final Final is in Group a or is a direct combination of: i+Group a final u+Group a final ü+Group a final
Final of i, u, ü groups is a modified combination of: i+Group a final u+Group a final ü+Group a final
syllable is direct combination of initial and final (or follows rules for no-initial syllables outlined at the top of the page)
syllable is modified combination of initial and final

Modified i, u, and ü group finals:

The following finals in the i, u, and ü groups are a modified combination of i, u or ü with a group a final:

*ie=i+ê

*iu=i+ou

*in=i+en

*ing=i+eng

*ui=u+ei

*un=u+en

*ong=u+eng

*ue=ü+ê

*ün=ü+en

*iong=ü+eng

er (儿/兒) contraction

A few additional syllables are formed in pinyin by combining an initial-final combination from the table above with an additional er-final. Rather than two distinct syllables, the last "er" is contracted with the first combination, and therefore represented as one syllable (analogous to "they're" instead of "they are", and "isn't" instead of "is not" in English).

initial+final+er combinations
Syllable Result	initial	final	er final
banr	b	an	er
pir	p	i	er
mianr	m	ian	er
fur	f	u	er
dianr	d	ian	er
dingr	d	ing	er
tangr	t	ang	er
tuir	t	ui	er
nar	n	a	er
nür	n	ü	er
ger	g	e	er
ganr	g	an	er
kour	k	ou	er
kongr	k	ong	er
hair	h	ai	er
haor	h	ao	er
huar	h	ua	er
huor	h	uo	er
huir	h	ui	er
jinr	j	in	er
xiar	x	ia	er
xianr	x	ian	er
zher	zh		er
shir	sh		er
shuir	sh	ui	er
wanr		uan	er
wor		uo	er

See also

• Cyrillization of Chinese from pinyin