Pinyin Course
Pinyin is the system of symbols for the phonetic notation of all Chinese characters. Each Chinese character has its corresponding syllable, and each syllable is composed of three parts which are called the Initial, the Final, and the Tone. In the Chinese Pinyin system, there are 21 initials, 36 finals, 2 semi-vowels, 4 basic tones, and 1 light tone.
Chinese Syllable
Tones声调
Mandarin Chinese has four tones, and one “toneless” tone. The tone you use when pronouncing each one-syllable word determines the meaning. The tone marks ˉ ´ ` show which tone to use.
Tone Marking
Tone marks in Chinese pinyin are put above vowels. When there are two or more vowels in the final of a syllable, the tone should be marked on the one that is prononced with the mouth more wide-open, the sequence being "a,o,e,i,u, ü"in the descending order. The compound final iu is an exception to this rule, in Which the tone mark is put on u rather than i as iu is the abbreviation of iou. The neutral tone is unmarked.
Resource : HSK1
Pinyin Initials (声母 - Shēngmǔ):
The initials represent the consonant sounds at the beginning of a syllable.
There are 21 initials in Standard Mandarin Pinyin: