Pinyin with real tone marks, placed on the right vowel for you.
Pinyin words to try
Tap a word to put it in the box above, or type it yourself with the keys shown.
| Word | Meaning | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Hello (你好) | ni3 hao3 | |
| Thank you (谢谢) | xie4xie | |
| China (中国) | Zhong1guo2 | |
| Sorry (对不起) | dui4buqi3 | |
| Green (绿色) | lv4se4 |
Tone numbers in, tone marks out
Hanyu Pinyin writes Mandarin in Latin letters, with a mark over one vowel showing the syllable's tone. Typing those marks is awkward on any standard keyboard, so learners long ago settled on writing the tone as a number after the syllable: ni3 hao3. This keyboard takes that number and puts the correct mark on the correct vowel: nǐ hǎo.
Type the syllable, then 1, 2, 3 or 4. The red keys do the same thing on screen. The fifth, neutral tone has no mark, so just leave the number off, as in xièxie. A digit typed after a space or punctuation stays a digit, so numbers still work.
| Tone | Key | Mark | Contour | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1 or ˉ | ā | high and level | mā (mother) |
| 2nd | 2 or ˊ | á | rising | má (hemp) |
| 3rd | 3 or ˇ | ǎ | dipping | mǎ (horse) |
| 4th | 4 or ˋ | à | falling | mà (to scold) |
Which vowel takes the mark
Pinyin has a fixed rule for syllables with more than one vowel, and the keyboard applies it for you:
- If there is an a or an e, it takes the mark: hǎo, xiè, guān.
- In ou, the o takes it: gǒu, zhōu.
- Otherwise the last vowel takes it: guì, liú, duō.
ü and v
Pinyin needs one letter English does not have: ü, as in lǜ (green) and nǚ (woman). Keyboards have always used v in its place, since v is not otherwise used in Mandarin pinyin, so typing v here gives ü, and lv4 gives lǜ. After j, q, x and y the dots are left off by convention (ju, qu, xu, yu), because u after those letters is always the ü sound.
Written tones and spoken tones
Pinyin is written with each syllable's own, dictionary tone, even where speech changes it. The best-known case is two third tones in a row: the first is said as a second tone, so nǐ hǎo sounds like "ní hǎo", but it is still written nǐ hǎo. Type the dictionary tones here and your pinyin will match textbooks and dictionaries.
Two very common words change tone by the syllable after them. 不 is bù, but becomes bú before a fourth tone: bú shì. 一 is yī on its own, yí before a fourth tone (yí gè) and yì before the others (yì tiān). Unlike the third-tone rule, many textbooks write these changed tones, so follow whichever convention your course uses; the keyboard types whichever number you give it.
Pinyin, not Chinese characters
This keyboard types pinyin with tones, which is what you need for vocabulary lists, flashcards, homework and showing how a name is pronounced. It does not turn pinyin into Chinese characters. For that you need a pinyin input method, which uses a dictionary to offer characters as you type: Microsoft Pinyin on Windows, Pinyin - Simplified on a Mac, and Gboard or the iPhone keyboard on a phone.