---
title: "Chinese Alphabet: All Pinyin Letters With Audio, and How They Sound"
description: "Chinese has no alphabet: it writes its sounds in pinyin. Hear all 23 starting sounds (b p m f…) and 24 endings said by a native voice, with an English sound for each, the four tones and the first characters to learn."
canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-alphabet"
author: "Mandarin The Wild"
---

Free tool · With audio

# Chinese alphabet

Chinese has no alphabet. It writes its sounds in pinyin: 23 starting sounds and 24 endings. Tap one to hear it.

## Starting sounds

## Endings

## Four tones

## First characters

1. [一yīone](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E4%B8%80)
2. [二èrtwo](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E4%BA%8C)
3. [三sānthree](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E4%B8%89)
4. [人rénperson](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E4%BA%BA)
5. [口kǒumouth](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E5%8F%A3)
6. [大dàbig](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E5%A4%A7)
7. [小xiǎosmall](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E5%B0%8F)
8. [日rìday](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E6%97%A5)
9. [月yuèmoon](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E6%9C%88)
10. [水shuǐwater](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E6%B0%B4)
11. [火huǒfire](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E7%81%AB)
12. [山shānmountain](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E5%B1%B1)
13. [木mùtree](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E6%9C%A8)
14. [中zhōngChina](https://mandarinthewild.com/stroke-order/%E4%B8%AD)

## Does Chinese have an alphabet?

No. Chinese is written in characters, each one a syllable with a meaning. To write how words sound, mainland China uses pinyin, which spells Mandarin with English letters and has been taught in schools since 1958.

## How many letters are in the Chinese alphabet?

Pinyin uses 25 of the 26 English letters, plus ü (v stands in for ü when you type). Spoken Mandarin has 23 starting sounds and 24 basic endings, which combine into about 400 syllables, each said in up to four tones.

## How do you say the English letters in Chinese?

Mostly the English way, with a Chinese accent. Letters turn up in everyday words, like 卡拉OK (karaoke), T恤 (T-shirt) and B超 (an ultrasound scan).

## What should I learn after pinyin?

The characters you will meet most. Chinese schoolbooks start with simple pictures like 人 person, 口 mouth, 日 sun and 山 mountain, then build words from them. Tap any character above to see it written stroke by stroke.

## More free tools

- [Pinyin chart with every syllable](https://mandarinthewild.com/pinyin-chart)
- [Tone practice](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice)
- [Minimal pairs](https://mandarinthewild.com/pinyin-minimal-pairs)
- [Chinese radicals](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-radicals)
- [Chinese keyboard](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-keyboard)

Sounds from our own word recordings, the same as the pinyin chart’s; the characters are from the 2025 HSK word list.