Chinese subtitles with pinyin
Read the characters. Check the pinyin only for the words you need.
We make Mandarin The Wild.
Start with the Chinese captions
Check the video has a Chinese caption track, and turn it on from the CC button or the settings menu. YouTube’s search can show only videos with captions. YouTube: caption settings on a computer and YouTube: find videos with captions.
Automatic captions can be wrong, so if a line looks odd, check it against the sound. YouTube: automatic captions.
Get the pinyin of one word
With Mandarin The Wild in Chrome or Edge, point at a word in the caption. Its card shows the pinyin for the way it is read in that line, with its meaning, its parts and its sound.
这个视频有中文字幕。
subtitles; captions
On a phone, paste a line into the reader to see each word’s pinyin. See the extension.
Zhongwen also shows tone-coloured pinyin, or Zhuyin, for a word you point at on a web page. Compare the two. Zhongwen: Chrome Web Store listing.
Go back to the sound
Pinyin tells you how a word is usually said. The speaker is the one to copy. Open the transcript, click the line to hear it again, and say it after them. YouTube: view a video transcript.
Questions
Is pinyin the same as an English subtitle?
No. Pinyin spells out how the Chinese sounds; an English subtitle gives the meaning.
Should I show pinyin for every word?
It helps at the very start, but your eyes will read the pinyin instead of the characters. Check it one word at a time instead.
Do automatic captions get words wrong?
Sometimes. Check a line that looks odd against what you hear.
Sources
Checked on 7 October 2026. Prices and features change; tell us if one has.