Pinyin chart · shui
How to say shui
shui in its 3 tones, said in a female or a male voice. Tap a tone to hear it.
shui
Tap a tone to hear it; tap it again to hear it slower.
How to say it
sh: Like English sh, with the tongue tip curled back a little further.
uei: Written ui after a consonant (gui, dui): a short e is said between the u and the i, so dui sounds close to “dway”.
Its tones
shuí 谁 who · shuǐ 水 water · shuì 睡 to sleep. shuī isn’t used in standard Mandarin. The pinyin trainer practices telling them apart in real words.
Spelling
- uei is written ui after a consonant.
Sounds near it
Learners often mix shui up with these. Listen to them one after the other.
Words with shui
The voices are generated speech (ElevenLabs), the same two the app’s word cards use, each tone said as one real word. The words are from the official HSK list (the exam’s 2025 syllabus), easiest first. Every syllable is on the pinyin chart.