Pinyin-Initials

Ok..so as I understand it, every Mandarin Chinese word is made up of an 'initial' and a 'final'. You combine one initial with the final and make the word. There are a certain number of possible combinations, and like homonyms in English (see, see...no, know...to, too, two...hi, high) some of the same sounds can have multiple meanings. So if we are going to learn the Pinyin basics so deeply, we must first master the recognition and sounds of each individual 'letter'. (Side note: I don't think we can consider them letter like our alphabet, but for the sake of simplicity, from here on I will call each of them letters.

So..the initials...here is an AWESOME website I just found.

http://www.learnchineseabc.com/chinese-pinyin-initials.htm

Let's monkey around on this and watch as our Mandarin Chinese pronunciation improves.

So it looks like only 24 initials to memorize...compare that to asking a new Korean or Panamanian student to learn and memorize our English alphabet and all of its sounds. Not too bad...I think the finals will be harder.

Let's practice with that site a lot first...let's really master these 24 sounds first..then move on.