Chinese (Mandarin)/Pronunciation of Finals

Pronunciation of finals

Pinyin		IPA	Final-only form	Description
Single finals	a	[a:]	a	as in "father"
	o	[ɔ:]	o	as in "got"
	e	[ɤə]	e	a backward, unrounded vowel: first place the tongue between [ŋ] and [ə] to produce [ɤ], and then lower the tongue to slide to [ə] a bit like English "duh", but not as "open"
	(ê)	[e]	ê	as in "get"
	i	[i:]	yi	as in "he"
	(-i)	[ɻ̩], [ɹ̩]		i is a buzzed continuation of the consonant when it appears after these initials: z-, c-, s-, zh-, ch-, sh- and r-
	u	[u:]	wu	as in "who"
	ü	[y:]	yu	as in German "üben" or French "lune" (to get this sound, say "ee" with rounded lips)
Plural finals	ai	[ai̯]	ai	like "eye", but a bit lighter
	ei	[ei̯]	ei	as in "say"
	ui	[uei̯]	wei	like "way", but a bit lighter
	ao	[au̯]	ao	like "cow", the a is much more audible than the o
	ou	[ou̯]	ou	as in "so", "dough"
	iu	[iəu̯]	you	as in "Leo"
	ie	[i̯e]	ye	like "yet"
	üe	[y̯e]	yue	as pinyin ü + ê
	er	[aɚ̯]	er	as in "bar" in American English (the r is always pronounced) (this final doesn't combine with any initials)
	an	[an]	an	as in "stun", "fun"
	en	[ən]	en	as in "taken"
	in	[in]	yin	as in "in"
	un	[u̯ən]	wen	as pinyin u + en
	ün	[yn]	yun	as pinyin ü + n
	ang	[aŋ]	ang	as in "young", like "song" in American English
	eng	[əŋ]	eng	replace the [n] in en with [ŋ]
	ing	[iŋ]	ying	as in "thing"
	ong	[ɔŋ]		replace the [n] in "yawn" with [ŋ]

Rolled finals

Rolled finals (儿化音) are a phenomenon in spoken Mandarin. People from northern China like to roll their tongue when saying specific words (usually nouns and verbs) in daily dialogues. On the other hand, people from southern China rarely do that. Foreign Chinese learners are not quite suggested to learn so, as this is sometimes considered as a northern China accent instead of standard Mandarin. This table's purpose is to enable Chinese learners to recognize and understand them when hearing somebody using them.

Pinyin	IPA	Explanation
e'r	[ɤ˞]	as e + er (not to be confused with the final er on its own, e'r only exists with an initial character before it)
ar, air, anr air, anr	[aɚ̯]	as ai + er, an + er
aor	[au̯˞]	as ao + er
our	[ou̯˞]	as ou + er
angr	[ãɚ̯̃]	as ang + er
iar, ianr	[i̯aɚ̯]	as ia + er, ian + er
inr, ir	[i̯ɚ]	as in + er, i + er
ingr	[i̯ɚ̃]	as ing + er
ur	[u˞]	as u + er
uor	[u̯o˞]	as uo + er
uir	[u̯ɚ]	as ui + er
ongr	[ʊ̃˞]	as ong + er
ür	[y̯ɚ]	as ü + er