Initials in Pinyin, z, c, s, y, w

Pronouncing the initials can be easy as it is similar to English alphabets. There are a total of 23 initials in the Pinyin syllabus. A word is a form with an initial and final.

 

The initial z, c, s, y and w are trickier to pronounce for beginners. But in this case, you don’t need to roll your tongue up.

 

Rules in initials z, c, s

Finals that can be paired:

• Single final – a, e, i, o, u
• Compound and nasal final starts with – a, e, i, o, u
• When using z, c, s, the pronunciation of “i” will be in a different case with j, q, x.

 

Rules in initials y, w

y and w are actually not included in the official initials in Pinyin, but they are called as “half vowels” in Pinyin. When the final word is i, u, or ü, and no initial is present, the Pinyin is spelled as yi, yü and wu. Only i and ü can be paired with y, and u to be paired with w.

 

Initials
z		c
s		y
w

 

Here are some guides with English pronunciation on how to pronounce the initials.

Initial	Pronunciation as in English	Character	Meaning	Pinyin
z	Buzz	字	word	zì
c	Pots “ts”	刺	thorn	cì
s	Snake noise “sss”	四	four	sì
y	Y + ee	一	One	yī
w	Wood	五	Fives	wǔ

 

Tone Drills of the initials, z, c, s, y, w

Initials
z	zī zí zǐ zì		c	cī cí cǐ cì
s	sī sí sǐ sì		y	yī yí yǐ yì
w	wū wú wǔ wù

 

Not all initials can be combined with any finals. Take a look at the table below. These are the only finals that can combine with z, c, and s.

	z	c	s
a	za	ca	sa
e	ze	ce	se
i	zi	ci	si
ai	zai	cai	sai
ei	zei	-	sei
ao	zao	cao	sao
ou	zou	cou	sou
an	zan	can	san
en	zen	cen	sen
ang	zang	cang	sang
eng	zeng	ceng	seng
ong	zong	cong	-
u	zu	cu	su
uo	zuo	cuo	suo
ui	zui	cui	sui
uan	zuan	cuan	uan
un	zun	cun	sun

 

Pinyin with y and w.

y	w
ya	wu
ye	wa
yi	wo
yao	wai
you	wei
yan	wan
yin	wen
yang	wang
ying	weng
yong
yü
yüe
yüan
yün