Compound Finals: ai, ei, ao, ou, iu, ui, ie, üe, er Flashcards
In Chinese Pinyin system, there are nine compound finals, which are composed of simple vowels. (9 cards)
ai
as the i in “bike”
like “y” in “by”
ài 爱 v. love
ei
like “ei” in “eight”
similar to “ey” in the English “hey”
měi 美 adj. beautiful
ao
like “ow” in “cow”
similar to “ou” in the English “loud”
ào 傲 adj. proud
ou
oh-w (o with a slight w sound at end)
like “oa” in “coat”
similar to “oa” in the English “boat”
ōu 鸥 n. sea mew
iu
like English letter “u”
combine Chinese finals “i” and “ou” : iu
The main vowel is omitted in the spelling of the final iu (iu = iou)
If there is no initial consonant before i, i is written as a semi-vowel, y. Thus ia, ie, iao, iu, ian, iang become ya, ye, yao, you (note that the o cannot be omitted here: iu = iou), yan, yang,. Before in and ing, add y, e.g., yin and ying.
niú 牛 n. cow, ox
ui
“u” and slightly make the “ei” sound
The main vowel e is omitted in the final ui (ui = uei)
u becomes w if not preceded by an initial.
As such, ui (uei) is spelled as “wei” when it stands as an independent syllable
duì 对 adj. correct
ie
like “ye” in “yes
“ie” is spelled “ye”
If there is no initial consonant before i, i is written as a semi-vowel, y. Thus ia, ie, iao, iu, ian, iang become ya, ye, yao, you (note that the o cannot be omitted here: iu = iou), yan, yang,. Before in and ing, add y, e.g., yin and ying.
xiè 谢 v. thank
üe
like “u” in “lune” plus “e” in “pet”
as a slide from pinyin “ü” to the vowel “e”
“üe” is spelled “yue”
If there is no initial consonant before ü, add a y and drop the umlaut: yu, yuan, yue, yun
yuè 月 n. moon, month
er
like “er” in “sister”
Rather similar to the vowel sound in ‘bird’ and ‘sir’, with an audible retroflex ‘r’ at the end. Sometimes more like the English word ‘are’. Could possibly be written as ‘ehr’ in English. Pronounced as a retroflex.
Roll up your tongue and keep it in the middle position of your mouth. Similar to the “ear” in the English “early”.
ěr 耳 n. ears
