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Sunday, July 18, 2010

Arch Chinese - Pinyin Syllable Table

This is an amazing website for learning Chinese. Most of it is free but to get the full use of it's functions, you need to subscribe. I have found however, that I have all I need in the free functions and it has been a big help with my learning.

Today I'll tell you about the Chinese Pinyin Syllable Table. It is a complete list of all pinyin syllables used in standard Mandarin. It gives you every possible pronunciation you will ever need to speak standard Mandarin. You can click on each syllable to hear it's pronunciation, view all characters with each pronunciation in each tone, and also view each character's definition. You can also click on each character and you will go to a page that gives you further info on the stroke order, radicals used, and definition. It is simply fantastic and an invaluable tool.

I am currently using the table to remind me of pronunciation because I often forget it after I go home from class. I have flash cards for all the words I have learnt so far and I simply look at the flash card and then click on the corresponding pinyin syllable and choose the correct tone. I make sure I do this without checking my flashcard first to try and memorize the pinyin for each character. After I find the syllable I think is correct, I then choose to view the characters that have that pronunciation and see if the one I am looking for is in the list. It seems quite a simple task but it really helps me to memorize the correct pinyin and even the meaning of characters.

Go here to check it out: Arch Chinese