3. Summary of the usage of “y” and “w”
(1) If there is no initial consonant before “i”, “i” is written as a semi-
vowel “y”. Thus iɑ, ie, iɑo, iu, iɑn, iɑnɡ become yɑ, ye, yɑo, you
(note that the o can’t be omitted here), yɑn, yɑnɡ. Before simple
final “i” and compound finals “in, inɡ”, y is added, e.g. yi, yin and
yinɡ.
(2) When the final “u” acts as a syllable, “w” is added before the final
“u”. When finals beginning with “u” act as syllables, the final “u”
changes to “w”. E.g. “wu, wa, wei, wen, wenɡ”.
(3) If there is no initial consonant before “ü”, add “y” and drop the
umlaut. E.g. “yu, yue, yun”.
4. Summary of marking tones in Pinyin
• Tone marks are written above the main vowel of a syllable.
The main vowel can be identified according to the following
sequence: ɑ-o-e-i-u-ü.
• For instance, in ɑo the main vowel is ɑ. In ei the main vowel is
e.
• There is one exception: when i and u are combined into a
syllable, the tone mark is written on the second vowel: iù,uì.
5. Syllable-diving mark
• In order to avoid confusion, an apostrophe is used to separate
two syllables with connecting vowels, e.g. nǚ’ér (daughter)
and the city Xī’ān (nǚ and ér, xī and ān are separate syllables).
• In some cases an apostrophe is needed to avoid confusion
even if the two syllables are not connected by vowels, e.g.
fánɡ’ài (to hinder) and fānɡ’àn (plan; scheme).
