Pinyin and tones, briefly

✅ Updated May 2026

Mandarin is written in characters but romanized as pinyin, which is what you type and read in textbooks. It has four main tones plus a neutral one, and the tone changes the meaning — mā (mother), má (hemp), mǎ (horse), mà (scold). You do not need perfect tones to be understood in context, but learning pinyin lets you type Chinese on any phone and look words up. Start with greetings and numbers, and use an app like Pleco or HelloChinese to hear native pronunciation.