Free Chinese Tool
Paste any Chinese text below and this pinyin translator converts it as you type: you get tone marks (mā má mǎ mà), tone numbers (ma1 ma2 ma3 ma4) and a character-by-character reading with audio. Words like 银行 are recognized automatically, so the reading is always the real one.
Works with simplified and traditional characters, runs entirely in your browser, no sign-up. It is the easiest way to read a Chinese name, a message or a song lyric aloud.
Pinyin result
Each tile shows one character with its pinyin, tone and audio. Multi-character words are resolved as words, so 银行 reads yín háng.
The conversion above follows the same three steps a Chinese teacher would take. The tool just does them in milliseconds, for any length of text.
Split the text into words. Chinese has no spaces, so before anything else the text is segmented into words. This matters for characters with several readings: 行 is xíng in 行动 but háng in 银行.
Look up each character. Every character maps to one syllable, an initial and a final, plus one of four tones or the neutral tone. That lookup is what produces the table above.
Add the tone. The tone goes on the main vowel of the syllable as a mark, or as a trailing digit if you switch to tone numbers. Both views are one click apart in the result card.
Mandarin is a tonal language: the tone changes the meaning of the syllable. The classic demo is the syllable ma, which is five different words depending on the tone.
| Tone | Tone mark | Tone number | Example | How it sounds |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st tone | mā | ma1 | 妈(mā, mom) | high and flat |
| 2nd tone | má | ma2 | 麻(má, hemp) | rising, like a question |
| 3rd tone | mǎ | ma3 | 马(mǎ, horse) | dips then rises |
| 4th tone | mà | ma4 | 骂(mà, scold) | falling, firm |
| neutral | ma | ma | 吗(ma, question particle) | light and quick |
Turn on tone colors in the result card to see the five tones painted in five colors, a memorization trick many learners use.
In Chinese the family name comes before the given name. If your name is 王小明, Wang is the surname and Xiaoming is the given name, so the full reading is Wáng Xiǎomíng. Knowing the order is half of pronouncing a Chinese name correctly.
Do not have a Chinese name yet? translate your English name into Chinese characters, or create an authentic Chinese name in four steps. Then paste it here to hear and practice the pronunciation.
Pinyin is not just a spelling, it is a pronunciation guide: read every syllable with its tone and you are speaking Mandarin. That is why our name meaning lookup shows pinyin next to every character.
Many people also match their name to their Chinese zodiac animal and element, a tradition where the birth year shapes lucky characters. It is a fun way to make the name yours.
Before pinyin, the dominant romanization in English books was Wade-Giles, published in 1892. Older documents, classic brand names and history books still use it, which is why the same words are spelled two ways. If you meet an old spelling, this table shows its pinyin form.
| Old (Wade-Giles) | Pinyin | What it is |
|---|---|---|
| Peking | Beijing | city name |
| Tsingtao | Qingdao | city name, home of the beer brand |
| Chungking | Chongqing | city name |
| Mao Tse-tung | Mao Zedong | historical figure |
| Chou En-lai | Zhou Enlai | historical figure |
| kung fu | gongfu | martial arts |
| tai chi | taiji | the discipline taijiquan |
| I Ching | Yijing | the classic Book of Changes |
The pattern is systematic: Wade-Giles used apostrophes for aspirated sounds, so what pinyin writes as p, t, k appears as p', t', k' in old books, and what pinyin writes as b, d, g appears as p, t, k. That is why Peking became Beijing.
Pinyin (Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, 汉语拼音) is the official system for writing Mandarin Chinese sounds with the Latin alphabet. It was published in China in 1958 and has been the international standard for romanizing Chinese since 1982. Every Chinese character has a pinyin syllable made of an initial, a final and a tone mark, for example mā, má, mǎ, mà.
Paste or type your Chinese text into the box at the top of this page and it converts as you type. You get the full pinyin line with tone marks, a switch for tone numbers (ma1) instead of marks (mā), and a character-by-character table showing the pinyin and tone of every character. Multi-character words are recognized automatically, so 银行 converts to yín háng, not yín xíng.
They are two ways of writing the same tones. Tone marks place a symbol over the main vowel: mā, má, mǎ, mà, ma. Tone numbers add a digit after the syllable: ma1, ma2, ma3, ma4, ma. Tone marks are the standard used in textbooks and dictionaries; tone numbers are easier to type. This translator has a one-click switch between the two.
Yes, on most devices. Every syllable in the results table has a speaker button, and there is a play button for the whole text. Playback uses the Chinese voice built into your browser or operating system, so no audio is uploaded anywhere. If your device has no Chinese voice installed, the speaker buttons hide themselves automatically.
Yes. You can paste simplified characters (汉字), traditional characters (漢字) or a mix of both. The conversion engine behind this page reads both scripts and returns the same Mandarin pinyin, because traditional and simplified characters represent the same spoken language.
If you already have a Chinese name, paste it above and you will get its reading instantly. If you do not have one yet, get a name first: translate your English name with our My Name in Chinese tool, or create a full culturally authentic name in four steps with the Chinese Name Generator. Then come back and check how to pronounce it.