h

Can sound either like "h" as in "help" or like "ch" in Scottish "loch".

hā​hā

haha (laugh)

哈哈

hǎo

good

to drink

IPA: [h ~ x]

d

Sounds similar to "d" as in "dog", but voiceless. Strictly speaking, it is more like the unaspirated "t" in words like "stop".

to hit

dé​dào

to obtain

得到

IPA: [t]

t

Sounds like "t" as in "time".

he

tǎo​yàn

dislike

讨厌

IPA: []

e

Sounds similar to "oo" as in "foot" or "u" as in "sung", but slightly different.

mén

door

miàn​fěn

flour

面粉

IPA: [ɤ ~ ə]

ao

Sounds similar to "ow" as in "how now brown cow".

dào

arrive

niǎo

bird

IPA: [ɑu̯]



Single-syllable audio courtesy of the AllSet Learning Chinese Pronunciation Wiki, used with permission.

HSK word audio courtesy of Audio-cmn. (CC BY-SA 3.0)