Sounds kind of like "j" in English "jeep", but with the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth.

ㄐㄧㄚ

home

ㄐㄩˊㄗ˙

tangerine

橘子

IPA: [t͡ɕ]

Sounds kind of like "ch" in English "cheap", but with the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth.

ㄑㄧㄢˊ

money

ㄑㄩˋ

to go

IPA: [t͡ɕʰ]

Sounds kind of like "sh" in English "sheep", but with the tip of the tongue behind the lower teeth.

ㄒㄧㄠˇ

small

ㄧㄝˇㄒㄩˇ

perhaps

也许

IPA: [ɕ]

Sounds kind of like "ds" in "bids", but voiceless.

ㄗˋㄐㄧˇ

oneself

自己

ㄗㄞˋㄐㄧㄢˋ

goodbye

再见

IPA: [t͡s]

Sounds kind of like "ts" in "cats".

ㄘˊ

word

ㄘㄜˋㄙㄨㄛˇ

bathroom

厕所

IPA: [t͡sʰ]

Sounds like "s" in "sick".

ㄙˋ

four

ㄙㄢ

three

IPA: [s]

Sounds kind of like "j" in "jerk", but voiceless and with the tongue further back in the mouth.

ㄉㄠˋ

to know

知道

ㄓㄠˋㄆㄧㄢˋ

photograph

照片

IPA: [ʈ͡ʂ]

Sounds kind of like "ch" in "chirp", but with the tongue further back in the mouth.

to eat

ㄔㄨㄑㄩˋ

to go out

出去

IPA: [t͡ɕʰ]

Sounds kind of like "sh" in "Shrek", but with the tongue further back in the mouth.

ㄕˊ

ten

ㄕㄥㄏㄨㄛˊ

life

生活

IPA: [ʂ]

Sounds like "ee" as in "bee" but with the lips rounded like "u" as in "rune". Same as "u" in French "tu" or ü in German "über".

ㄋㄩˇ

female

ㄈㄚˇㄌㄩˋ

law

法律

ㄩㄢˇ

far

ㄧㄣㄩㄝˋ

music

音乐

ㄩㄥㄅㄠˋ

to hug

拥抱

IPA: [y]

Sounds like "a" as in "palm" + "n" as in "no".

ㄋㄢˊ

difficult

ㄋㄧㄢˊ

year

IPA: [an ~ ɛn]

Sounds similar to "en" as in "often" or "un" as in "sun", but slightly different.

ㄇㄣˊ

door

ㄇㄧㄢˋㄈㄣˇ

flour

面粉

IPA: [ən]

Sounds like "ong" as in "song".

ㄌㄤˊ

wolf

ㄆㄧㄠˋㄌㄧㄤ˙

pretty

漂亮

IPA: [ɑŋ]

Sounds similar to "ung" as in "lung", but slightly different.

ㄉㄥˇ

wait

ㄆㄥˊㄧㄡ˙

friend

朋友

ㄉㄨㄥˋㄨˋ

animal

动物

IPA: [əŋ]



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)