How to use the converter
Click or tap an underlined Chinese word in this guide to hear it.
- Paste or type Chinese in the box. Simplified and traditional both work, and so does a mix of Chinese, English and numbers.
- Pick a view. Pinyin above characters is for reading along. Pinyin only gives you text to copy into notes or flashcards. Pinyin + meanings splits the text into words and lists each one with its pinyin and a short English definition.
- Click or tap any character to see its meaning, its other readings, its stroke count and radical, and common words that use it.
- Copy, print or share. Copy the pinyin alone or with the characters, print a reading sheet, or copy a link that opens the same text.
| View | What you get | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Pinyin above characters | 你好 | Reading along, worksheets, slides |
| Pinyin only | Nǐhǎo or nǐ hǎo, with tone marks or numbers (ni3 hao3) | Notes, flashcards, subtitles |
| Pinyin + meanings | 你好 nǐhǎo, hello | Working through a new text |
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Characters with more than one reading
Hundreds of common Chinese characters are read in more than one way, and the meaning tells you which. These are called 多音字 (duōyīnzì). The converter reads each character inside the word it belongs to, so 行 is háng in 银行 (bank) and xíng in 不行 (no way).
| Character | One reading | Another reading |
|---|---|---|
| 度 | 温度 wēndù, temperature | 以己度人 yǐjǐ-duórén, to judge others by yourself |
| 还 | 还是 háishi, still, or | 还书 huán shū, to return a book |
| 长 | 长城 Chángchéng, the Great Wall | 长大 zhǎngdà, to grow up |
| 得 | 得到 dédào, to get | 跑得快 pǎo de kuài, runs fast; 我得走了 wǒ děi zǒu le, I have to go |
| 乐 | 快乐 kuàilè, happy | 音乐 yīnyuè, music |
| 重 | 重要 zhòngyào, important | 重新 chóngxīn, again |
A few cases can’t be settled from the text alone. In 头发长了 the hair has either grown (zhǎng) or gotten long (cháng); both are correct Chinese. When the converter guesses wrong, click or tap the character and choose the other reading. Your choice is kept when you copy or print.
How to read tone marks
Each mark draws the tone's pitch: ā is high and level, á rises, ǎ dips and rises, and à falls. A syllable with no mark is in the neutral tone, said short and light. Hear all four on any syllable in our pinyin chart.
The mark goes on a, or on e if there is no a. In ou it goes on the o. Otherwise it goes on the last vowel: guì, liù. With tone numbers the digit comes after the syllable instead (gui4), and 5 means neutral.
Tone changes: yī, bù and the third tone
Some tones change in speech depending on the next syllable. Dictionaries write the original tone, while many textbooks for learners write the tone you actually hear for 一 (yī) and 不 (bù). The converter shows the spoken tones by default. Turn off Spoken tones to get dictionary tones.
- 不 (bù) becomes bú before a fourth tone: 不是 bú shì, 不要 bú yào.
- 一 (yī) becomes yí before a fourth tone (一定 yídìng) and yì before the other tones (一起 yìqǐ). It stays yī when counting, in dates and at the end of a word: 第一 dì-yī, 一月 yīyuè, 统一 tǒngyī.
- Two third tones in a row: the first one is said as a second tone, so 你好 sounds like ní hǎo. Pinyin still writes the third tone, nǐhǎo, and so does the converter.
More examples and practice: Tone changes in Mandarin.
The neutral tone
Many common words end in a light, short syllable with no tone mark: 朋友 péngyou, 东西 dōngxi (things), 喜欢 xǐhuan. Particles such as 的 de, 了 le and 吗 ma are always neutral. The converter follows the official HSK 3.0 word list for these, and a standard dictionary for words outside it. Some words are said both ways (学生 xuésheng or xuéshēng), and either is correct.
Writing pinyin as words
Pinyin written for reading, as on signs and in textbooks, joins the syllables of a word: Zhōngguó, not zhōng guó. Turn off Join syllables into words in the Pinyin only view if you want one syllable at a time. When the syllables are joined, the converter follows the official spelling rules:
- An apostrophe separates a syllable that starts with a, o or e: Xī’ān, Tiān’ānmén.
- Each sentence starts with a capital letter, and so do the names of places, countries and well-known people (Běijīng, Lǐ Bái). Names the converter does not know stay lowercase; capitalize them yourself.
- Four-character idioms are split in the middle with a hyphen: yìmú-yíyàng.
- Numbers and measure words are written apart: yí ge rén.
- Chinese punctuation becomes English punctuation.
Typing pinyin with tone marks
Paste pinyin written with numbers, such as ni3 hao3, and the converter turns it into nǐ hǎo. The number goes after the syllable; 5 or no number means the neutral tone, and v stands for ü (lv4 is lǜ). To get numbers from Chinese instead, turn on Tone numbers.
To type tone marks yourself on a Mac, add the ABC – Extended input source, then press Option-a for ā, Option-e for á, Option-v for ǎ and Option-` for à, each followed by the vowel. On Windows and phones it is easier to type tone numbers here and copy the result. For typing Chinese characters, see how to type in Chinese.
About this converter
- Readings
- From the official HSK 3.0 vocabulary list (11,000 words), the CC-CEDICT dictionary (about 120,000 entries) and Unicode's Unihan database, with corrections made by our team. Words are found with a frequency-weighted word list, so each character takes the reading of the word it is in.
- Accuracy
- Every word on the official HSK 3.0 list (11,000 words) is in the converter's dictionary with its official pinyin, and it gives that pinyin for 10,928 of them. Most of the rest are single characters the list gives with a second reading, such as 还 huán. In a test on 848 sentences written separately from the converter's rules, 99.17% of syllables came out right, and 93.2% of sentences had no mistake at all (the old version of this tool: 96.0%).
- Not covered
- Third-tone changes are not written, as in standard pinyin. Surnames and some place names can have a rare reading the converter does not know. Zhuyin (bopomofo) is not available.
- Stroke order
- Animated with Hanzi Writer, using stroke data from Make Me a Hanzi. The data is based on fonts by Arphic Technology (© 1999 Arphic Technology Co., Ltd.) and is shared under the Arphic Public License.
- Updated
- October 30, 2026
Found a wrong reading? Tell us the sentence and we’ll check it and fix it.
Questions
Is the pinyin converter free?
Yes. It is free with no sign-up and no limit on use. One conversion can be up to 5,000 characters.
Does it work with traditional Chinese?
Yes. Paste traditional characters and the converter reads them in the same way. Turn on Traditional characters to show any text in traditional characters.
Why does it show bú and yí instead of bù and yī?
Because that is how they are said before certain tones, and many learner textbooks write them that way. Turn off Spoken tones to get the dictionary tones.
Can I get tone numbers instead of tone marks?
Yes. Turn on Tone numbers above the result (on a phone, under Options): 你好 becomes ni3 hao3. Neutral tones get a 5.
A reading looks wrong. What can I do?
Click or tap the character and choose another reading; the result updates right away. Then please tell us the sentence so we can fix it in the converter.
How accurate is it?
Very, but not perfect. The numbers are under About this converter. Most mistakes are characters whose reading depends on meaning that only the wider context shows; you can fix those with a click or tap.
How do I add pinyin above Chinese characters for a worksheet or slides?
Choose Pinyin above characters, then press Print for a reading sheet, or Copy with characters to paste each line with its pinyin under it.
Can it turn pinyin into Chinese characters?
No. It goes from characters to pinyin, and from tone numbers to tone marks. To get characters from pinyin, use a Chinese keyboard on your computer or phone.
Can I print the text with pinyin above the characters?
Yes. Choose Pinyin above characters and press Print. Only the text and its pinyin are printed, in large type.
Is my text saved?
No. The conversion happens in your browser. Copy link puts the text into the link itself, so only people you send the link to can see it.
