A personified yak Chinese teacher that explains pinyin initials and finals with tricky sounds j q x zh ch sh r.

Pinyin Made Simple: Initials, Finals, and Tricky Sounds — Free PDF and Flashcards

Pinyin Made Simple: Initials, Finals, and Tricky Sounds is built for learners who want useful Traditional Chinese vocabulary in a clean reference format instead of a long, fluffy article.

Grab your tea, take a deep breath, and let’s make pinyin feel a lot less mysterious. Scroll to the bottom for the free printable traditional chinese vocabulary list list PDF and the free downloadable printable traditional chinese list flashcards.

Use this list as a starting point, then keep going in the Yak Yacker Traditional Chinese section for more words, phrases, and study-friendly reference pages.

Quick Quiz

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Browse the Full List

WordPinyinTypeMeaningExample
xxinitialconsonant
zzinitialconsonant
zhzhinitialconsonant
numberone一個
adverbnot不要
zhōngcharactermiddle; China (abbreviation)中文
leparticlecompleted action marker好了
rénnounperson, people人口
pronounhe, him他們
pronounyou (singular)你們
láiverbcome過來
mensuffixplural marker for people他們
再見zàijiànexpressiongoodbye; see you again再見
verbgo回去
yǒucharacterfriend朋友
chīverbto eat吃飯
verbto drink喝水
maparticlequestion particle for yes/no questions是嗎?
guócharactercountry; nation國家
zàipreposition/verbat, in, on; to be located現在
adjectivebig, large大人
pronounshe, her她們
hǎoadjectivegood好吃
xuécharacterto learn; to study學生
jiācharacterhome; family家人

Free Traditional Chinese Vocabulary List and Flashcard PDFs to Download

You’ll find the purple vocab-list button for the traditional chinese vocabulary list list and the teal flashcards button for the traditional chinese list flashcards. Both downloads are 100% free with no signup required.