noun
- a system for writing Mandarin Chinese using the Roman alphabet, in which each sound is represented by a letter or combination of letters.
Usage: often capitalized when referring to the official system; widely used in education and technology for learning and inputting Chinese characters
Examples
- Students learning Mandarin often start by studying pinyin to understand pronunciation.
- The word 'hello' in Mandarin is written as 你好 and pronounced nǐ hǎo in pinyin.
- Most Chinese smartphones use pinyin input methods to type characters.
- Pinyin uses tone marks above vowels to indicate the four tones of Mandarin.
- The pinyin system was officially adopted in China in 1958.
- Children in Chinese schools learn to read pinyin before mastering traditional characters.