Initials: the consonants at the start

Pinyin has 21 initial consonants, and what separates b from p is a puff of air, not the voice.

Every Mandarin syllable can be split into three parts: an initial consonant, a final, and a tone. In 妈 mā the initial is m, the final is a and the tone is the first. Chinese grammar books call the initial 声母 shēngmǔ, the sound mother, and the final 韵母 yùnmǔ, the rhyme mother. The 1958 pinyin scheme lists 21 initials in six groups of three or four, printed two groups to a line, and the groups are worth learning together, because each group is made in one part of the mouth. Some syllables have no initial at all, such as 爱 ài (love) or 饿 è (hungry); they start straight on the vowel.

A puff of air, not a voice

Pinyin b, d and g look like English voiced sounds, but in Mandarin the real difference is aspiration. b, d, g, j, zh and z are said without a puff of air, like the p in spin or the t in stop. p, t, k, q, ch and c come with a strong burst of breath. Hold a strip of paper in front of your lips and say pà (to fear): the paper should jump. Say bà (dad) and it should hardly move. That gives six pairs: b and p, d and t, g and k, j and q, zh and ch, z and c. Speakers of Korean, Hindi or Thai already make this distinction in their own languages and usually find it easy.

Three groups that need care

j, q and x are made with the flat blade of the tongue pressed close to the hard palate, the tip resting behind the lower front teeth. j is close to the j in jeep with less lip rounding, q is the same with a strong puff, and x is a soft sh with a smile. They only ever appear before i or ü, so they never clash with other groups. zh, ch, sh and r are the curled-tongue sounds. Lift the tip of the tongue toward the roof of the mouth, a little behind the ridge, and say sh: that is pinyin sh. r is made in the same place with the voice on, a sound between the s of pleasure and the English r.

z, c and s are made with the tongue tip just behind the upper teeth. s is like English s. z is the ds at the end of kids, and c is the ts at the end of cats with a strong puff, so 菜 cài (dish) sounds nothing like the English k. The hardest pair for most learners is s and sh, as in 四 sì (four) and 是 shì (to be). Say them one after the other and feel the tongue tip move back. Finally, pinyin h is rougher than English h. It is made at the back of the mouth, a gentle scrape like a softer version of the ch in Scottish loch.