Rules for spellings and tones

From Brighten Up

[edit] Rules for spellings and tones

Note 1: In writing, w is used for a word whose sound begins with the vowel u

Original symbol	Changed into	Example Words>
u	wu	屋 wu1 ( house)
ua	wa	蛙wa1 (frog)
uan	wan	灣wan1 (bay)

Note 2: In writing, "y"is used for " i " or " ü "

Original symbol	Changed into	Example Words>
i	yi	一 yi1 ( one)
ü	yu	魚 yu2(fish)

The dots above ü are dropped when it is preceded by j , q, x, or y

Original symbol	dots are dropped as	Example Words>
jü	ju	居 ju1 ( live)
qü	qu	去 qu4 ( go )
xü	xu	需 xu1 ( need )
yüan	yuan	願yuan4 (willing)

Note 3: ê does not exist alone in a word, it is always shown

as ie or yue, so in this situation the ^ marking is not shown.

Note 4 : In writing, iu is a short form for iou and ui for uei

Ex,

write liuˋinstead of liouˋ(six)

write shuiˋinstead of shueiˋ( sleep)

Note 5: If two syllables in sucession use the third tone, then the first syllable

changes to the second tone and the second syllable the third tone

Original tones	tones are changed as	Words meaning >
niˇ haoˇ	ni ˊ haoˇ	你好 ( You good/hello)
xiaoˇ jieˇ	xiaoˊ jieˇ	小姐 ( Miss )
shuiˇ guoˇ	shuiˊ guoˇ	需 xu1 ( need )