Pinyin literally means “combining sounds.” Every Chinese character can be spelled out using Latin alphabet letters to form Pinyin words. Each Pinyin word comprises of an initial sound, a final sound, and a tone. To read a Pinyin word, “sing” the initial and final letter-sound combinations using one of the musical Pinyin tones. There are four regular tones and one neutral tone :

*5th tone has no mark and is absent of tone. A word with a neutral tone would sound shortened or clipped as when pronouncing “meh-“ or “but-.“ To remember the order of the tones, picture Toney’s facial features below:

It is important to “sing” the tones accurately because many Chinese words are homonyms. A slight variance in tone would result in at least one different word and meaning. Telling a joke in Chinese often involves the interplay of these homonyms!