3 Initials (m, n, f, l) and Finals (a, ai, ao, an, ang)

In Lesson 1 we examined the use of Romanization to represent Standard Chinese. We also discussed the traditional view that a syllable in Chinese includes three parts: an initial, a final, and a tone.  In the last lesson we looked at tones in some detail.  In this lesson we are going to learn the initials m, n, f, and l, and the finals a, ai, ao, an, ang. All of these sounds, or virtually identical sounds, are found in American English, so they should not be too difficult to learn. This first lesson will introduce you to the structure of future lessons and help you to build confidence to tackle the more challenging elements to come.

Look carefully at the following table, which shows the syllables that can be created by combining initials (running down the left column) with finals (running along the top row). While this process of creating syllables is fairly straightforward, you will note that some cells in the table have dashes in them.  While speakers of Chinese would certainly be able to pronounce these combinations of initials and finals, they are simply not used.  As we learn more initials and finals, we will discover that a large number of the possible combinations do not actually occur in the language.