How to Learn Bopomofo

PDF download Download Article
PDF download Download Article

Bopomofo or Zhuyin is a way of writing Chinese. The Bopomofo alphabet contains many symbols and marks that tell you how to pronounce a Chinese word. People who use traditional Chinese use Bopomofo to write words. [1]

Part 1
Part 1 of 3:

Learning the Bopomofo Alphabet

PDF download Download Article
  1. The first letter is ㄅ. It is pronounced "buh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the "b" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "b". [2]
  2. The second letter is ㄆ. It is pronounced "puh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the "p" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "p".
    Advertisement
  3. The third letter is ㄇ. It is pronounced "muh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the "m" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "m".
  4. The third letter is ㄈ. It is pronounced "fuh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the "f" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "f".
  5. The first four letters are added together to make the word "Bopomofo", hence the name.
    • The fifth letter is ㄉ. It is pronounced "duh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the "d" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "d".
    • The sixth letter is ㄊ. It is pronounced "tuh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the "t" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "t".
    • The seventh letter is ㄋ. It is pronounced "nuh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the "n" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "n".
    • The eighth letter is ㄌ. It is pronounced "luh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the letter "l" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "l".
    • The ninth letter is ㄍ. It is pronounced "guh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the letter "g" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "g".
    • The tenth letter is ㄎ. It is pronounced "kuh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the letter "k" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "k".
    • The 11th letter is ㄏ. It is pronounced "huh" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the letter "h" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "h".
    • The 12th letter is ㄐ. It is pronounced "ji" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced like the letter "j"' in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "j".
    • The 13th letter is ㄑ. It is pronounced "qi" or a lighter "chi" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced the same way. It looks similar to the Japanese hiragana letter "く". They are pronounced differently, as the Japanese "く" is pronounced "ku" and the Chinese "ㄑ" is pronounced "qi or chi". Its Pinyin equivalent is "qi".
    • The 14th letter is ㄒ. It is pronounced "see" when by itself. When added to a word, the letter is pronounced the same way. Its Pinyin equivalent is "xi".
    • The 15th letter is ㄓ. It is pronounced "zhi" or "dr" when added to a word and by itself. Its Pinyin equivalent is "zhi".
    • The 16th letter is ㄔ. It is pronounced "ch" when by itself and when added to a word. Its Pinyin equivalent is "chi".
    • The 17th letter is ㄕ. It is pronounced "sh" when by itself and when added to a word. Its Pinyin equivalent is "shi".
    • The 18th letter is ㄖ. It looks like the Chinese word 日 (day). It is pronounced the same way as the word 日 - "r" as in "rose" or "ribbon". Its Pinyin equivalent is "ri".
    • The 19th letter is ㄗ. It is pronounced "zi" by itself and like the letter "z" in English when added to a word. Its Pinyin equivalent is "zi".
    • The 20th letter is ㄘ. It is pronounced "ts" by itself and when added to a word. There is not an exact letter for this sound in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "c".
    • The 21st letter is ㄙ. It is pronounced "si" by itself and when added to a word. This is similar to the "s" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "si".
  7. These letters are pronounced similarly to English vowels.
    • ㄧis pronounced like the long letter "e" when added to a word and by itself. "E" as in "easy". It looks like the Chinese word 一 (one). Its Pinyin equivalent is "yi".
    • ㄨ is pronounced "wu" or "ooh" when by itself. It is pronounced like the letter "w" in English when added to a word. Its Pinyin equivalent is "u".
    • ㄩ is pronounced "yu". There is no exact letter for this sound in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "ϋ" or "v" if you are unable to type "ϋ".
    • ㄚ is pronounced "a" even though it looks like an English "y" or "Y". It is pronounced the same when by itself and added to a word. Its Pinyin equivalent is "a".
    • ㄛ is pronounced "o". Not like "Oh", but just "o" as in the first syllable in "door" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "o".
    • ㄜ is pronounced like the short "e" in English. "E" as in "egg" or "excellent". Its Pinyin equivalent is "e".
    • ㄝ is pronounced "ye". There is no exact letter for this sound in English. It looks similar to the Japanese hiragana letter せ and is pronounced similarly. "せ" (Japanese) is pronounced "se", and the Chinese letter "ㄝ" is pronounced "ye". Its Pinyin equivalent is "ye".
    • ㄞ is pronounced "ai" by itself and when added to a word. There is no English letter equivalent for this sound. It sounds similar to the words "aye" or "eye" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "i".
    • ㄟ is pronounced "ei" by itself and when added to a word. There is no English letter equivalent for this sound. It sounds like a combination of the letters "a" and "e". Its Pinyin equivalent is "i".
    • ㄠ is pronounced "ao" by itself and when added to a word. There is no English letter equivalent for this sound. It sounds like the word "ow" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "ao".
    • ㄡ is pronounced "o" in English. It sounds similar to ㄛ, but ㄡ has a longer sound than ㄛ. ㄡis pronounced more like "ohh" than "o". Its Pinyin equivalent is "ou".
    • ㄢ is pronounced "an". There is no English letter equivalent for this sound. Its Pinyin equivalent is "an".
    • ㄣ is pronounced "en". There is no English letter equivalent for this sound. Its Pinyin equivalent is "en".
    • ㄤ is pronounced "ang". It sounds similar to ㄢ, but ㄤ has a "ng" sound at the end. It sounds like the "ong" in the word "strong" in English. Its Pinyin equivalent is "ang".
    • ㄥ is pronounced "eng". It sounds similar to ㄣ, but ㄥ has an "ng" sound at the end like ㄤ. Its Pinyin equivalent is "eng".
    • The last letter is ㄦ. It looks like the bottom part of the word 兒 (child) in Chinese. It is pronounced the same way as the word 兒 - "er". Its Pinyin equivalent is "er".
    9. Advertisement
Part 2
Part 2 of 3:

Learning the Tone Marks

PDF download Download Article
  1. ˉ is a tone mark for words that have a slightly higher tone. When you go to the dentist's office, they might tell you to open your mouth and say, "Ahhh...". "Ahh" has the same tone as words like 拉 (pull) and 他 (he).
  2. ˊ is a tone mark for words that start medium in tone, and go higher up. "What?" has the same tone as words like 然 and 頭 (head).
  3. ˇ is a tone mark for words that start with a lower tone, rise up in tone, and lower down again. 傻 (stupid) and 古 (old) have the third tone mark.
  4. ˋ is a tone mark for words that go from a high pitch to a low pitch. This tone sounds like you are shouting. "Stop!" has the same tone mark as words like 罵 (to scold) and 讓 (to allow).
  5. ˙ is a tone mark for neutral words. They don't have a high pitch or low pitch. 嗎 (equivalent of the "?" in English) and the second 媽 in 媽媽 (mother) have neutral tones.
    6. Advertisement
Part 3
Part 3 of 3:

Using Bopomofo

PDF download Download Article
  1. Using a combination of Bopomofo and tone marks can allow you to make thousands of different words. Tone marks help you differentiate between words.
    • For example, the letters ㄓㄨㄥ can make the word 中 (middle) in Chinese.
    • ㄓㄨㄥ and ㄓㄨㄥˋ mean different things. Make sure to put tone marks for the right words, as 中 (middle) and 重 (heavy or serious) mean very different things!
  2. Depending on the type of device you are using, there are different keyboard pack installation instructions.
    • On all devices, go to your language settings on your device, select the language pack you want to install, and configure the settings.
    • You can choose whether or not the words you type will be Traditional or Simplified Chinese.
    • The Bopomofo/Zhuyin layout may seem unfamiliar to you, but you can easily memorize the positions on the keyboard by practice. If you haven't memorized them yet, you can use the on-screen keyboard and not your physical keyboard for Zhuyin.
  3. [3]
    • The most obvious difference is in the words. In Simplified Chinese, words look "simplified" and easier to write. In Traditional Chinese, words can look more complicated.
      • For example, 媽 and 妈 both mean "mom" or "mother". "媽" is Traditional Chinese, whereas "妈" is Simplified Chinese.
      • Other words that are written differently are 語 and 语 (language), 個 and 个 (one of something), and 綿 and 绵 (soft).
    • The second difference is where they're used. Simplified Chinese is mostly used in mainland China, Singapore, and Chinese-speaking Malaysians. Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau.
    • The third difference is how long each type of writing existed. Simplified Chinese was invented recently, around the 1960s when China wanted its Chinese literacy rates to go up. They made many words simplified, hoping people would understand the words faster. Traditional Chinese likely existed since the early Chinese dynasties. [4]
    • Another difference is how the Chinese words are written. Simplified Chinese uses Hanyu Pinyin, or Pinyin for short. Traditional Chinese uses Bopomofo, or Zhuyin.
      • Simplified Chinese uses Pinyin, which are English letters used to write Chinese.
      • Traditional Chinese uses Zhuyin, which are symbols used to write Chinese.
    • A last difference is how Pinyin and Zhuyin are written.
      • Zhuyin works when you are writing words by hand. Traditionally, Zhuyin is written vertically on paper. Chinese words are traditionally written from up to down. You can type Zhuyin on the computer, although it may be hard to read.
      • Pinyin can work easily on computers, as it uses the English alphabet. It can be written horizontally from left to right like English.
  4. The Bopomofo system is based on sounds, but it can still help you with many other languages.
    • For example, many sounds in English correspond to Bopomofo sounds. ㄅ and b, ㄆ and p, and many more letters correspond to the English alphabet. If you know one of the languages, it will be easy for you to learn the other.
    • Putting Bopomofo/Zhuyin letters together allows you to make many Traditional Chinese characters. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Japanese kanji. Kanji Chinese words sounds similar to original Chinese words, so it won't be too difficult to learn Japanese if you already know Traditional Chinese.
      • The words also have the same meaning in both Japanese Kanji and Traditional Chinese, so you will already know the meanings of many words in kanji.
    • You will also be able to understand Simplified Chinese characters. Simplified Chinese characters look similar to Traditional Chinese characters, except that many parts of the word are cancelled out or written in less strokes.
      • If you know the complicated version (Traditional Chinese) of the word, you will understand Simplified Chinese easier. For example, 見 and 见 look very similar, except that there are a few lines missing.
  5. 5
    If you have a background from Taiwan, Macau, or Hong Kong, you can study traditional characters because you have family ties to the language.
    • A second language learner starting to learn Chinese may learn the traditional characters slowly and get frustrated.
    • Start with simplified unless you have a strong family tie or a strong interest in learning. For example, if you major in Chinese history or East Asian Studies.
    6. Advertisement

Expert Q&A

Ask a Question
200 characters left
Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered.
Submit
      Advertisement

      Tips

      Submit a Tip
      All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published
      Name
      Please provide your name and last initial
      Submit
      Thanks for submitting a tip for review!

      You Might Also Like

      The Best Way to Learn Mandarin
      How to
      Say I Love You in Chinese
      How to
      Say Hello in Chinese
      How to
      Say Thank You in Chinese
      How to
      Learn Cantonese
      How to
      Study Chinese Quickly and Easily
      How to
      Say "Hello" in Cantonese
      How to
      Count in Chinese
      Advertisement

      References

      1. ↑ https://ltl-taiwan.com/bopomofo/
      2. ↑ https://www.thoughtco.com/bopomofo-zhuyin-fuhao-2279518
      3. ↑ https://ai.glossika.com/blog/differences-between-traditional-chinese-and-simplified-chinese
      4. ↑ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traditional_Chinese_characters

      About This Article

      Thanks to all authors for creating a page that has been read 48,313 times.

      Did this article help you?

      Advertisement