Pinyin Lesson 5

Compound Finals uɑ、 uo、 uɑi、 uei、 üe

• Like i, when the initial vowel u is followed by the main vowel, u is a transitional sound.

uā uá uǎ uà

• If there are vowels or nasal consonants after the main vowels, they should be unstressed as well.

uāi uái uǎi uài

huā花

（ flower）

shuō说

（ say, spaek）

kuài快

（ fast）

• In pinyin orthography some vowels are omitted for the sake of brevity, thus uei become ui.

duì (=duèi)对

（ correct）

• If there is no initial consonant before u, u is written as a semi-vowel w. thus uɑ, uo, uɑi, become wɑ, wo, wɑi, wei

wà 袜

（ sock）

wǒ我

（ I/me）

wài外

（ outside）

wèi胃

（ stomach）

• In üe, e is main vowel, ü is a transitional sound which is not stressed.

• If there is no initial consonant before üe, add a y and drop the umlaut. thus üe becomes yue.

yuè月

（ moon）

• When j, q, and x are combined with ü, the umlaut is omitted and the ü appears as u.

xué (=xüé)学

（ study, learn）