Chinese to Pinyin
3,755 common characters, with tone marks, plain pinyin or initials — polyphonic characters show every candidate reading.
How to Use
- Paste Chinese text
Drop the text in and the pinyin refreshes as you type. English words and digits pass through whole, never split apart.
- Pick a form
Tone marks for study and pronunciation, plain letters for identifiers, initials for abbreviation codes; switch the separator as needed.
- Check polyphonic characters
Turn on Mark polyphonic characters to list alternatives in brackets — useful for 重, 行 and 发.
FAQ
Why does one character have different readings?
Some characters simply have several readings — they are called polyphonic. 重 is zhòng in 重要 and chóng in 重复; 行 is háng in 银行 and xíng in 行走. The tool gives the most common reading, so pick by meaning in special contexts.
Is the plain form safe to use in code?
Yes. The plain form of nǐ is ni, which is fine for variable names, search keywords and input methods. Note that tone marks use combining characters (ǎ is a + U+030C), so the same syllable can have two byte sequences; convert to the plain form before comparing strings.
What are initials good for?
They are where initialisms come from: 北京大学 is BJ, 长江流域 is CJ. Chinese pinyin initials were widely used as quick index codes in early search engines and many internal systems. In mixed text, English words stay whole and only Chinese characters contribute an initial.
What about rare characters?
The dictionary holds the 3,755 level-one characters, which cover more than 99.7% of character frequency in everyday text. Anything outside that range passes through unchanged — nothing is dropped and nothing is wrong.