How to Learn Zhuyin Fast: A Day-by-Day Plan
How to learn Zhuyin fast: a seven-day plan for all 37 symbols, grouped by sound, with the usual confusions (ㄓ/ㄗ, ㄣ/ㄥ) and a realistic time estimate.
You can learn to recognise all 37 Zhuyin symbols in about a week if you study 20 to 30 minutes a day and learn them in sound groups instead of in one long list. Recognising the symbols is not the same as reading Zhuyin fluently. Fluency comes from reading real words for a few more weeks.
Below is a seven-day plan. It uses the Zhuyin chart to hear each symbol and the Zhuyin flashcards to review.
What you are learning
Zhuyin (注音符號, zhùyīn fúhào), also called Bopomofo, has 37 symbols: 21 initials (聲母), 16 finals (韻母), plus four tone marks that sit beside the syllable. Every syllable is built from a few of these pieces.
The sounds are the ones pinyin already represents. If you know pinyin, you are not learning new sounds. You are attaching new shapes to sounds you have. For the full background, see Zhuyin (Bopomofo) explained.
If you do not know pinyin, the plan still works, but each symbol needs a little more listening on the chart.
The seven-day plan
Each day has the same shape: listen, write, review. Say each symbol aloud while writing it by hand a few times. Then do the flashcards for today’s symbols and yesterday’s.
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Day 1: ㄅ ㄆ ㄇ ㄈ and ㄉ ㄊ ㄋ ㄌ
Eight initials. The first four give Bopomofo its name. They map to b, p, m, f and then d, t, n, l. Pay attention to the pairs ㄅ/ㄆ and ㄉ/ㄊ, which differ by aspiration (a puff of air), as b/p and d/t do in pinyin.
Day 2: ㄍ ㄎ ㄏ and ㄐ ㄑ ㄒ
Six initials: g, k, h and then j, q, x. The second group is only ever followed by ㄧ or ㄩ (or a final that starts with one), so once you know the finals they are easy to place.
Day 3: ㄓ ㄔ ㄕ ㄖ and ㄗ ㄘ ㄙ
Seven initials. This is the hardest day for most learners, and it is the same difficulty as zh, ch, sh, r against z, c, s in pinyin. The first four are the retroflex group (tongue curled back), the other three are not. See the section on confusions below.
Day 4: ㄧ ㄨ ㄩ and ㄚ ㄛ ㄜ ㄝ
Seven finals. ㄧ is i/yi, ㄨ is u/wu, and ㄩ is ü/yu. ㄚ is a, ㄛ is o, ㄜ is e, and ㄝ is the e of pinyin ie and üe, as in 謝 (ㄒㄧㄝˋ, xiè). They also combine: ㄇㄧㄥˊ (míng) is the initial ㄇ plus ㄧ plus ㄥ, with a second-tone mark.
Day 5: ㄞ ㄟ ㄠ ㄡ, ㄢ ㄣ ㄤ ㄥ, and ㄦ
Nine finals. ㄞ ㄟ ㄠ ㄡ are ai, ei, ao, ou. ㄢ ㄣ ㄤ ㄥ are an, en, ang, eng. ㄦ is the r-sound as in 兒 (ㄦˊ). That completes 37: 21 initials and 16 finals.
Day 6: tone marks and syllable building
Learn ˊ (second tone), ˇ (third tone), ˋ (fourth tone) and ˙ (neutral tone), and the fact that first tone has no mark. The full rules are in Zhuyin tone marks. Then build syllables out of the pieces you know.
Read these aloud, with the meaning:
- ㄋㄧˇ ㄏㄠˇ, 你好 (nǐ hǎo)
- ㄆㄥˊ ㄧㄡˇ, 朋友 (péngyǒu)
- ㄉㄧㄢˋ ㄋㄠˇ, 電腦 (diànnǎo)
- ㄊㄞˊ ㄨㄢ, 臺灣 (táiwān)
- ㄒㄧㄝˋ ˙ㄒㄧㄝ, 謝謝 (xièxie)
The readings above match the Taiwan Ministry of Education dictionary.
Day 7: read with the training wheels still on
Go through a page of material you already know with Zhuyin shown. A short Dangdai lesson works well, because Dangdai gives both pinyin and Zhuyin for its vocabulary. Try to read the Zhuyin first, then check the pinyin. You will be slow. That is fine.
After the first week
Recognition becomes automatic through reading, not through further flashcards. For the next few weeks, spend a few minutes a day reading Zhuyin on words you already know, and drill tones with the tone practice tool (set to Zhuyin).
If you get a Zhuyin keyboard, typing locks the symbols in quickly, because you have to produce them. See typing Chinese on iPhone and Android.
Common confusions
ㄓ and ㄗ
ㄓ is zh, ㄗ is z. In pinyin the pair is zh and z. Learners tend to swap both the sounds and the shapes. Say the sound first and write the symbol second, using a word: 中 (zhōng, ㄓㄨㄥ) and 在 (zài, ㄗㄞˋ). The same pairing exists for ㄔ/ㄘ and ㄕ/ㄙ.
ㄣ and ㄥ
ㄣ is -n (en) and ㄥ is -ng (eng). The distinction is in how the syllable ends: for ㄣ the tongue tip touches the ridge behind the teeth, and for ㄥ the back of the tongue rises toward the soft palate. The same pairing exists for ㄢ and ㄤ. Practice with minimal pairs such as 真 (ㄓㄣ, zhēn) and 爭 (ㄓㄥ, zhēng), or 陳 (ㄔㄣˊ, chén) and 成 (ㄔㄥˊ, chéng) on the chart audio.
ㄧ, ㄨ and ㄩ
These three can look alike in a rush. Remember them as the sounds i, u and ü, and practise a word for each: 一 (yī, ㄧ), 五 (wǔ, ㄨˇ), 魚 (yú, ㄩˊ).
ㄛ and ㄜ
They are different sounds, o and e, and they are easy to mix up on sight. Listen to both on the chart, then match each to a word, such as 我 (wǒ, ㄨㄛˇ) for ㄛ and 的 (de, ˙ㄉㄜ) for ㄜ.
Syllables with no vowel symbol
Some syllables have an initial but no final written. 是 (shì) is ㄕˋ, 吃 (chī) is ㄔ, and 四 (sì) is ㄙˋ. In pinyin the vowel letter i appears, but in Zhuyin it does not. This surprises everyone once.
What else to know
- Zhuyin spelling does not always match pinyin one for one. 有 is yǒu in pinyin but ㄧㄡˇ in Zhuyin, with no separate y sound written.
- Tone marks go after the syllable (the neutral dot goes before it), and first tone is unmarked.
- You do not need to write Zhuyin from memory to read it. Reading comes first.
For why you might want Zhuyin at all, see Bopomofo vs pinyin.
Related reading
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