How to Pronounce J, Q, X, Ü and -n vs -ng

Pinyin letters look like English, and that is the problem. J, q and x do not sound like English j, q or x, and ü has no English equivalent at all. This page gives each sound a mouth position, the Zhuyin symbol that stands for it, and a few word pairs to drill. If you want every syllable with Taiwan audio, keep the pinyin chart open while you read.

The quick answer

Pinyin	Zhuyin	Closest English idea	Key point
j	ㄐ	”j” in jeep, but with a flat tongue and no lip rounding	unaspirated
q	ㄑ	”ch” in cheese, but with a flat tongue	aspirated: a puff of air
x	ㄒ	a soft “sh”, but with a flat tongue	no puff, a thin hiss
ü	ㄩ	say “ee” and round your lips	lips round, tongue stays high and front
-n	ㄣ	”n” at the end of “ten”	tongue tip touches the ridge behind the upper teeth
-ng	ㄥ	”ng” in “sing”	back of the tongue rises, tongue tip stays down

J, Q and X: one tongue position, three sounds

These three share a mouth shape, and that is the easiest way to learn them. Rest the tip of your tongue behind your lower front teeth. Raise the flat front of the tongue toward the hard palate, the roof of your mouth just behind the teeth ridge. Spread your lips a little, as if smiling. Now only the airflow changes.

• j (ㄐ): the tongue front touches the palate, then releases with no breath. Think of a quick, light “dj” without a puff.
• q (ㄑ): the same, but release with a clear puff of air. Hold a hand or a sheet of paper in front of your mouth: it should move for q and stay still for j.
• x (ㄒ): the tongue does not touch the palate. Air hisses through a narrow gap.

Examples to say aloud, each with a Taiwan MOE reading from moedict.tw:

• 九 jiǔ (ㄐㄧㄡˇ) nine, 酒 jiǔ (ㄐㄧㄡˇ) alcohol
• 七 qī (ㄑㄧ) seven, 欺 qī (ㄑㄧ) to deceive, 前 qián (ㄑㄧㄢˊ) front
• 西 xī (ㄒㄧ) west, 想 xiǎng (ㄒㄧㄤˇ) to think, 小 xiǎo (ㄒㄧㄠˇ) small

The common error is to say x like English “sh” with the tongue pulled back. That is a different Mandarin sound, the retroflex sh (ㄕ), as in 山 shān (ㄕㄢ). If your 西 (xī) sounds like 詩 (shī), your tongue is too far back. Pull it forward and flatten it. The retroflex consonants guide covers the contrast between j/q/x, zh/ch/sh and z/c/s in detail.

Why the pinyin spelling hides ü

J, q and x are only ever followed by the vowels i or ü, never by the back vowel u. Pinyin uses that to save keystrokes: it writes ü as u after these letters and after y.

Written	Pronounced	Zhuyin	Example
ju	jü	ㄐㄩ	軍 jūn (ㄐㄩㄣ)
qu	qü	ㄑㄩ	去 qù (ㄑㄩˋ)
xu	xü	ㄒㄩ	學 xué (ㄒㄩㄝˊ)
yu	yü	ㄩ	魚 yú (ㄩˊ)

Zhuyin does not need the rule. It writes ㄩ in every case, so 去 is always ㄑㄩˋ. Learners who also read Zhuyin often find ü easier to remember because the symbol is spelled out. See Bopomofo vs pinyin for the wider comparison.

Ü: lips round, tongue stays front

Say “ee” and hold it. Without moving your tongue, round your lips as if you were about to say “oo”. That is ü. The tongue stays high and forward, and only the lips change. If you let the tongue slide back, you will produce a plain u.

After n and l, both u and ü occur and mean different words, so pinyin keeps the dots:

ü	u
女 nǚ (ㄋㄩˇ) woman	努 nǔ (ㄋㄨˇ) to strive
綠 lǜ (ㄌㄩˋ) green	路 lù (ㄌㄨˋ) road

Other ü finals worth saying slowly: 略 lüè (ㄌㄩㄝˋ), 月 yuè (ㄩㄝˋ), 雲 yún (ㄩㄣˊ), 圓 yuán (ㄩㄢˊ), 選 xuǎn (ㄒㄩㄢˇ). Note that in yuè, yún and yuán the ü sound is there even though the spelling shows a u. The vowel in 月 is not the “oo” in “moon”.

-n versus -ng

Both are nasal endings. The difference is where the tongue is when the sound stops.

• -n (ㄣ): the tongue tip goes up and touches the ridge behind your upper teeth. The mouth closes at the front.
• -ng (ㄥ): the tongue tip stays down and the back of the tongue lifts toward the soft palate, as in English “sing”. The sound stops at the back.

A useful test: say the ending and hold it. With -n, you can feel the tongue tip pressed up. With -ng, the tip is relaxed and the back of the tongue is doing the work.

The pairs to drill are -in/-ing, -en/-eng and -an/-ang. Each pair below differs only in the ending, and each is a real contrast in the MOE dictionary.

-n	-ng
新 xīn (ㄒㄧㄣ) new	星 xīng (ㄒㄧㄥ) star
因 yīn (ㄧㄣ) cause	英 yīng (ㄧㄥ) English, hero
金 jīn (ㄐㄧㄣ) gold	經 jīng (ㄐㄧㄥ) to pass through
民 mín (ㄇㄧㄣˊ) people	明 míng (ㄇㄧㄥˊ) bright
林 lín (ㄌㄧㄣˊ) forest	零 líng (ㄌㄧㄥˊ) zero
真 zhēn (ㄓㄣ) real	蒸 zhēng (ㄓㄥ) to steam
身 shēn (ㄕㄣ) body	生 shēng (ㄕㄥ) to be born
門 mén (ㄇㄣˊ) door	萌 méng (ㄇㄥˊ) to sprout
盆 pén (ㄆㄣˊ) basin	朋 péng (ㄆㄥˊ) friend
分 fēn (ㄈㄣ) minute	風 fēng (ㄈㄥ) wind
山 shān (ㄕㄢ) mountain	商 shāng (ㄕㄤ) trade
反 fǎn (ㄈㄢˇ) opposite	訪 fǎng (ㄈㄤˇ) to visit

Ask a friend or a tutor to say one word from each row at random while you write down which you heard. If you can hear the difference, you are ready to produce it. If you cannot yet, spend time on listening first. The pinyin chart lets you play native audio for xīn and xīng one after the other.

What you will hear in Taiwan

The standard readings above are what the MOE dictionary and your textbook teach, and you should aim for them. Taiwanese casual speech does not always follow them. The best-known features are that -eng often sounds like -en and -ing like -in, so 風 fēng and 分 fēn, or 星 xīng and 新 xīn, can sound alike, and that the retroflex zh, ch, sh are often softened toward z, c, s. These are accent features that are widespread in Taiwan Mandarin, including among well-educated speakers, but they are not the standard and the dictionary does not record them.

For learners this has two consequences. When you listen, do not assume that you misheard a speaker who says xīn for 星. Context will usually tell you which word was meant. When you speak, keep the contrast. Taiwanese listeners will understand you either way, and keeping the contrast also makes you easy to understand for speakers from other regions, since the textbook standard is what they were taught.

A five-minute daily drill

1. Say the three-way line ji, qi, xi, then ju, qu, xu, five times each, checking the tongue tip stays behind the lower teeth.
2. Say yu, nü, lü, then nu, lu. Watch your lips in a mirror: round for ü, and still round but with the tongue pulled back for u.
3. Pick two pairs from the -n/-ng table and read each aloud, holding the ending for a full second.
4. Record yourself and compare it with native audio.

Zhong lets you choose Pinyin or Zhuyin per course, and its audio is recorded by native Taiwanese speakers, so you can use whichever notation suits you with the same recordings.

Related reading

• Pinyin chart with Taiwan audio
• Zhuyin chart
• Zh, Ch, Sh, R: Mandarin’s retroflex consonants
• Chinese tongue twisters for pronunciation