Relearning Zhuyin After Weekend Chinese School

If you went to weekend Chinese school, you may still manage to chant ㄅ ㄆ ㄇ ㄈ and then trail off somewhere around ㄉ. That is a normal result of learning something at eight and not using it for twenty years. The good news is that Zhuyin (注音符號, also called Bopomofo) is a small system, and if you grew up hearing Mandarin you already know every sound it writes down.

This guide is about getting it back. If you are weighing Zhuyin against Pinyin in general, Bopomofo vs Pinyin compares the two. This page assumes you want Zhuyin, or want to see whether it comes back before you decide.

What you probably still remember

More than it feels like. Many returning learners find that:

• The opening symbols return at a glance, especially the ones taught first.
• Your ear for tones remains intact. You can hear that 買 and 賣 differ, even if nobody ever made you say which tone is which.
• A Zhuyin page still looks familiar. In Taiwan, Zhuyin is taught in schools and is often printed beside characters in books for young readers, so you may remember reading in that form.

What tends to slip is the middle of the chart, the less common symbols, and the habit of writing a sound down rather than just saying it.

The whole system at a glance

Zhuyin has 37 symbols. Each stands for a sound rather than a letter, and a syllable is written with one to three symbols plus a tone mark.

Tone	Mark	Example	Zhuyin	Pinyin
First	none	書 (book)	ㄕㄨ	shū
Second	ˊ	魚 (fish)	ㄩˊ	yú
Third	ˇ	女 (woman)	ㄋㄩˇ	nǚ
Fourth	ˋ	是 (to be)	ㄕˋ	shì
Neutral	˙	謝謝 (thank you)	ㄒㄧㄝˋ ˙ㄒㄧㄝ	xièxie

Two details deserve relearning on purpose. The first tone carries no mark at all. And Taiwan’s Ministry of Education dictionary writes the neutral-tone dot in front of the syllable (˙ㄒㄧㄝ), while the other marks come after it. Some charts and apps, including the example words in this site’s Zhuyin chart and flashcards, put the dot after the syllable instead (ㄒㄧㄝ˙); both mean the same thing, but the dictionary puts it first.

The Zhuyin chart lists all 37 symbols with audio. Work through it once before anything else; you will probably recognise more than you expect.

Five spellings that catch out people who learned by ear

These are the spots where knowing the spoken language does not automatically tell you how to write it.

1. Syllables with no vowel symbol

A few syllables are written with a single consonant symbol and nothing else:

Character	Zhuyin	Pinyin
知 (know)	ㄓ	zhī
吃 (eat)	ㄔ	chī
十 (ten)	ㄕˊ	shí
日 (sun, day)	ㄖˋ	rì
字 (character)	ㄗˋ	zì
四 (four)	ㄙˋ	sì

Pinyin adds an i to these; Zhuyin does not. If Pinyin is the system you remember better, this is the first habit to drop.

2. ㄕ or ㄙ? ㄓ or ㄗ? ㄔ or ㄘ?

In everyday Mandarin in Taiwan, the retroflex sounds ㄓ ㄔ ㄕ often merge with ㄗ ㄘ ㄙ. This is very common, even among highly educated speakers. If that is the Mandarin you grew up with, you may say 山 (mountain) and 三 (three) almost the same way. The spelling still separates them:

Word	Zhuyin	Pinyin	Word	Zhuyin	Pinyin
山 mountain	ㄕㄢ	shān	三 three	ㄙㄢ	sān
是 to be	ㄕˋ	shì	四 four	ㄙˋ	sì

Nothing about your pronunciation needs fixing in order to read well. You simply cannot rely on your ear to choose the symbol. Look these words up until the spellings feel familiar. Mandarin at Home vs in Taiwan explains where these sound patterns come from.

3. ㄣ or ㄥ?

The same happens at the end of a syllable. The endings ㄣ (-n) and ㄥ (-ng) often sound alike in everyday Taiwan Mandarin, yet they are spelled differently:

Word	Zhuyin	Pinyin	Word	Zhuyin	Pinyin
心 heart	ㄒㄧㄣ	xīn	星 star	ㄒㄧㄥ	xīng
真 real	ㄓㄣ	zhēn	爭 to compete	ㄓㄥ	zhēng

4. ㄩ, which Pinyin often conceals

Zhuyin writes the ㄩ sound as ㄩ every time. Pinyin writes it as ü in some places and as a plain u in others: 女 is nǚ (ㄋㄩˇ), but 學 is xué (ㄒㄩㄝˊ) with no dots. If you half-remember both systems, trust the Zhuyin here; it is the more consistent of the two.

5. Symbols you seldom needed as a child

ㄦ (as in 兒, ㄦˊ, ér) and several of the finals that combine with ㄧ, ㄨ or ㄩ slip easily if you have not read Zhuyin for years. Drill whichever ones you miss on the flashcards.

A short way back

This does not need a course. Short, regular sessions work well.

1. Work through the chart once. Mark the symbols you do not recognise. That list becomes your study plan.
2. Drill only the gaps. Use the Zhuyin flashcards for the symbols you marked, and the tone drill to give names to the tones you already hear.
3. Spell words you already say. Write your family’s words for food, places and people in Zhuyin, then check them. This is where the ㄕ/ㄙ and ㄣ/ㄥ choices show up.
4. Read text with Zhuyin alongside. Books printed with Zhuyin beside the characters let you check a reading without leaving the page. When you want longer texts, Graded readers in Traditional Chinese lists options by level.
5. Type with it. Zhuyin is the dominant input method on phones and computers in Taiwan. Add a Zhuyin keyboard to your phone and use it for a few messages a day: that practises the symbols without feeling like study.

To check a spelling, Taiwan’s Ministry of Education publishes its Mandarin dictionary, the 重編國語辭典修訂本, giving every reading in Zhuyin first with Pinyin alongside.

Zhuyin supports reading; it is not the goal

Once the symbols are back, the point is reading characters. Use Zhuyin to check a word, then hide it once the word feels familiar. If you already understand a lot of Mandarin by ear, How to Learn to Read Chinese When You Already Speak It sets out what to do next.

Where Zhong comes in

Zhong lets you study with Pinyin or Zhuyin, so you can keep using the symbols you have just relearned. It is built around Traditional characters, with native Taipei-accented audio and a placement test, so you do not have to begin with lessons you already know. The heritage learner route sets out a full route, and the heritage placement check suggests where to begin.

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Related Reading

• You Speak It. Now Read It: Heritage Learner Route — A reading route for heritage learners, from placement through reading.
• Zhuyin hub — Chart, flashcards and tone drill for the 37 symbols.
• Bopomofo vs Pinyin: Which Should You Learn? — How the two systems compare.
• Mandarin at Home vs in Taiwan: Accents and Hokkien Words — 臺灣國語, the s/sh merger and Hokkien words, put plainly.