The markings above the pinyin denote the tone — and while this may be the trickiest part of learning Chinese, the best way to familiarize yourself with tone will be to listen to the pronunciation.

The mini-guides below will give you an insight into the Chinese tones and characters as well as pinyin. There's also a section on useful sites elsewhere.

And with four tones plus a neutral tone, we can create every sound in the Mandarin language. Many pinyin sounds are similar to English, but be careful because some are different. For example ...

But nearly every Chinese character can be represented in Hanyu Pinyin using a combination of initials, finals and tones. When writing the first draft of his Hanyu Pinyin proposal, Zhou remembers ...