Chinese to Pinyin Converter
Free hanzi to pinyin converter — paste any Chinese text and instantly get pinyin with tone marks, numbered tones, and English meaning. Also converts pinyin to Chinese characters. No account needed.
How to Convert Chinese Characters to Pinyin
Convert Pinyin to Chinese Characters
Need the reverse direction? This tool also supports pinyin to Chinese characters lookup — type a pinyin syllable (e.g. hǎo or hao3) to see the corresponding hanzi with meanings. For full bidirectional chinese hanzi to pinyin and back, see the dedicated Pinyin ↔ Characters tool.
What Is Hanyu Pinyin? The Chinese Phonetic System
Pinyin (拼音, pīnyīn — literally "spell sound") is the official romanisation system for Mandarin Chinese. Developed in China in the 1950s and adopted internationally, Hànyǔ pīnyīn (汉语拼音) lets learners read and pronounce Chinese words using familiar Latin letters plus tone marks.
Mandarin has four tones plus a neutral tone, and every syllable must be spoken with the correct tone to convey the right meaning. The word mā / má / mǎ / mà can mean mother, hemp, horse, or scold — same sounds, entirely different meanings.
Character to Pinyin Examples
This Chinese pinyin converter handles individual characters, full sentences, and paragraphs. It is a complete hanzi to pinyin converter and mandarin pinyin converter— each character is looked up in the standard Hànyǔ Pīnyīn dictionary and returned with the correct tone.
Paste any Chinese text above to convert characters to pinyin instantly. The tool supports simplified characters (简体字) used in mainland China. For a reverse lookup — finding Chinese characters from pinyin — use our Pinyin to Characters tool.
Pinyin Tone Marks Chart
Every Mandarin syllable has a tone. The yin pinyin system marks each tone with a diacritic above the main vowel. Our Chinese to pinyin converter displays all four tones colour-coded so you can identify them at a glance. Use numbered pinyin (tone numbers 1–4) if you need plain ASCII output.
| Tone | Number | Mark | Shape | Example | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | 1 | ā | Flat ‾ | māo 猫 | cat |
| 2nd | 2 | á | Rising / | máo 毛 | hair/fur |
| 3rd | 3 | ǎ | Dipping ∨ | mǎo 卯 | Mao (zodiac) |
| 4th | 4 | à | Falling \ | mào 帽 | hat |
| Neutral | 5 | a | Light | ma 吗 | question particle |
Frequently Asked Questions
What is a pinyin converter?+
A pinyin converter (also called a Chinese to pinyin converter or hanzi to pinyin converter) takes Chinese characters (汉字) and outputs their romanised pronunciation using the Hànyǔ Pīnyīn system, with tone marks or numbers.
Can I convert Chinese text to pinyin with tone marks?+
Yes. Our tool outputs pinyin with full Unicode tone marks (nǐ hǎo) by default. You can also switch to numbered pinyin (ni3 hao3) or plain pinyin without tones.
What is the difference between hanzi and pinyin?+
Hanzi (汉字) are Chinese characters — the written script. Pinyin is the phonetic romanisation that tells you how to pronounce those characters. "汉字" in pinyin is "hànzì".
Can I use this as a pinyin translator from Chinese to English?+
This tool converts Chinese characters to pinyin (romanisation). For full Chinese-to-English translation, try an AI tutor like ours that provides meaning alongside pronunciation.
What is yin pinyin?+
"Yin" (阴) in Chinese refers to the "dark/soft" side in Taoist philosophy. In tonal linguistics, the "yin" tones (阴调) are the 1st and 3rd tones historically derived from the even tone class. In everyday use, "yin pinyin" simply means Chinese phonetics relating to the yin concept.
Does this work for Mandarin and Cantonese?+
This converter uses Hànyǔ Pīnyīn, which is the standard for Mandarin Chinese (Pǔtōnghuà). Cantonese uses a different romanisation system (Jyutping). For most characters, the conversion assumes Mandarin pronunciation.
Is this Chinese pinyin converter free?+
Yes, completely free with no account required. You can convert unlimited Chinese text to pinyin directly in your browser.
Learn Chinese with AI — Beyond Pinyin
Master HSK vocabulary, tones, grammar and reading comprehension with a personalised AI tutor that adapts to your level.