How to add a tone on a vowel (in pinyin writing)

[Improving]

Hi everyone!

I totally forgot the rule by which we add a tone on a vowel.

For exampe: with the syllable "qu" I add the tone on "u", but with the syllable "mian" I add the tone on "a", not on "i".

I know how to add a tone simply because I'm studying Chinese since many years. But I forgot the specific rule!

How can I explain to someone that the tone must be added (using the example of "mian") on "a" and not on "i" ?

Thank you!

(and sorry for my English )

[roddy]

Information on pinyin? You'd be wanting Pinyin.info.

[Lu]

1) On the first vowel

2) Unless there are more than one vowel and the first one is an i or a u, in that case it goes on the second vowel.

[li3wei1]

I've never understood why this matters. Is someone going to mispronounce a word because the tone mark is over the wrong vowel?

[roddy]

I can see consistency being important in certain fields - database search, dictionary editing, maybe sorting. And I do think you'd notice if the tone marks suddenly started jumping about the place. Nobody's going to mispronounce telefone either, but it'd irritate people if I started typing like that.

[Improving]

Thank you both! And that link is great!

@li3wei1: I found that it matters! When someone has just started studying Chinese, it's important to know how to write Pinyin correctly (and tones, too). I've been asked: "How do you know that tone goes on that vowel?" and sometimes some of my students put a tone on the wrong vowel and pronounce the syllable in a wrong way

[imron]

*shameless plug*, or just use something like Pinyinput, which will automatically put the tone on the correct vowel

[yonglin]

I use this rule, as there is only a single exception:

In syllables with more than one vowel, the mark goes on the vowel that comes first in the alphabet.

The only exception is -iu, where the mark goes on the u.

[Rai]

Google Translate (谷歌翻译) is your best friend. If you don't remember the rules you can simple write the character into 谷歌翻译 and copy and paste the pinyin

[imron]

Unless say you're in the middle of an exam and aren't allowed to go online, then it does help to know the rules :mgreen:

[Hofmann]

This is...another way of figuring it out, which may work better or worse for you. I just happen to like it best.

The tone mark goes on the letter that represents the nucleus.

It's pretty straightforward until you get to ui and iu, where the nucleus is represented by i an u respectively.

[Lu]

Of course you can use pinyinput or google translate or baidu, but given how simple the rule is, you might as well learn it for when you're using a pen. Especially pinyin is often used to write the pronunciation above characters in something on paper. And of course it's not a big deal if someone gets it wrong, just like spelling mistakes are not a big deal, it just grates on the eyes of people who do know the rule and again, it's really very simple. Not like English spelling :-p