Chinese to Pinyin

The Chinese to Pinyin tool converts Chinese characters to pinyin as you type, in one of three tone styles: tone marks (mā), tone numbers (ma1) or no tones. The result updates live and can be copied with one click. It is useful for annotating the pronunciation of new characters, names, place names or lyrics, for preparing material for people learning Chinese, and for generating toneless pinyin for file names or search keywords. The conversion is done by the open-source pinyin-pro library, which uses context to choose readings of polyphonic characters. No automatic converter is perfectly accurate, though, and the details and limits are described below.

How to use it

1. Type or paste Chinese into 'Input Chinese text'. The page starts with 汉字转拼音工具.
2. Choose a 'Tone style': 'Tone marks (mā)', 'Tone numbers (ma1)' or 'No tones'. The active button has a dark background.
3. The 'Pinyin result' appears straight away; there is no convert button. Use the copy button to copy it.
4. With an empty input, the result area shows a dash.

A worked example (actually computed)

For 汉字转拼音工具 the three styles give: tone marks 'hàn zì zhuǎn pīn yīn gōng jù'; tone numbers 'han4 zi4 zhuan3 pin1 yin1 gong1 ju4'; no tones 'han zi zhuan pin yin gong ju'. For polyphonic characters, 银行 行走 gives 'yín háng xíng zǒu', so both 行 are read correctly. 重庆 重要 gives 'chóng qìng zhòng yào'. In 了解 了不起 the character 了 is read liǎo, and in 音乐 快乐 the character 乐 is read yuè and lè respectively. All of this output came from running the same library the tool uses.

What it supports and where it stops

• Polyphonic characters are resolved from the surrounding words. Common words usually come out right, but with rare words, names, classical text or a single character with no context, the tool can only give one default reading. For example, 重 on its own gives zhòng, which may not be the reading you want. Check important material by hand.
• The output uses the spoken, tone-changed reading: 一个 gives 'yí gè' and 不是 gives 'bú shì', not the dictionary base tones 'yī gè' and 'bù shì'. That matches speech, but if you need the dictionary tone you have to correct it yourself.
• Runs of non-Chinese characters (Latin words, digits, punctuation) are kept as a block, so '你好, World 123!' becomes 'nǐ hǎo , World 123!'. The spacing between them and the pinyin is decided by the library, so text mixing English or numbers may still need tidying by hand.
• A space in the original becomes several spaces in the output (usually two or three), and line breaks are kept. Pinyin is separated character by character with single spaces; there is no option to join the syllables of a word.
• There are no formatting options such as capitalising the first letter, removing spaces, joining with hyphens for URLs, or producing initials. Copy the result and process it yourself if you need those.
• It converts pronunciation only. It does not explain meaning and does not output Zhuyin (bopomofo), Cantonese romanisation or other systems.
• Coverage of Traditional and rare characters depends on the library's dictionary, and a few characters may come out without a reading or with the wrong one.

FAQ: What if a polyphonic character is read wrongly?

You can't set the reading of a character manually in this tool. You can convert the text in smaller pieces, or copy the wrong word out and fix its pinyin by hand with the help of a dictionary. For pinyin in children's textbooks or anything printed, always have a person proofread it.

FAQ: What is the difference between tone marks and tone numbers?

Tone marks (mǎ) are easy for people to read and are the usual choice in textbooks. Tone numbers (ma3) use only ordinary letters and digits, which makes them easier to copy, search and process where typing tone marks is awkward. 'No tones' is the simplest and suits file names or search keywords, but it loses tone information and can make different words look identical.

FAQ: Are English letters and digits split apart?

They are not any more: consecutive Latin letters and digits are kept together as one block. If the spacing in the result is not what you want, convert just the Chinese portion and leave the English where it is.

FAQ: Can I use it to learn Chinese pronunciation?

As an aid, yes, because you can see the pinyin and tone for each character. But pinyin is no substitute for listening, especially for the neutral tone, the erhua ending and tone changes in actual speech. Use recordings of a native speaker or a dictionary with audio alongside it.

Privacy and processing

Pinyin is calculated by the pinyin-pro library inside your browser. The tool makes no network requests, so your text is not sent to a server or stored, and reloading the page restores the default text.