Only vowels carry tone marks in pinyin. Consonants never have tone marks because tones are musical pitches that occur on vowel sounds. All Pinyin Vowels: - a, e, i, o, u, ü

I’ve just shared a quick 3-minute video about learning Mandarin without feeling overwhelmed. It’s for anyone who’s ever thought: - “I don’t know what I should be focusing on” - “I’m doing a bit here and there but not making progress” - “I don’t have loads of time to study” In the video, I explain: - why Mandarin often feels confusing at the start - what actually helps you make progress - why a weekly focus works better than trying to do everything every day If you’re unsure what to work on next, this should help. No pressure, just something I think will make things feel clearer 😊 What do you struggle with most right now?

You’ve probably seen / heard me talk about the 7 Power Verbs by now. It might even be the reason you joined the community. I just released a new YouTube video, showing off how you can use these 7 verbs to build sentences, with 25 useful examples. Here’s the link if you want to check it out!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4bDZzqrHfw

This browser extension helps me a lot. Maybe it will help you too. After the extension is enabled, all you need to do is to hover over the Chinese word and you will get a popup with the dictionary.

If I had to start learning Mandarin again from zero, and I only had 6 months, this is exactly how I’d do it. In this video, I break down the approach I would use now — after more than 10 years of learning and teaching Mandarin — to start speaking confidently, without overwhelm. This video is for you if: -You want to hold real conversations in Mandarin -You feel stuck memorising words but can’t build sentences -You want a clear, simple structure for learning -Your main goal is speaking, not writing characters What you’ll learn in this video: -Why sentence building matters more than random vocabulary -The 7 Power Verbs that unlock thousands of conversations -How to use shadowing (listen + repeat) to improve pronunciation -Why feedback and speaking with others is essential How to make progress with little daily practice, even if you’re busy. This video focuses on spoken Mandarin and communication, not reading or writing characters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XWc3lOrDDo