Skip to content
Skip to main content

About this free course

Become an OU student

Download this course

Share this free course

Getting started with Chinese 3
Getting started with Chinese 3

Start this free course now. Just create an account and sign in. Enrol and complete the course for a free statement of participation or digital badge if available.

Pronunciation guide

1 Speech sounds

Chinese is a vowel-dominated language. A syllable may consist of a single vowel, a compound vowel or a vowel preceded by a consonant. Vowels are known as ‘finals’ because they occur in final position and consonants are known as ‘initials’ in Chinese.