The Final Sounds

 Finals connect with the Intitial sounds to create the one syllable words that are the basis of the Chinese language.

To find a given final:

Remove the initial consonant. For zh-, ch-, sh-, both letters should be removed, they are single consonants spelt with two letters.
However, y- or w- are part of the final; do not remove those.
Syllables beginning with y- and w- are simply standalone forms of finals beginning with i-, u-. and ü-.
If the initial is j-, q-, and x-, and the final starts with -u-, then change the -u- to -ü-.

Although all Chinese words are one syllable, they are often combined to create terms made from several words.The most common finals are:

-a (as in father)
-an (like the sounds of "John" or "ahn")
-ang (like the sound of "an" above (ahng) with the addition of "g")
-ai (as in "high")
-ao (as in "how")
-ar (as in "bar")
-o (like "aw")
-ou (like the "ow" in "low") ?
-ong (like the "ung" in "jungle" with a slight "oo" sound)
-e (sounds like "uh")
-en (like "un" in "under")
-eng (like the "ung" in "lung")
-ei (like a long "a" or the "ei" in "eight")
-er (like the "er" in "herd")
-i (like a long "e" or the "i" in "machine")
-in (as in "bin")
-ing (like "sing")
-u (like the "oo" in "loop")
-un (as in "fun")

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin for a standalone (no-initial) form, and the third indicates pinyin for a combination with an initial. Other than finals modified by an -r, which are omitted, the following is an exhaustive table of all possible finals. 1

It is of interest to point out that the only syllable-final consonants in standard Mandarin are -n and -ng, and -r which is attached as a grammatical suffix. If you see a Chinese syllable ending with any other consonant, it is either from a non-Mandarin Chinese language (usually southern Chinese languages such as Cantonese), or more rarely, a non-Pinyin Romanization system (where final consonants are used to indicate tones) is being used.

1 /ər/(而, 二, etc.) is written as er. For other finals formed by the suffix -r, pinyin does not use special orthography; one simply appends -r to the final that it is added to, without regard for any sound changes that may take place along the way. For information on sound changes related to final -r, please see Standard Mandarin.
2 "ü" is written as "u" after j, q, or x.
3 "uo" is written as "o" after b, p, m, or f.
4 It is pronounced [??] when it follows an initial, and pinyin reflects this difference.

In addition, ê [ɛ]  is used to represent certain interjections.

The following is an exhaustive list of all finals in Standard Mandarin. Those ending with a final -r are listed at the end.

Putting It All Together (Initial and Final Sounds):

Try some of these words. You can refer to the individual "Intitial" and "Final" descriptions above if you need. Also, these words are used as examples in our phrases popup page (see link below)

Ni (sounds like "knee")
Hao (sounds like "how" with a little more aspiration)
Dong (sounds like "doong")
Qi (sounds like "chee")
Gong (sounds like "gung")
Tai (sounds like "tie")
Ji (sounds like "gee")
Quan (sounds like "chwan")