Chinese to Pinyin Converter
Paste Chinese text and get its pinyin romanization instantly — with tone marks, tone numbers, or no tones.
How to use this converter
- Paste or type Chinese text (simplified or traditional) into the box above.
- Choose a tone style — diacritic marks, numbers, or none.
- The pinyin appears instantly. Click Copy pinyin to use it anywhere.
Why pinyin matters
Pinyin is how Mandarin pronunciation is written down: it's used in dictionaries, textbooks, subtitles, and every phone keyboard in China. Converting characters to pinyin helps you read unfamiliar text aloud, create flashcards, add ruby annotations to teaching materials, or romanize names and addresses.
Frequently asked questions
What is pinyin?
Pinyin (拼音) is the official romanization system for Standard Mandarin Chinese. It spells out the pronunciation of Chinese characters using the Latin alphabet, with marks or numbers indicating the four tones.
What is the difference between tone marks and tone numbers?
Tone marks place a diacritic over the vowel (nǐ hǎo), which is the standard written form. Tone numbers append a digit 1–4 after each syllable (ni3 hao3), which is easier to type and is common in older textbooks and input systems.
Does this tool handle polyphonic characters (多音字)?
Yes. The converter uses dictionary- and context-based rules to pick the correct reading for characters with multiple pronunciations, such as 行 (xíng/háng) or 了 (le/liǎo). Rare literary readings may occasionally need manual correction.
Is my text uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion runs entirely in your browser using the open-source pinyin-pro library. Your text never leaves your device.