Pinyin: the "j" "q" and "x" sounds

You've reached the end of the road! We've saved something special for you, though. The Chinese sounds represented by "x", "q", and "j" in pinyin do not exist in English, and require you to train your mouth to make totally new sounds. Hopefully that sounds like fun! It's not as hard as you might imagine.

To learn to make these new sounds, start with the pinyin "x" sound. You may have heard that it's pronounced like English "sh" or seen it written as the somewhat confusing "hs." Neither of these is particularly helpful; you just have to learn to make a new sound.

In the chart below, you'll notice that a bunch of the vowels are missing. There is no a vowel, no o vowel, and no u vowel. Those is because pinyin j, q, and x simply do not combine with those vowels at all. Every time you see a "u" vowel in the chart below, it's actually a "ü" vowel written as "u" for convenience.

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	-i-	-i	-i*	-ia	-iao	-ie	-iou	-ian	-iang	-in	-ing	-iong	-ü-	-ü	-üe	-üan	-ün
j-		ji ji [tɕi] ㄐㄧ chi		jia jia [tɕi̯ɑ] ㄐㄧㄚ chia	jiao jiao [tɕi̯ɑʊ̯] ㄐㄧㄠ chiao	jie jie [tɕiɛ] ㄐㄧㄝ chieh	jiu jiu [tɕi̯ɤʊ̯] ㄐㄧㄡ chiu	jian jian [tɕiɛn] ㄐㄧㄢ chien	jiang jiang [tɕi̯ɑŋ] ㄐㄧㄤ chiang	jin jin [tɕin] ㄐㄧㄣ chin	jing jing [tɕiŋ] ㄐㄧㄥ ching	jiong jiong [tɕi̯ʊŋ] ㄐㄩㄥ chiung		ju ju [tɕy] ㄐㄩ chü	jue jue [tɕy̯œ] ㄐㄩㄝ chüeh	juan juan [tɕy̯ɛn] ㄐㄩㄢ chüan	jun jun [tɕyn] ㄐㄩㄣ chün	j-
q-		qi qi [tɕʰi] ㄑㄧ ch'i		qia qia [tɕʰi̯ɑ] ㄑㄧㄚ ch'ia	qiao qiao [tɕʰi̯ɑʊ̯] ㄑㄧㄠ ch'iao	qie qie [tɕʰiɛ] ㄑㄧㄝ ch'ieh	qiu qiu [tɕʰi̯ɤʊ̯] ㄑㄧㄡ ch'iu	qian qian [tɕʰiɛn] ㄑㄧㄢ ch'ien	qiang qiang [tɕʰi̯ɑŋ] ㄑㄧㄤ ch'iang	qin qin [tɕʰin] ㄑㄧㄣ ch'in	qing qing [tɕʰiŋ] ㄑㄧㄥ ch'ing	qiong qiong [tɕʰi̯ʊŋ] ㄑㄩㄥ ch'iung		qu qu [tɕʰy] ㄑㄩ ch'ü	que que [tɕʰy̯œ] ㄑㄩㄝ ch'üeh	quan quan [tɕʰy̯ɛn] ㄑㄩㄢ ch'üan	qun qun [tɕʰyn] ㄑㄩㄣ ch'ün	q-
x-		xi xi [ɕi] ㄒㄧ his		xia xia [ɕi̯ɑ] ㄒㄧㄚ hsia	xiao xiao [ɕi̯ɑʊ̯] ㄒㄧㄠ hsiao	xie xie [ɕiɛ] ㄒㄧㄝ hsieh	xiu xiu [ɕi̯ɤʊ̯] ㄒㄧㄡ hsiu	xian xian [ɕiɛn] ㄒㄧㄢ hsien	xiang xiang [ɕi̯ɑŋ] ㄒㄧㄤ hsiang	xin xin [ɕin] ㄒㄧㄣ hsin	xing xing [ɕiŋ] ㄒㄧㄥ hsing	xiong xiong [ɕi̯ʊŋ] ㄒㄩㄥ hsiung		xu xu [ɕy] ㄒㄩ hsü	xue xue [ɕy̯œ] ㄒㄩㄝ hsüeh	xuan xuan [ɕy̯ɛn] ㄒㄩㄢ hsüan	xun xun [ɕyn] ㄒㄩㄣ hsün	x-

After studying these sounds, be sure to take a look at how they fit in with the larger context of the pinyin chart.