Chinese to pinyin converter
Paste simplified Chinese below to get its pinyin with tone marks. The converter reads whole words first, so multi-character words get their correct readings, and links each known word to its breakdown page. It is free and runs in your browser.
How it works
Chinese has no spaces between words, and many characters change their reading inside a word: 行 is xíng in 不行 but háng in 银行. The converter first looks for the longest known word at each position (up to four characters) and uses that word's reading, then falls back to the single character. Words it knows are linked, so you can open any word and see how its characters are built.
To learn the readings themselves, start with the pinyin guide and the tones guide, or study the HSK 1 words.
Questions
How do I convert Chinese characters to pinyin?
Paste or type simplified Chinese into the box. The converter matches whole words first (so 银行 becomes yínháng, not yínxíng) and then single characters, and writes the pinyin with tone marks.
Can I get pinyin without tone marks?
Yes. Choose "No tone marks" to get plain letters, for example nihao instead of nǐhǎo.
Which characters does it know?
It covers the characters and words of HSK 1–6 (old and new lists), about 2,600 characters and 5,300 words. Characters outside that set are left as they are.
Is the pinyin always right?
Some characters have more than one reading, and the right one depends on the sentence. The converter picks the word-level reading when it finds a known word and the most common reading otherwise, so check names and rare words.