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Please see part one of this lesson for an introduction to Mandarin phonetics.

So, without further ado, here are the 37 Mandarin phonetic symbols, my version of the ‘Pinyin’ system and an example of an existing English word using the sound.

For instance, the first Mandarin phonetic symbol is ‘ㄅ’, and is pronounced ‘buh’, which is the ‘ba’ in the word ‘BAnana’. I think you’ll get the hang of it.

1. ㄅ b - BAnana
2. ㄆ p - PUb
3. ㄇ m - MAchine
4. ㄈ f - FUnny

5. ㄉ d - DUck
6. ㄊ t - TUmble
7. ㄋ n - NUdge
8. ㄌ l - LUcky

9. ㄍ g - GUn (Be careful! ‘Gun’, when said with force, is an offensive word in Mandarin)
10. ㄎ k - CUb
11. ㄏ h - HUnter

12. ㄐ jee - JEAns
13. ㄑ chee - CHEAter
14. ㄒ shee - SHEEp

Now we come to some sounds which really don’t have an English equivalent. However, I think the English phonetic equivalent is similar-sounding enough to give you some idea of the sound.

Sounds 15-18 use a kind of ‘paralysed r’ or ‘curled toungue’. To make this sound, simply say the word ‘Red’. Now, say ‘Re’. Now just say ‘R’ and hold that shape in your mouth while making the sound in the front of the phonetic.
The last one, ‘r’ is basically just the word ‘Red’ with the ‘ed’ removed.

15. ㄓ jr
16. ㄔ chr
17. ㄕ shr
18. ㄖ r

19. ㄗ dz (The sound electric clippers make. Sort of…)
20. ㄘ ts (The sound of frying bacon!)
21. ㄙ ss (Just a long, hard ‘S’ sound.)

22. ㄧ ee - swEEt
23. ㄨ oo - mOO, said the cow (Oops, another potentially offensive word. Don’t say ‘cow’. Ever.). Think of how a British choir would sing ‘truth’. That’s the deep ‘oo’ sound we want.
24. ㄩ ui - This is probably the trickiest sound to get right. It’s halfway between an ‘oo’ and ‘ee’ sound. That’s probably the best way I can describe it without giving an audio demo. To make the sound, say ‘oo’ and slowly change to ‘ee’. When you’re halfway there, stop. That’s the sound we’re after.

25. ㄚ ah - The sound your doctor makes you say when he’s checking your throat.
26. ㄛ aw - rAW
27. ㄜ uh - pAW
28. ㄝ eh - mEnd

29. ㄞ eye - rIGHt
30. ㄟ aye - mAke
31. ㄠ ow - nOW
32. ㄡ oh - mOment

33. ㄢ un - UNder
34. ㄣ uhn - wINdow
35. ㄤ ung - hUNG
36. ㄥ uhng - The final unusual sound. This one sounds like a combination of ‘in’ from ‘wINdow’ with the ‘ng’ sound of ‘huNG’. Sorry I can’t make it simpler than that

37. ㄦ er - stIR

So what’s the point of all these symbols and phonetics? Well, if you can pronounce all of them, congratulations! You can now speak Chinese, and be understood.

By the way, I’ll be using this scheme on all Chinese tutorials from now on, so you might want to download the Printable Mandarin Phonetic ‘Cheat Sheet’ (.pdf, 44 Kb) with all the symbols and examples above.

Update!
Listen to the sounds on About.com’s The sounds of Mandarin page. Thanks for the free resource, About.com!