Tell me more ×
Chinese Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for students, teachers, and linguists wanting to discuss the finer points of the Chinese language. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 0 down vote favorite

For example, 'shuo' is sometimes mistakenly pronounced 'shou'. 'Juan' is often pronounced 'zhuan'. 

Can anyone think of any others? I want to highlight some common mistakes to teach pinyin pronunciation.

share|improve this question
Are you asking for a list of "common" mistakes? Apart from the fact that list questions are not the kind of questions we actually want (especially open-ended lists), how do we know which mistakes are the most common? We'd need to agree on some standard resource, or some method to choose them. – Alenanno♦ Mar 22 '12 at 0:30
This question is too subjective unless a proper source is provided. Personally I don't mistakenly pronounce "shuo" but often confuse "cu" and "shu", but that's just me, and it's irrelevant to a Q&A website. – Laurent Mar 22 '12 at 4:47
1  
This question has been closed as too subjective. This is more based on personal experiences. – xiaohouzi79♦ Mar 22 '12 at 9:40
Juan is often confused with zhuan. Pinyin words which begin with j, x, q follow different rules that most other words. Just wondered if there were any others which were common. – jaffa Mar 23 '12 at 20:11

closed as not constructive by Jon, Laurent, trideceth12, xiaohouzi79♦ Mar 22 '12 at 9:39

As it currently stands, this question is not a good fit for our Q&A format. We expect answers to be supported by facts, references, or specific expertise, but this question will likely solicit debate, arguments, polling, or extended discussion. If you feel that this question can be improved and possibly reopened, see the FAQ for guidance.

2 Answers

up vote 0 down vote accepted

For people from south China, the following may be confused:

z / zh
c / ch
s / sh
n / l
l / r

Many Pinyin input methods include "fuzzy pronounciations", a feature that automatically matches these confusable pronounciations. For example, if you input zui, the results will also include all characters of zhui.

The Google Pinyin input method uses this list:

z / zh
c / ch
s / sh
an / ang
en / eng
in / ing
l / n
f / h
r / l
k / g
ian / iang
uan / uang
share|improve this answer
Well google obviously knows some of the mistakes. Useful, thanks. – jaffa Mar 23 '12 at 20:08
up vote 0 down vote

ng=> mg

zh=> ch

ch=> zh

?n=> ?ng

zhu??=>qu??

share|improve this answer

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.