The Bopomofo alphabet, also called Zhuyin, in its own order: 21 consonants from ㄅ to ㄙ, then 16 rhymes and medials from ㄚ to ㄩ, each with its pinyin. Then come five tone marks and six letters outside the 37.
Read the full guide
Named after its first four
The alphabet is named after alpha and beta, and Bopomofo after ㄅ ㄆ ㄇ ㄈ: b, p, m, f. The consonants stand in the order the mouth makes them, from the front to the back. Most symbols were taken from old forms of Chinese characters whose reading holds the sound.
Five tone marks, one usually left out
A tone mark is written with its syllable: ㄇㄧˊ is mí, second tone. The first tone, ˉ, is usually not written, and a dot, ˙, marks the fifth, or neutral, tone. Beside a Chinese character the symbols usually run down its right side.
ㄖ, r, takes three strokes; 日, the character it comes from, takes four.
ㄧ, i, may be drawn as a level stroke or an upright one. Both are accepted, and a font may show only one.
ㄪ v, ㄫ ng and ㄬ gn come from an older standard and are no longer used for Mandarin.
Questions and answers
How many letters are in the Bopomofo alphabet?
37, with five tone marks; together they can write every sound of Mandarin. Unicode's Bopomofo block holds 43 letters: the 37, three kept from an older standard and three added later.
Is Bopomofo the same as Zhuyin?
Yes. Zhuyin fuhao, phonetic symbols, is the official name in Taiwan, and Zhuyin is short for it. Bopomofo is the name that the International Organization for Standardization and Unicode use.
What is the difference between Bopomofo and pinyin?
Both spell the sounds of Mandarin. Pinyin does it in Latin letters and Bopomofo in symbols of its own, which line up well beside characters printed in vertical lines. The second, third and fourth tone marks are the same in both.
Where is Bopomofo used?
Mostly in Taiwan. It is the main way of teaching Mandarin pronunciation there, and the most popular way to type Chinese characters on computers and phones. It was first introduced in China in the 1910s.
All 48 symbols
Consonants 21
ㄅbU+3105 Bopomofo letter b. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 1 of 37. Pinyin b; IPA p˭. 包, bāo, is written ㄅㄠ.
ㄆpU+3106 Bopomofo letter p. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 2 of 37. Pinyin p; IPA pʰ. 撲, pū, is written ㄆㄨ.
ㄇmU+3107 Bopomofo letter m. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 3 of 37. Pinyin m; IPA m. 冞, mí, is written ㄇㄧˊ.
ㄈfU+3108 Bopomofo letter f. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 4 of 37. Pinyin f; IPA f. 匪, fěi, is written ㄈㄟˇ.
ㄉdU+3109 Bopomofo letter d. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 5 of 37. Pinyin d; IPA t˭. 地, dì, is written ㄉㄧˋ.
ㄊtU+310A Bopomofo letter t. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 6 of 37. Pinyin t; IPA tʰ. 提, tí, is written ㄊㄧˊ.
ㄋnU+310B Bopomofo letter n. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 7 of 37. Pinyin n; IPA n. 你, nǐ, is written ㄋㄧˇ.
ㄌlU+310C Bopomofo letter l. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 8 of 37. Pinyin l; IPA l. 利, lì, is written ㄌㄧˋ.
ㄍgU+310D Bopomofo letter g. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 9 of 37. Pinyin g; IPA k˭. 告, gào, is written ㄍㄠˋ.
Show all 48 symbols (39 more)
Consonants, continued
ㄎkU+310E Bopomofo letter k. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 10 of 37. Pinyin k; IPA kʰ. 考, kǎo, is written ㄎㄠˇ.
ㄏhU+310F Bopomofo letter h. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 11 of 37. Pinyin h; IPA x~h. 好, hǎo, is written ㄏㄠˇ.
ㄐjU+3110 Bopomofo letter j. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 12 of 37. Pinyin j; IPA tɕ˭. 叫, jiào, is written ㄐㄧㄠˋ.
ㄑqU+3111 Bopomofo letter q. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 13 of 37. Pinyin q; IPA tɕʰ. 巧, qiǎo, is written ㄑㄧㄠˇ.
ㄒxU+3112 Bopomofo letter x. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 14 of 37. Pinyin x; IPA ɕ. 小, xiǎo, is written ㄒㄧㄠˇ.
ㄓzhU+3113 Bopomofo letter zh. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 15 of 37. Pinyin zhi, zh-; IPA ʈʂ˭. 知, zhī, is written ㄓ.
ㄔchU+3114 Bopomofo letter ch. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 16 of 37. Pinyin chi, ch-; IPA ʈʂʰ. 吃, chī, is written ㄔ.
ㄕshU+3115 Bopomofo letter sh. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 17 of 37. Pinyin shi, sh-; IPA ʂ. 是, shì, is written ㄕˋ.
ㄖrU+3116 Bopomofo letter r. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 18 of 37. Pinyin ri, r-; IPA ɻ~ʐ. 日, rì, is written ㄖˋ.
ㄗzU+3117 Bopomofo letter z. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 19 of 37. Pinyin zi, z-; IPA ts˭. 字, zì, is written ㄗˋ.
ㄘcU+3118 Bopomofo letter c. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 20 of 37. Pinyin ci, c-; IPA tsʰ. 詞, cí, is written ㄘˊ.
ㄙsU+3119 Bopomofo letter s. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 21 of 37. Pinyin si, s-; IPA s. 四, sì, is written ㄙˋ.
Rhymes and medials 16
ㄚaU+311A Bopomofo letter a. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 22 of 37. Pinyin a; IPA a. 大, dà, is written ㄉㄚˋ.
ㄛoU+311B Bopomofo letter o. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 23 of 37. Pinyin o; IPA o. 多, duō, is written ㄉㄨㄛ.
ㄜeU+311C Bopomofo letter e. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 24 of 37. Pinyin e; IPA ɤ. 得, dé, is written ㄉㄜˊ.
ㄝêU+311D Bopomofo letter eh. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 25 of 37. Pinyin -ie or ê; IPA e. 爹, diē, is written ㄉㄧㄝ.
ㄞaiU+311E Bopomofo letter ai. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 26 of 37. Pinyin ai; IPA ai. 晒, shài, is written ㄕㄞˋ.
ㄟeiU+311F Bopomofo letter ei. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 27 of 37. Pinyin ei; IPA ei. 誰, shéi, is written ㄕㄟˊ.
ㄠaoU+3120 Bopomofo letter au. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 28 of 37. Pinyin ao; IPA au. 少, shǎo, is written ㄕㄠˇ.
ㄡouU+3121 Bopomofo letter ou. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 29 of 37. Pinyin ou; IPA ou. 收, shōu, is written ㄕㄡ.
ㄢanU+3122 Bopomofo letter an. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 30 of 37. Pinyin an; IPA an. 山, shān, is written ㄕㄢ.
ㄣenU+3123 Bopomofo letter en. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 31 of 37. Pinyin en; IPA ən. 申, shēn, is written ㄕㄣ.
ㄤangU+3124 Bopomofo letter ang. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 32 of 37. Pinyin ang; IPA aŋ. 上, shàng, is written ㄕㄤˋ.
ㄥengU+3125 Bopomofo letter eng. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 33 of 37. Pinyin eng; IPA əŋ. 生, shēng, is written ㄕㄥ.
ㄦerU+3126 Bopomofo letter er. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 34 of 37. Pinyin er; IPA ɚ. 而, ér, is written ㄦˊ.
ㄧiU+3127 Bopomofo letter i. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 35 of 37. Pinyin y, yi, -i; IPA i. 以, yǐ, is written ㄧˇ. Drawn as a level stroke or an upright one.
ㄨuU+3128 Bopomofo letter u. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 36 of 37. Pinyin w, wu, -u; IPA u. 努, nǔ, is written ㄋㄨˇ.
ㄩüU+3129 Bopomofo letter iu. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. Symbol 37 of 37. Pinyin yu, -ü; IPA y. 雨, yǔ, is written ㄩˇ.
Tone marks 5
ˉFirst toneU+02C9 Modifier letter macron. Spacing Modifier Letters block, Unicode 1.1. Marks the first tone, and is usually left out.
ˊSecond toneU+02CA Modifier letter acute accent. Spacing Modifier Letters block, Unicode 1.1. Marks the second tone. Pinyin uses the same shape over a vowel.
ˇThird toneU+02C7 Caron. Spacing Modifier Letters block, Unicode 1.1. Marks the third tone. Pinyin uses the same shape over a vowel.
ˋFourth toneU+02CB Modifier letter grave accent. Spacing Modifier Letters block, Unicode 1.1. Marks the fourth tone. Pinyin uses the same shape over a vowel.
˙Fifth toneU+02D9 Dot above. Spacing Modifier Letters block, Unicode 1.1. Marks the fifth tone, also called the neutral tone.
Other letters 6
ㄪvU+312A Bopomofo letter v. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. IPA v. Kept from an older standard of pronunciation and no longer used to write Mandarin.
ㄫngU+312B Bopomofo letter ng. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. IPA ŋ. Kept from an older standard of pronunciation and no longer used to write Mandarin.
ㄬgnU+312C Bopomofo letter gn. Bopomofo block, Unicode 1.1. IPA ɲ. Kept from an older standard of pronunciation and no longer used to write Mandarin.
ㄭihU+312D Bopomofo letter ih. Bopomofo block, Unicode 5.1. Stands for the vowel heard after zh, ch, sh, r, z, c and s, which is not written after them; pinyin spells it -i.
ㄮo with dotU+312E Bopomofo letter o with dot above. Bopomofo block, Unicode 10.0. Unicode's note: early form of letter e.
ㄯnnU+312F Bopomofo letter nn. Bopomofo block, Unicode 11.0. Unicode's note: syllabic nasal.
How this list was compiled: Every character was checked against UnicodeData.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/UnicodeData.txt): the code points and the character names in the notes come from that file, names in sentence case. Block names come from Blocks.txt (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/Blocks.txt) and the Unicode version each character arrived in from DerivedAge.txt (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/DerivedAge.txt), both version 18.0.0. Other names of a character come from NamesList.txt, version 18.0.0 (https://www.unicode.org/Public/18.0.0/ucd/NamesList.txt). The 37 symbols and their order are the Bopomofo block from U+3105 to U+3129, and they are the letters of the two tables in Wikipedia's Bopomofo article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo), in the same order, once the four it marks as outside the set are taken out. The pinyin and the IPA of each symbol and its example (a character, its reading and its spelling in Bopomofo) come from those tables; where a table gives pinyin in several forms, the tile carries the bare letters and the note the whole cell. The five tone marks, which of them pinyin shares, the first tone being usually left out, the three letters kept from an older standard and the two ways of drawing ㄧ follow the same article, restated in this site's own words. Left out: the Bopomofo Extended block, whose letters write other languages than Mandarin, and its two tone marks. The tile names and the grouping are this site's own. Each tile was drawn on 2026-10-08 before it was kept, and all of them drew. All sources were read on 2026-10-08. Licence: own work