We have learned how to type Chinese characters using a pinyin input system…but how do we actually type pinyin with actual tone marks?????? It can be a useful skill to learn as a Chinese learner…especially if we want to use more Chinese in our blog. We can then type the words that we know the pinyin for, but we havn’t learned the Chinese character yet.
If you search ‘typing pinyin with tone marks’ in Google, you will find lots of tools that will help you do this. I have used the pinyin typing tool on the MDBG online dictionary for many years now. Use this one, or you may find an easier way, if you do please share on your blog with me and the other students!!
When you go into the MDBG dictionary, you will need to click on the 3 white lines in the top left hand corner to open up the menu. There is an option called ‘type pinyin’. Click on this, and a window will open. Start to type your pinyin word, and then type the number of the tone (1 for first tone, 2 for second tone, 3 for third tone, 4 for fourth tone, and leave blank if it is neutral tone). For example to type 你好 in pinyin, type ni3hao3. Your numbers won’t actually type in, but it will automatically change your word with the corresponding tone mark and come out like ‘nǐhǎo’. You can copy and paste to your blog, or whatever document you are working on. You can type in sentences, or a list, and then copy and paste the whole list at once, so that you don’t have to copy and paste each word 🙂
Remember when you type sentences in pinyin, single syllable words are separated with a space, compound words are kept together, eg Nǐ jiào shénme míngzi? But if you want a comprehensive list of pinyin rules just click on the words!
There are also apps to help you write in pinyin on your handheld devices, just search ‘typing pinyin’ in whatever app store your device uses!