How to Pronounce Chinese Names

People who don’t speak Chinese find it very difficult to pronounce Chinese names correctly. Chinese names are written using the pinyin transliteration system, in which some letters of the alphabet have very different sounds to English.

Here’s a handy table of the 25 most common Chinese surnames and how to pronounce them in English.

Click to download PDF version.

Guo should pronounced “Gore”, for example, and Sun should be pronounced “Soon”. Zhou should be pronounced similar to “Joe” and Xie should be pronounced similar to the English word “Shear”.

Australia is the third most popular, and fastest-growing emigration destination for international students from China. There are around 20,000 Chinese students currently studying high-school examinations in Australia, and another 50,000 studying at universities and TAFEs.