Compound finals glide from one vowel target to another. The key is to hit both shapes while keeping the airflow steady so the tone rides across the entire motion.

Think of ai/ei/ao/ou as two-beat melodies and ia/ian/iang/iong as three-beat riffs with ‘i' leading the way.

Tip: Break each compound into slow motion-hold the first vowel for half a beat, slide to the second without resetting your jaw, then add tone once it feels fluid.

Practice: Reinforce the glide timing with characters that cover every combination.

IAO glides from a quick i into the ao vowel. Keep the i short and land clearly on the a/o shape.

Common in j/q/x and y syllables (jiao, xiao, yao).

When iou and uei appear inside a syllable, they contract to iu and ui.

The sound stays the same, but the spelling drops the middle vowel. Keep the tone on the main vowel (liu, shui).

uen contracts to un after most initials (lun, kun). The sound stays the same; only the spelling changes.

After j/q/x/y, the same sound is written as ün (jun, qun, xun, yun).

Nasal finals end with airflow through the nose. an/en are shorter and more front; ang/eng/ong are longer and deeper.

Keep the vowel open, then close into the nasal ending without cutting the sound.

ian is a wide, open front nasal; in is shorter and tighter; ing is back and longer.

Listen for the length: ian feels two-part (i + an), while in is a single tight unit.

These finals start with a rounded u glide and move into the main vowel. Keep the lips rounded at the start.

Treat the u like a quick lead-in rather than a full syllable.

These ü-based compound finals are written without dots after j/q/x/y (yue, yuan, yun).

Keep the front-rounded ü shape while moving into e/an/n.

Erhua adds an -r suffix to a word and changes the vowel quality. It is common in northern speech.

This is different from the er final: you are adding -r to an existing syllable.