The use of the letter “i” in pinyin can be confusing. Pinyin is the use of the ABC’s, such as is used in English, to symbolize sounds in the Chinese language. Sometimes the pinyin sounds are fairly similar to the English sounds, and sometimes they are quite different.

When saying some words, the single pinyin “i” has a sound more like the traditional English long “e” pronunciation. For example,

雞 ㄐㄧ (jī)❶

七 ㄑㄧ (qī)❷

In other uses, the single pinyin “i” sounds more like an English short “i”. This is the case in words like

是 ㄕˋ (shì)❸

日 ㄖˋ (rì)❹

Fortunately, there is a pattern to this ... to read more, including Chinese characters and diagrammed translations, go to:

Understanding the i’s in Pinyin