# Chinese to Pinyin Converter - Tone Marks, Tone Numbers & Initials

> Free online Chinese to pinyin converter: tone marks, numbers or none, initials only, context-aware polyphones, surname readings and ruby annotation.

- URL: https://qilingtools.com/en/pinyin
- Category: Productivity (https://qilingtools.com/en/office)
- Tags: [Education](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/education), [Kids](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/kids), [Text](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/text), [Chinese](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/chinese), [Productivity](https://qilingtools.com/en/tags/office)
- Last updated: 2026-10-26
- Price: Free, no sign-up
- Privacy: Runs locally in the browser; files are never uploaded

Paste any Chinese text and get Hanyu Pinyin instantly. Choose tone marks (pīn yīn), tone numbers (pin1 yin1) or plain letters, or extract just the initial letter of each syllable (银行行长 → yhhz) for file names, usernames and abbreviations. Polyphonic characters are resolved from the surrounding words, so 银行 (yínháng, bank) and 行走 (xíngzǒu, walk) or 长大 (zhǎngdà) and 长度 (chángdù) come out right, and surname mode reads 单, 曾 and 解 the way they are pronounced as family names. The ruby view places pinyin directly above each character, highlights polyphones in orange for proofreading, and copies as <ruby> HTML for slides, worksheets and web pages. Capitalization, ü as v, Traditional Chinese input and custom separators are supported too.

## How to use

1. Type or paste Chinese text on the left
2. Pick the tone style, full pinyin or initials, letter case and separator
3. Copy the pinyin, or check polyphones in the ruby view and copy the ruby HTML

## Features

- Tone marks, tone numbers or no tones
- Pinyin initials, joined or with any separator
- Context-aware polyphone detection
- Surname mode for family-name readings
- Ruby annotation above characters with polyphone highlighting
- Keep or drop Latin letters, digits and punctuation; line breaks preserved
- Runs entirely in your browser — text is never uploaded

## FAQ

### How accurate is it with polyphonic characters?

A large built-in dictionary matches whole words before choosing a reading, so pairs like 银行 (háng) vs 行走 (xíng) and 长大 (zhǎng) vs 长度 (cháng) are handled correctly and everyday text is converted very accurately. Rare or ambiguous contexts can still slip — the ruby view highlights every polyphone in orange, and hovering shows all of its readings.

### How do I get only the first letters?

Switch Output to Initials only; the separator switches to joined automatically, so 祈灵工具箱 becomes qlgjx. Choose UPPERCASE for QLGJX, or pick a space or hyphen as the separator.

### What are tone numbers and when should I use them?

Tone numbers write the tone as a digit after each syllable (ni3 hao3), which is easy to type on any keyboard and is common in dictionaries, flashcard apps and data files. The neutral tone is written without a number. Use tone marks for reading material and no tones for URLs or file names.

### Is my text uploaded? Is it free?

No upload: the pinyin dictionary loads into your browser and every conversion happens locally. The tool is free, needs no account and has no length limit.

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