The following table shows all the English phonemes:
In the above table we can see the detailed classification of the English consonants and the pure vowels. Besides these there is another kind of vowels: diphthongs. They are represented by the symbols: ei, ou, ai, au,
Comparasion between Chinese and English phonemes:
Consonants:
Chinese | b | p | m | f | d | t | n | l | g | k | h | s | r | c | zh | ch | sh | ng | w | y |
English | b | p | m | f | d | t | n | l | g | k | h | s | ts | w | j |
Particular Consonants in Chinese:
z, j, q, x
Particular Consonants in English:
v, z,
Similar vowels in both languages:
Chinese | a | o | e | i | u | ai | ei | ui | ao | ou | iu | ie | er | an | en | in | un | ün | ang | eng | ing | ong |
English | a | w | i: | u and u: | ai | ei | wei | au | ou | jou | i | r | n | en | in | wen | jwen | e | i |
So we can see that except some particular sounds, the majority of both the English and Chinese sounds are quite similar.