Pinyin
From UniLang Wiki
A small table with the Mandarin sounds that most learners of Chinese have difficulties with:
| voiceless fricative |
voiceless affricate |
voiceless affricate |
|
| blade-alveolar | s (s) |
z (ts) |
c (tsʰ) |
| retroflex | sh (Ê‚) |
zh (tʂ) |
ch (tʂʰ) |
| alveolo-palatal | x (É•) |
j (tɕ) |
q (tɕʰ) |
(There is also an example where the retroflex ʈ instead of t is used for zh (ʈʂ) and ch (ʈʂʰ).
Another sounds that often creates problems is the retroflex r, which is Ê? in IPA
