Learn Chinese Characters

Pinyin Syllable

Chinese characters pronounced ming

Learn common Chinese characters pronounced ming, including 明 míng, 名 míng, 命 mìng, 鸣 míng, 铭 míng. Compare tones, meanings, traditional forms, words…

How to Pronounce This Syllable

For ming, start on m and let it run into ing without pausing; keep the mouth moving and hold the tone to the end.

Initial m

Start the syllable on the initial m, then run straight into the final ing — keep them joined instead of sounding out separate English letters.

Final ing

Settle the final ing into a steady mouth shape first, then lay the tone on top.

Study Tip

Start with the most common characters (明 míng, 名 míng, 命 mìng, 鸣 míng, 铭 míng) and lock in their tones. 5 common characters share the sound ming, so lean on words to tell the rest apart.

Learn by Tone

ming turns up here with 2 different tones; a change of tone usually means a different character, so the groups below are split by tone.

2nd tone

Taking the 2nd tone here: 明, 名, 鸣… (4 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

4th tone

Taking the 4th tone here: 命 (1 in total). Lock this tone in your ear before the meaning.

Common Words With This Sound

Seeing ming inside whole words makes it clear which character is meant — here are common ones.

Characters

5 common characters in this group.