例词：jū mín , 居民 , Residents。qū yù , 区域 , Area。xū yào , 需要 , Need。yǔ shuǐ , 雨水 , Rainwater。
汉语拼音（Hànyǔ Pīnyīn），简称拼音，是一种以拉丁字母作普通话（现代标准汉语）标音的方案，为中文罗马拼音的国际标准规范。
Hanyu Pinyin (simplified Chinese: 汉语拼音; traditional Chinese: 漢語拼音; pinyin: Hànyǔ Pīnyīn), often abbreviated to pinyin, is the official romanization system for Standard Chinese in mainland China and to some extent in Taiwan. It is often used to teach Standard Mandarin Chinese, which is normally written using Chinese characters. The system includes four diacritics denoting tones. Pinyin without tone marks is used to spell Chinese names and words in languages written with the Latin alphabet and also in certain computer input methods to enter Chinese characters.
汉语拼音在中国大陆作为基础教育内容全面使用，是义务教育的重要内容。在海外，特别是常用现代标准汉语的地区如新加坡、马来西亚、菲律宾和美国唐人街等，目前也在汉语教育中进行汉语拼音教学。台湾自2008年开始，中文译音使用原则也采用汉语拼音，但旧护照姓名和部分地名、道路名称仍采用威妥玛拼音、邮政式拼音、国语罗马字、国音二式抑或通用拼音。
The pinyin system was developed in the 1950s by a group of Chinese linguists including Zhou Youguang and was based on earlier forms of romanizations of Chinese. It was published by the Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted pinyin as an international standard in 1982 and was followed by the United Nations in 1986. Attempts to make pinyin standard in Taiwan occurred in 2002 and 2009, but “Today Taiwan has no standardized spelling system” so that in 2019 “alphabetic spellings in Taiwan are marked more by a lack of system than the presence of one.” Moreover, “some cities, businesses, and organizations, notably in the south of Taiwan, did not accept, as it suggested that Taiwan is more closely tied to the PRC”, so it remains one of several rival romanization systems in use.
汉语拼音同时是将汉字转写为拉丁字母的规范方式。汉语拼音也是国际普遍承认的汉语普通话拉丁转写标准。国际标准ISO 7098（《中文罗马字母拼写法》）写道：“中华人民共和国全国人民代表大会（1958年2月11日）正式通过的汉语拼音方案，被用来拼写中文。转写者按中文字的普通话读法记录其读音。”
《中华人民共和国国家通用语言文字法》第十八条规定：“《汉语拼音方案》是中国人名、地名和中文文献罗马字母拼写法的统一规范，并用于汉字不便或不能使用的领域。”
无论是ISO国际标准还是中国大陆法律规范，都明确指出了汉语拼音的性质和地位，即汉语普通话的拉丁拼写法或转写系统，而非汉语正写法或汉语的文字系统。汉语拼音字母只是对方案所用拉丁字母个体的称谓，并不意味着汉语拼音是一种拼音文字（全音素文字）。