Chinese respelling of the English alphabet

In China, letters of the English alphabet are pronounced somewhat differently because they have been adapted to the phonetics (i.e. the syllable structure) of the Chinese language. The knowledge of this spelling may be useful when spelling Western names, especially over the phone, as one may not be understood if the letters are pronounced as they are in English. (The letters that are pronounced differently – not counting tone differences – according to different sources are given in bold.)

Letter	Spelling 1[1]		Spelling 2[2]
A	诶	ēi	诶	ēi
B	必	bì	比	bǐ
C	西	xī	西	xī
D	弟	dì	迪	dí
E	衣	yī	伊	yī
F	艾付	àifù	艾弗	àifú
G	记	jì	吉	jí
H	爱耻	àichǐ	艾尺	àichǐ
I	挨	āi	艾	ài
J	宅	zhái	杰	jié
K	开	kāi	开	kāi
L	饿罗	èluó	艾勒	àilè
M	饿母	èmǔ	艾马	àimǎ
N	恩	ēn	艾娜	àinà
O	呕	ǒu	哦	ó
P	披	pī	屁	pì
Q	酷	kù	吉吾	jíwú
R	耳	ěr	艾儿	àiér
S	艾斯	àisī	艾丝	àisī
T	踢	tī	提	tí
U	忧	yōu	伊吾	yīwú
V	维	wéi	维	wéi
W	大波留	dàbōliú	豆贝尔维	dòubèiěrwéi
X	埃克斯	āikèsī	艾克斯	yīkèsī
Y	歪	wāi	吾艾	wúài
Z	再得	zàide	贼德	zéidé

Notes

The respelling of H mimics the standard aitch /eɪtʃ/ rather than the regional haitch /heɪtʃ/.

The respelling of Z mimics the British English zed /zɛd/ rather than the American English zee /ziː/ or the Hong Kong English variant izzard /ˈɪzərd/.

References

1. Mandarin Phrasebook and Dictionary. Lonely Planet 2012, ISBN 9781743211977, p. 16
2. Chinese Alphabet (MyLanguages.org)