“ni hao ma” shows 你好吗 and variants in the suggestions.
2. Handle tones
ni3 = nǐ, or type nǐ directly with accented keys.
3. Pick simplified/traditional
The variant selector switches between simplified and traditional.
4. Listen and copy
The speaker reads the pinyin aloud, and Copy sends the characters to Word, WeChat or your messages.
Frequently asked questions
At a glance: Chinese Pinyin Keyboard
Keyboard: Chinese Pinyin Keyboard (中文键盘), Chinese (Hanzi) script, China, Taiwan & Singapore.
Direction left to right; 34 keys and 68 characters across all layers.
Engine: direct key mode — every character below is on the virtual keyboard.
This guide: 4 method steps and 4 answered questions.
Typefaces: Noto Sans SC, Microsoft YaHei, SimSun.
Search and export: Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, Translate, DuckDuckGo.
Common mistakes to avoid
Nine times out of ten, a Chinese Pinyin Keyboard problem is one of these — each takes five seconds to fix. Work through them in order before assuming the keyboard is broken.
Nothing converts: check that Transliteration mode (not the physical keyboard) is on, and that you type plain lowercase Latin letters.
Missing accents: click the exact accented key rather than the base letter — “e” and “é” are two different keys.
Unexpected layout: the Simplifié variant changes the keys — switch back to the standard variant if anything surprises you.
Clusters split after paste (Arabic, Indic and Southeast Asian scripts): paste into this editor first and re-copy — it normalizes the Unicode shaping that Word and chats sometimes break.
Every character used in this guide
This language is typed key by key, so here is the full inventory behind the walkthrough: each position of the Chinese Pinyin Keyboard and the characters it produces on the base, Shift and AltGr layers. Check that a rare letter exists before you need it.
Position
Base
Shift
AltGr
Row 1, key 2
q
Q
—
Row 1, key 3
w
W
—
Row 1, key 4
e
E
—
Row 1, key 5
r
R
—
Row 1, key 6
t
T
—
Row 1, key 7
y
Y
—
Row 1, key 8
u
U
—
Row 1, key 9
i
I
—
Row 1, key 10
o
O
—
Row 1, key 11
p
P
—
Row 1, key 12
[
{
—
Row 1, key 13
]
}
—
Row 1, key 14
\
|
—
Row 2, key 2
a
A
—
Row 2, key 3
s
S
—
Row 2, key 4
d
D
—
Row 2, key 5
f
F
—
Row 2, key 6
g
G
—
Row 2, key 7
h
H
—
Row 2, key 8
j
J
—
Row 2, key 9
k
K
—
Row 2, key 10
l
L
—
Row 2, key 11
;
:
—
Row 2, key 12
'
"
—
Row 3, key 2
z
Z
—
Row 3, key 3
x
X
—
Row 3, key 4
c
C
—
Row 3, key 5
v
V
—
Row 3, key 6
b
B
—
Row 3, key 7
n
N
—
Row 3, key 8
m
M
—
Row 3, key 9
,
<
—
Row 3, key 10
.
>
—
Row 3, key 11
/
?
—
More questions about this keyboard
How do I type Chinese characters? — Type the pinyin; the engine offers the matching characters to select.
Is pinyin with tone marks supported? — Yes, both tone marks and tone numbers are supported.
Must I know the tones? — No: type toneless pinyin and pick from the suggestion list. Tones only narrow the results.
Simplified or traditional? — Simplified for mainland China and Singapore, traditional for Taiwan and Hong Kong — both are supported.
Can I type Zhuyin (bopomofo)? — The main engine is pinyin-based; Zhuyin layouts are covered on the dedicated Zhuyin page.
Neighbouring keyboards
The same method often applies to neighbouring languages. Each of these has its own full keyboard page with virtual keys, engine and dictionaries.
Japanese Keyboard: Type Japanese with the romaji engine: “konnichiwa” becomes こんにちは. Kana layout and vocabulary resources included.…
Korean Hangul Keyboard: Type Korean Hangul with smart jamo composition: “annyeong” becomes 안녕 automatically as you type.…
Vietnamese Keyboard: Type Vietnamese with Telex, VNI and plain modes: “xin chào” is produced from “xin chao” + s as you type.…
All method guides
Twelve guides cover the most requested scripts. Pick yours — every guide embeds its keyboard, so you can practise each step immediately.
Type Arabic without an Arabic keyboard: complete guide: Type “marhaba” and get مرحبا: transliteration, harakat, copy-paste and virtual keyboard.…
Type Russian on a French/English keyboard: easy method: “privet” becomes привет: JCUKEN transliteration, Ё key and Russian physical layout.…
Type Hebrew with vowels (niqqud) online: “shalom” → שלום, Shift layer for vowels: Hebrew RTL keyboard guide.…
Type Japanese: romaji → hiragana, katakana, kanji: “konnichiwa” → こんにちは: romaji engine, kana keyboard and vocabulary resources.…
Type Korean (Hangul): automatic composition: “annyeong” → 안녕: jamos combine into syllables in real time.…
Type Hindi (Devanagari): transliteration guide: “namaste” → नमस्ते: matras, conjuncts and Devanagari keyboard.…
Type Vietnamese: Telex, VNI and tones: “xin chao” + s → xin chào: Telex, VNI modes and Vietnamese keyboard.…
Type Greek: modern and polytonic: “kalimera” → καλημέρα: transliteration, tonos and Greek keyboard.…
Spanish, German, Italian accents without a local keyboard: “como estas” → ¿Cómo estás?, “gruesse” → grüße: accent autocorrection.…
Arabic, Persian, Urdu: which keyboard to choose?: Same script family, 3 languages: letter differences (پ چ ژ گ), digits and usage.…
Online dictionaries by language: the Lexilogos-like hub: Each keyboard embeds its hub: monolingual, bilingual, grammar, press and resources.…