Are Hanyu Pinyin and Tongyong Pinyin words compatible?

The Tongyong and Hanyu Pinyin romanization systems are not compatible. The claims to the contrary by some Tongyong supporters are clearly and unambiguously wrong. The systems are different, with many different spellings for the same sounds; it is impossible for the two systems to be accurately called "compatible."

Many people, including some who really should know better, claim that Tongyong Pinyin is "85 percent compatible with Hanyu Pinyin." This is also completely wrong.

In reality, the two systems use the same spellings for only about half of Mandarin words. It is clear that claims of "compatibility" or even similarity between the two systems have been greatly exaggerrated.

This program will check words for compatibility between Hanyu Pinyin and Tongyong Pinyin. It is best to input words as words, not as DI VID ED SYL LA BLES, because Tongyong has faux amis on not just the syllable level (such as si and ci, which appear the same as in Hanyu Pinyin but actually represent what Hanyu Pinyin spells as xi and qi) but on the word level as well. An example of this is hanyu, which in Hanyu Pinyin is han + yu but in Tongyong Pinyin would be ha + nyu (the equivalent of Hanyu Pinyin's hanü).

Use v or ü for ü, and do not use any punctuation marks other than apostrophes.

Enter words to check for compatibility:

Romanization system of your input text:
Hanyu Pinyin
Tongyong Pinyin