Jyutping converter
Paste Chinese characters and get Jyutping and Yale romanization with tone colors. Powered by our 124,000 entry dictionary.
About Jyutping and Yale
Jyutping is the most widely used romanization system for Cantonese. Developed in 1993 by the Linguistic Society of Hong Kong, it uses Latin letters plus a tone number from 1 to 6 at the end of each syllable (nei5 hou2 = hello).
Yale is an older system that uses diacritics above letters and the letter 'h' to indicate low tones (néih hóu). It is common in older textbooks and is easier for English speakers to read at first, but Jyutping is more systematic and easier to type.
This tool returns both. Tone colors match the standard YumCha palette: tones 1 through 6 each have a distinct color so you can see the melody of the sentence at a glance.
Tone guide
Frequently asked questions
Is this the same as Mandarin pinyin?
No. Pinyin is for Mandarin. Jyutping is specifically for Cantonese and encodes six tones rather than four. The same Chinese characters will produce different romanization depending on which language you are reading them in.
Why do some characters show as unknown?
The converter uses a 124,000 entry Cantonese dictionary. Very rare characters, highly specialized terms, or typos may not have an entry. Single characters are always looked up first, then multi-character words are matched longest-first.
How accurate is the romanization?
The data comes from CC-Canto and CC-CEDICT with Cantonese readings. For most everyday words it is accurate. Some characters have multiple readings depending on context (polyphones), and this tool returns the most common reading. If you see a reading that looks off, click through to the full dictionary entry for alternatives.
Can I convert traditional and simplified characters?
Yes, both are supported. The dictionary contains both forms for every entry, so you can paste either.
Is this tool free?
Yes, completely free and with no signup required. If you want to practice pronunciation with audio and speech recognition, the YumCha iOS app offers lessons, flashcards, and native Hong Kong audio.
Dictionary data from CC-Canto and CC-CEDICT, licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.