Shengmu and consonants are totally different things. Shengmu is defined by analyzing the structure of syllables and consonants are defined by analyzing the nature of phonemes. Compared to vowels, the main characters of consonants are: The breath is blocked or obstructed to a certain degree inside the vocal organ, the breath is stronger and the muscle of the vocal organ involving in blocking the breath is strained. All shengmu are consonants but not all consonants are shengmu. For example, in the syllable guāng, ng is a consonant but is at the end of the syllable, so it is not a shengmu. Another example is nán, with the consonant n both in front and at the end. "n" is a shengmu when being in front of the syllable but is not a shengmu when at the end of the syllable.

Yunmu and vowels are different things too. Yunmu is defined according to the phoneme's location in a syllable while vowels are defined according to the phoneme's nature. The main characters of vowels are: The breath is weaker and is not obstructed inside the oral cavity; the muscle of the vocal organ is strained evenly; and the vocal cords vibrate when pronouncing normally. A vowel can be a yunmu by itself, such as a, o, e, i, u and ü. Vowels like an, en, in and ün consist of a vowel and a yunwei of nasal consonant. It is therefore clear that all vowels can be a yunmu or a part of a yunmu but not all yunmu are vowels. Consonants n and ng can be used in yunmu by combining with vowels. Yunmu has larger scope than vowels.

In order to indicate the relations between shengmu and yunmu, traditional Chinese phonetics has categorized yunmu into 4 types, i.e. Kaikouhu, Qichihu, Hekouhu and Cuokouhu. They are also called Sihu. Kaikouhu includes those syllables with a, o, e, ê, er, i (front) and i (back) as the yunmu or with yunmu beginning with a, o and e. Qichihu are the syllables with i as the yunmu or with yunmu beginning with i, such as iou, iao, ie and ia. Hekouhu are syllables with u as the yunmu or with yunmu beginning with u, such as ua, uo, uai and uei. Cuokouhu are the syllables with ü as the yunmu or with yunmu beginning with ü, such as üe, ün and üan.

According to traditional phonetics, ong is hekouhu and iong is Cuokouhu.

Tones mean the rise or fall of the pitch of a syllable. Tones are expressed mostly in changes of pitch, but also in changes of sound length. The pitch depends on the vibration times of a vocal object in a certain period of time. The more the vibration times the higher the sound. Otherwise, the sound will be lower. When pronouncing, the tighter the vocal cords, the more the vibration times in a certain period of time and the higher the sound; while the looser the vocal cords, the fewer the vibration times and the lower the sound. Vocal cords can be adjusted from time to time and thus make different pitch and different tones.

Generally, one syllable constitutes a character in Chinese. Therefore, tones are also called tones of characters. A tone is an indispensable part of a syllable and plays the role of distinguishing the meanings of characters. For example, "题材(tícái)" and "体裁(tǐcái)", "练习(liànxí)" and "联系(liánxi)", the meanings of these words are distinguished by different tones.

Tone pitch means the rise or fall of tones, i.e. the actual reading method of tones. Tone category is the category of tones according to the actual pronunciation. The numbers of tone pitch are the numbers of tone categories. That is to say, the characters with same tone pitch are classified under the same category. There are four basic tone pitches in Putonghua, so there are four tone categories, i.e. yinping, yangping, shangsheng and qusheng. Usually they are called the first tone, the second tone, the third tone and the fourth tone, generally known as "four tones". The symbols of tones shall be marked on the main vowel of the syllable and in the order of a, o, e, i, u and ü. When a yunmu includes both i and u, the symbols of tones shall be marked on the last vowel. Before marking tone symbols on i, you should first delete the dot on i.