The mnemonic used is Goofy (gu-) and English Manor (-eng), but that’s gueng, not gong.
Hey @Learneratheart, thanks for reaching out!
In our slightly modified pinyin system, gu- and -eng do indeed combine to form gong. I agree that this could be made more clear for new users, as it does seem like they should form gueng instead (which incidentally is not valid pinyin)! We should add an introductory tour for this somewhere. We do have plans on making a Pinyin chart that would perhaps also make this more clear.
If you are interested in the exact reason why gu- and -eng combine to form gong, here is a quick explanation:
In Standard Pinyin, gong is represented as:
g- + -ong
“-ong” is in fact the combination of the -(e)ng
final with the -u-
medial. So in reality it is:
g- + -u- + -(e)ng
In our system, the -u- medial is added to the g- initial, without relying on a separate -ong
final.
gu- + -(e)ng
So in short:
gong = gu- + -(e)ng (our system)
gong = g- + -ong (Standard Pinyin)
gong = g- + -u- + -(e)ng (explicitly showing the medial at play)
I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any more questions, or if there is anything we can do to make things more clear. Standard Pinyin and our own slightly modified version of it all have their own quirks, unfortunately.
This was really clear. Thanks for the breakdown!
2 posts were split to a new topic: Why is “ri” represented as “r-” and “_-”?