Ningbonese Consonants

In general, Wu Chinese dialects have a similar set of initial consonants as Mandarin, with one major difference: Wu Chinese preserves the voiced initial consonants of Old Chinese -- so there's a distinction between 白 (voiced) and 百 (unvoiced). Additionally, Wu Chinese does not have retroflex consonants (Mandarin zh/ch/sh/r).

It may be difficult for learners to distinguish the voiced and voiceless un-aspirated consonants; it's helpful to note that syllables with voiced initial consonants always have a light (阳) tone, while syllables with voiceless initial syllables always have dark (阴) tones.

There are three groups of three stop consonants: voiceless un-aspirated, aspirated, and voiced p, t, and k:

	IPA	Example	English
p	p	八 pah	eight
ph	pʰ	漂亮 phio lian	beautiful
b	b	朋友 ban yeu	friend
t	t	多少 tou shio	how much
th	tʰ	天亮 thi nyan	morning
d	d	头发 deu fah	hair
k	k	交关 chio kuae	very
kh	kʰ	困觉 khuen kau	sleep
g	g	番茄 fae ga	tomato

There are also two groups: "c/ch" is like Mandarin "j/q", and is usually followed by an "i" sound; "ts/tsh" is like Mandarin "z/c".

ts	ts	钟头 tson deu	hour
tsh	tsʰ	出 tshoeh	out
dz	dz	茶 dzo	tea
c	tɕ	今末 cih mah	today
ch	tɕʰ	去 chiu	go
j	dʑ	其 ji	him/her

There are four groups of fricative consonants, each with voiced and unvoiced versions. It can be particularly difficult to hear the voiced glottal fricative "gh" and the voiced palatal fricative "zh", since these sounds do not appear in English or Mandarin.

f	f	飞机 fi ci	airplane
v	v	不好 vah hau	not good
h	h	好 hau	good
gh	ɦ	后 gheu	back
s	s	水 syu	water
z	z	辰光 zoen kuaon	time
sh	ɕ	晓得 shio tah	know
zh	ʑ	前 zhi	front

Finally, there are the sonorant consonants -- unlike Mandarin, this includes a velar nasal (ng) and a palatal nasal (ny).

m	m	明朝 min cio	tomorrow
ny	ȵ	人 nyin	person
ng	ŋ	我 ngo	me
n	n	侬 nou	you
l	l	来 le	come

Reference: Wu-chinese.com.