I'm sure you have noticed the symbols above some of the letters of Pinyin. Those are tone marks. 

There are five tones in total. 

Tone marks are usually marked on top of vowels. There's only one tone mark for each word.

   yī          ér      sān       sì       shēng​​
一    二     三     四       声
 

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To Write

ā -- 1st tone, a sign that is a straight horizontal line

á -- 2nd tone, the line goes from bottom left to upper right corner

ǎ -- 3rd tone, a small "v" 

à -- 4th tone, the opposite of 2nd tone

a -- 5th tone (no tone mark)

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To Pronounce

1st: high pitch, flat, think about "ah" at the dentist office when you need to keep your mouth open;

2nd: high pitch, sound goes up, imagine saying "what?"

3rd: close to saying "well" in English, with a curve in your tone

4th: short but strong, similar to saying a firm "no" or urgent "go". 

5th: gentle and light, usually for words at the end of a phrase or sentence

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Regular keyboard doesn't allow tone mark input,

click this button to type Chinese pinyin with tone marks.