You guys are joking right?! there is no "chinese alphabet" there is only pinyin (which is the romanised version (i.e. using the Englsh alphabet as a template) of how to pronounce characters).
If you wanna learn Chinese well you have to LET GO of your old habbits, accept there is NO alphabet system and you MUST recite all characters you see. When you see a new character you may be able to guess how to pronounce it (i.e. some characters that look the same SOMETIMES have the same pronunciation) but you will STILL HAVE TO clarify with a good 'ol dictionary! TONES are important!!!!!!!!