Pairs, pungs, kongs, and quints

The five you need

Single	One tile on its own.
Pair	Two identical tiles.
Pung	Three identical tiles.
Kong	Four identical tiles.
Quint	Five identical tiles. There are only four copies of any tile, so a quint always needs at least one joker.

Identical means identical

Same number is not enough. The suit has to match too.

Those are three different tiles. Three 4s in three suits are not a pung. Some hands on the card do ask for the same number across the suits, but that is a feature of the hand, not a group you can make on your own.

Two is not three

The most common beginner slip is counting a pair as a pung. Here is a rack with one of each.

One pung, the 3 craks. The 5s are only a pair. The rules treat the two differently: you can call a discard to finish a pung, and you can use a joker in a pung. You can do neither for a pair.

Winds, dragons, and flowers count too

Three east winds are a pung in exactly the way three 7 bams are.

What about runs?

If you have played other kinds of mahjong or rummy, you will look for 5-6-7 in one suit. In the American game a run is not a group you can call for or lay down by itself. Consecutive numbers matter only when a hand on the card is built from them, and then the card says exactly which ones.

How to scan a rack

1. Sort your tiles by suit, then by number. Put winds, dragons, flowers, and jokers at one end.
2. Go one suit at a time and look for doubles and triples.
3. Say what you have: "pair of 5s, pung of 3s." Naming it makes it stick.