Learn the perfect pronunciation of Chinese consonants
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to The Ultimate Chinese Pronunciation Guide. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn 7 Chinese consonants. |
| f, g, k, l, m, n, ng |
| These consonant sounds are identical to the ones in English, so they should already be familiar to you. |
| Are you ready? Then let's get started! |
| The first consonant is... |
| f |
| 飞 fēi |
| 房子 fángzi "house" |
| 风水 fēngshuǐ "Geomancy/Feng shuey" |
| Like the F in the word 'find'. |
| f, f (slowly) |
| f, f (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| g |
| 高 gāo |
| 给 gěi “to give” |
| 工作 gōngzuò "work" |
| Like the K in the word 'skim' or 'skip'. |
| Be very careful with this sound though because it's not like the K in 'kit' for example. |
| The K in 'skim' doesn't have a burst of air at the end of the sound, whereas 'kit' *does*. |
| Sounds that have a burst of air are said to be aspirated, while sounds that *do not* have a burst of air, like this one, are unaspirated. |
| Unlike English, Chinese differentiates between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, so be careful of this. |
| k, k (slowly) |
| k, k (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| k |
| 口渴 kǒukě "thirsty" |
| 顾客 gùkè "customer" |
| 开关 kāiguān "switch" |
| This is the aspirated version of the K-sound, meaning there should be burst or release of air. |
| Like the K in the word 'kit'. |
| kʰ, kʰ (slowly) |
| kʰ, kʰ (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| l |
| 老 lǎo |
| 龙 lóng "dragon" |
| 力量 lìliang "power" |
| Like the L in the word 'let'. |
| l, l (slowly) |
| l, l (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| m |
| 母亲 mǔqīn |
| 门 mén "door" |
| 名字 míngzi "name" |
| Like the M in the word 'mouse'. |
| m, m (slowly) |
| m, m (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| n |
| 难 nán |
| 您 nín "honorific term for 'you'" |
| 牛奶 niúnǎi "milk" |
| Like the N in the word 'nice'. |
| n, n (slowly) |
| n, n (slowly) |
| And the final consonant sound is... |
| ng |
| 北京 Běijīng |
| 上海 Shànghǎi "Shanghai" |
| 香港 Xiānggǎng "Hong Kong" |
| Like the ng sound in the word 'sing'. |
| ŋ, ŋ (slowly) |
| ŋ, ŋ (slowly) |
| Well done! You just learned your first 7 consonants in Chinese. |
| f, g, k, l, m, n, ng |
| In the next lesson, you'll learn 8 more consonant sounds that are identical to the ones in English. |
| Was seeing the pronunciation illustrations helpful? Please comment and share your thoughts. |
| See you in the next Ultimate Chinese Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
Comments
HideWas seeing the pronunciation illustrations helpful? Please comment and share your thoughts.
Hello ashley,
Thank you for your comment. You may download the PDF lesson notes, and study or review them whenever you want to.
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
What is the best way to study so I can obtain all the information shown throughout the next 40 lessons?
你好 robert groulx！
不用谢。(Bú yòng xiè.) = No need for thanks. You're welcome. 😇
谢谢 (Xièxie) for studying with us, it's great to have you here!
Let us know if you have any questions.
Kind regards,
雷文特 (Levente)
Team ChineseClass101.com
thank you for the lesson transcript
favorite phrase is 顾客
robert
Hello Leslie Jones,
Thank you for your comment, we hope you found this video helpful! 👍
If you have any questions, please let us know.
Ngai Lam
Team ChineseClass101.com
I have never been more grateful being a native English speaker until now 😄
Hi Chayry,
Thanks for your comment. We have checked the video lesson and found no issue. Which web browser did you use? Can you check again and let us know if you still have problem playing it.
Cheers,
Khanh
Team ChineseClass101.com
Hello, I can't play the video. I don't know the reason why. :( Please help. Thank you.
你好，艾兰
Probably your impression is right. Actually native Chinese people are not aware of or didn't notice the slight difference in voicing Chinese words.
I think it's better to voice ‘兰’ a little stronger, to make it better understood. But I only mean '[lán]', not '[láng]' (for 浪）.
Some Chinese consonants are more detectable, such as k, s, where others not quite, such as r, y. And L is less detectable, so better voice it a little stronger.
Thanks for learning with us. Let us know when you have any other questions.
Amy
ChineseClass101.com
the "L" sound is pronounced differently in different cases, like in "脸" or in "垃“, I think here it is more light or soft, I don't know how to describe it, but it is completely different from the "L" sound in for example 龙，冷.
I get so confused between these two pronunciations, for example, my name in Chinese is “艾兰” so I don't know if I should pronounce the "L" sound in “兰”, lightly or more like 浪?
I hope my question is clear, and thank you for these great lessons.
Hello, Denisse,
Since China is very wide and has a very long history. There are thousands of dialects in China.
Even in Shanghai, there are more than 4 dialects. So it is a little bit difficult for a beginner to listen to native Chinese people. If you can speak standard Chinese, you can go to most of the areas of Chinese and make them understand you, including Taiwan and the mainland of China, like Beijing and Shanghai.
And maybe people in Beijing are the easiest to listen to.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
Could I know please, where in China is Chinese Mandarin spoken?
Like for example, if I go to Beijing? or Hong Kong? or Shanghai?
What about if I go to Taiwan?
If I want to visit those four cities, it will be any differences between those?
What languagues or variants I would notice? ??? :scaredemoticon:
Hi, Sam,
Thank you for your posting.
The point of how to pronounce "ng" is to image you pronounce it with your nose, not from mouth.
It is the most standard way to pronounce "ng" like Yinru taught in the lesson. But,most people for south China, they don't pronounce "ng" like that. They just pronounce as the "ng" in "sing".
So you will hear both cases from native Chinese speakers.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
The way Yinru pronounces "ng" sounds completely different to how she uses it in a word and how we're told it should sound, i.e. like then "ng" in 'sing'.
Hello Hazem Khoja,
Thank you for your comment.
We are glad you like it.
Cho
Team ChineseClass101.com
These videos are amazing, this whole website is outstanding. You guys really break down the language as simplest as possible. Never I have seen such dedication to teaching in online website/programs. You guys rock! keep up the good work.
Hi Kiran and StevieHoops,
Thank you very much for your comments! We're glad that you are enjoying our video lessons. :smile:
Lesson 5 is availalbe here: http://bit.ly/1Bn9pBd
Olivia
Team ChineseClass101.com
These videos are really good. The diagrams showing what position your mouth should be in is really helpful. I like the way the pronunciation is explained contrasting the sounds to english words.
Its also good you've used native Chinese and English speakers.
When will episode 5 be available?
I like the way Yinru clearly pronounces the sounds :thumbsup:. When can we expect lesson 5?