Learn more about 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 8 Chinese consonants. |
| b, p, s, d, t, w, h, y |
| 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... |
| b |
| 爆炸 bàozhà |
| 宝宝 bǎobao "baby" |
| 杯子 bēizi “cup/glass” |
| Be careful, because this isn't like a hard B sound. |
| This is the unaspriated version of the P sound, such as it occurs in the word 'span'. |
| p, p (slowly) |
| p, p (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| p |
| 朋友 péngyou "friend" |
| 皮包 píbāo "leather bag" |
| 陪伴 péibàn "to accompany" |
| This is the aspirated version of the P sound, such as it occurs in the word 'pan'. |
| pʰ, pʰ (slowly) |
| pʰ, pʰ (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| s |
| 三 sān |
| 颜色 yánsè "color" |
| 搜索 sōusuǒ "to search" |
| Like the S in the word 'see'. |
| s, s (slowly) |
| s, s (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| d |
| 大 dà |
| 对 duì "right" |
| 东 dōng "east" |
| This isn't a hard D sound. This is the unaspirated version of the T sound, such as it occurs in the word 'stand'. |
| t, t (slowly) |
| t, t (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| t |
| 他 tā "he/him" |
| 特点 tèdiǎn "feature" |
| 地图 dìtú "map" |
| This is the aspirated version of the T sound, such as it occurs in the word 'tan'. |
| tʰ, tʰ (slowly) |
| tʰ, tʰ (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| w |
| 王 wáng |
| 问 wèn "to ask" |
| 外国人wàiguórén "foreigner" |
| Like the W in the word 'we'. |
| w, w (slowly) |
| w, w (slowly) |
| The next consonant is... |
| h |
| 河 hé |
| 红色 hóngsè "red" |
| 很好 hěn hǎo "very good" |
| It's easy to think this is a H sound but it's more like a prolonged K sound. The trick is to make a K sound without cutting off the airstream completely. |
| It's like the CH sound in the word yech or the Scottish loch, as in Loch Ness. |
| x, x (slowly) |
| x, x (slowly) |
| The final consonant for this lesson is... |
| y |
| 鸭 yā |
| 一样 yíyàng "same" |
| 游泳 yóuyǒng "swimming" |
| Like the Y in the word 'you'. |
| j, j (slowly) |
| j, j (slowly) |
| Well done! You just learned another 8 consonant sounds in Chinese. |
| b, p, s, d, t, w, h, y |
| In the next lesson, you'll learn 6 new consonant sounds. These sounds don't appear in English, so they'll be trickier than the last lot. |
| Were there more common sounds than you expected? Please comment and share your thoughts. |
| See you in the next Ultimate Chinese Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
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