Learn about the four Chinese tones
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| Hi everyone. |
| Welcome to The Ultimate Chinese Pronunciation Guide. |
| In this lesson, you'll learn about the tones in Chinese. |
| Tone is the use of pitch to distinguish meaning and it is an integral part of the Chinese language. |
| Just like how mispronouncing a sound or misreading a character can have a huge impact on meaning, using the wrong tone can drastically change the meaning of a word or sentence too. |
| It is therefore crucial that you learn how to use tones correctly. |
| "CHINESE TONES" |
| There are theoretically a total of 5 tones in Chinese. 4 main tones, which inflect a change in relative pitch and 1 tone which is completely neutral. |
| The tones are... |
| Neutral 吗 |
| High tone 妈 |
| Rising tone 麻 |
| Falling and rising tone 马 |
| and falling tone. 骂 |
| As you can see, using the wrong tone can be detrimental to communication! |
| So let's go through them one by one. |
| "0: NEUTRAL" |
| 吧 ba "final particle" |
| Though it isn't officially recognized as a tone in Chinese, we should talk a little bit about what it means to be neutral. |
| To deliver something in a neutral tone, is to say it in the most comfortable range without any changes in stress or pitch during delivery. |
| 了 le "final particle" |
| It's the least amount of effort required to deliver something. |
| You must realise that all other tones are relative to the *neutral tone*. |
| What this means is that a high tone is only high relative to the speakers normal, neutral range. |
| So the neutral tone is like the *base* for all other tones. |
| Neutral syllables do not need to be marked with any accents in written notation. |
| "1: HIGH TONE" The first tone, is the high tone. It's marked with a horizontal line above the letter. |
| It sounds like this... |
| 书 shū "book" |
| It's pronounced high and steady, and the pitch should be kept at the highest range that's comfortable for you. |
| 包 bāo "bag" |
| The key point here is to keep it even across the whole syllable. |
| 书包 shūbāo "school backpack" |
| Now you try! |
| 书包 shūbāo "school backpack" |
| "2: RISING TONE" The second tone, is the rising tone. It's marked with a rising diagonal line going from left to right. |
| It sounds like this... |
| 人 rén "people" |
| It has a rising intonation and kind of sounds like your asking a question. |
| 烦 fán "to annoy/to be annoyed" |
| You should start from a comfortable range and then rise from there. |
| 烦人 fánrén "annoying" |
| Now you try! |
| 烦人 fánrén "annoying" |
| "3: FALLING AND RISING TONE" The third tone, is the falling and rising tone. It's marked with an upwards semi-circle. |
| It sounds like this... |
| 好 hǎo "good" |
| This tone is often the most challenging for many students of Chinese. |
| Starting from around mid-range, dip to the very bottom of your range until you feel like something is stuck in your throat and then rise quickly to clear it! 脚 jiǎo "foot" |
| Using hand gestures while trying to pronounce this tone really helps. |
| The key point here is *bouncing off* from the *deepest* part of your range. |
| 雪 xuě "snow" |
| Now you try! |
| 雪 xuě "snow" |
| "4: FALLING TONE" The fourth and final tone, is the falling tone. It's marked with a falling diagonal line going from left to right. |
| It sounds like this... |
| 下 xià "next/down/to get off" |
| It sounds like a fast, sharp drop. English speakers often associate this tone as being angry sounding. |
| 课 kè "class/lesson" |
| It might help to imagine a pencil dropping as you're pronouncing this tone. |
| 下课 xiàkè "to finish class" |
| Now you try! |
| 下课 xiàkè "to finish class" |
| Now you know how to produce tones in Chinese! |
| In the next lesson, we'll cover tone change rules in Chinese. |
| Do you have tones in your Language? Please comment and share your thoughts. |
| See you in the next Ultimate Chinese Pronunciation Guide lesson! |
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