| How are you? |
Ni Hao? |
| Thank you |
Syeah-syeah nee |
| Goodbye |
Zai Jian |
Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. It is this tonal nature of the language that gave rise to Westerners mockingly referring to spoken Chinese as a "sing-song" language. Ironically, the English language frequently uses every tone used in Mandarin. The significant difference is that English uses tonal quality for emphasis or to express an emotion. Chinese uses tonal quality as a basic ingredient in the meaning of words.
Mandarin has four tones: 1 a steady high pitch; 2 rising pitch; 3 falling then rising pitch; and 4 falling pitch), with a fifth tone (neutral tone) being used for the second word in many two-word phrases or idioms. Every Chinese word has one of these tonal values. Since the Chinese language is filled with homonyms (words of different meaning but identical pronunciation), were it not for its tonal quality, Chinese would probably not work very well as a language. Each syllable in Chinese has a totally different meaning depending on the pitch or "musical" inflection used by the speaker. You will not be understood if you speak Chinese in a monotone voice.
There are numerous examples of this characteristic, but a standard example given to beginners is the word ma.
- (steady high pitch) ma = "mother,"
- (rising pitch) ma = "sesame or hemp,"
- (falling then rising pitch) ma = "horse,"
- (falling pitch) ma = "curse or scold."
Another example is the word tang.
- (steady high pitch) tang = "soup,"
- (rising pitch) tang = "sugar,"
- (falling then rising pitch) tang = "lie(lay, laid),"
- (falling pitch) tang = "scorching/hot/burn."
Sometimes, different tones in the same pronunciation can mean just the opposite: mai(falling then rising pitch) = "buy," while mai (falling pitch )="sell." As you can see, the same pronunciation with different tones can mean very different things.
The following brief guide to pronouncing Pinyin, though nontechnical in nature, is adequate to help you pronounce Chinese.
The basic vowels - a, e, i, o, and u - are generally pronounced as they are in Italian, German, and Spanish rather than in English.
| as in "father" |
| (in ian or yan) as 'e' in "get" |
| as the 'i' in "I" |
| as the 'ow' in "cow" |
| |
| (alone) between the 'u' in "up" and the 'u' in "lurch" |
| (before n or ng) like 'a' in "alone" |
| (after i or y) like 'e' in "wet" |
| as the 'ei' in "weigh" |
| |
| as the first e in "eve" |
| as in "yen" |
| as 'yeo' in "yeoman" |
| |
| as in "bold" (but with less of the ou sound of English) |
| as the 'oa' in "boat" |
| |
| as in "rude" or "truth" |
| when following ss or tz is barely audible |
| as in German "ü" |
| as 'a' in "way" |
| as 'a' in "war" |
Most letters in Pinyin, including the consonants and semi-vowels "w" and "y," are generally pronounced as they are in English. An apostrophe after a consonant indicates it is aspirated, accompanied by a marked exhalation of air.
| as in "be" |
| as 'ts' in "its" |
| as in "church" |
| as 'd' in "do" |
| |
| as 'g' in "go" |
| close to 'ch' in Scottish "loch" or German "nach" |
| |
| as 'j' in "jeep" |
| 'k' as in "kind" |
| as 'l' in "love" |
| as 'm' in "man" |
| as 'n' in "no" |
| (final) as 'ng' in "sing" |
| |
| as 'p' in "par" |
| as 'ch' in "cheek" |
| like the 'j' in French "je" |
| (ss, sz) as 's' in "sister" |
| as 'sh' in "shore" |
| (silent i!) as if English had a word spelled "shr" |
| (silent i!) as if English had a word spelled "sz" |
| as 't' in "top" |
| The letter "v" is not used in Chinese |
| |
| as 'sh' in "she" - thinly sounded |
| as 'y' in "yes" |
| as 'ds' in "kids" |
| as 'j' or 'g' in "judge" |
| (silent "i") as if English had a word spelled "jr" |
| (silent "i") as if English had a word spelled "dz" |
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