Lesson 2: Pronunciation with the Four Tones
Now you have learned the simple finals and all the initials of Pinyin alphabet. It's time to learn the four tones. Mandarin Chinese has four tones, the second tone and the fourth tone is similar to the "up" and "down" tones in English sentences. (e.g. when asking a question, you likely to raise the tone of the sentence on the last word: "are you sure" and when you have a definite answer, your tone likely to firmly drop on the last word: "of course!") In this case, every single Chinese word has one of the four tones. These four tones can be visually represented by four marks: -, /, V, \. And they are always placed on the final alphabets when to spell a word using Pinyin. Here are the proper examples:
| Tones and Marks | Used in Words |
Demo |
Tips |
| 1st tone, - | bā |
high level tone and goes flat | |
| 2nd tone, / | bá |
raise the tone higher | |
| 3rd tone, v | bǎ |
the hardest one, drop the tone first then raise it higher, like a curve | |
| 4th tone, \ | bà |
a falling tone |
Compound Finals:
The 30 compound finals are some what related to the simple finals from lesson 1. If you listen to the recordings carefully, you will realize they are naturally combining the default pronunciations of the combined simple alphabets. They seems to be impossible to remember, only long term practice will help. So, for now, just listen through them carefully and try to identify some trends of combining them, and use this table as a reference table for later on practices.
ai |
ia |
ua |
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ei |
iao |
uo |
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ao |
ie |
uai |
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ou |
iu |
ui |
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an |
ian |
uan |
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en |
in |
un |
|||
ang |
iang |
uang |
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eng |
ing |
ueng |
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ong |
iong |
üe |
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er |
üan |
||||
ün |
Dialog:
Pinyin |
Chinese Pronunciation |
Chinese Character |
English |
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initial |
final |
combination |
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d |
ong |
dōng |
东 |
east |
|
h |
ao |
haǒ |
好 |
good |
|
x |
in |
xīn |
心 |
heart |
|
t |
ian |
tián |
田 |
cornfield, farmland |
|
j
|
in
|
jìn
|
进
|
advance, forward
|
|
Questions and Comments
