Lesson Transcript

Welcome to Fun & Easy Chinese by ChineseClass101.com!
嗨大家好，我是李殷如.
(Hài dà jiā hǎo, Wǒ shì Lǐ Yīnrú.)
Hi everyone, Yinru Li here.
Do you find Chinese pronunciation difficult?
Chinese pronunciation is known to be challenging,
especially with the sounds and intonations
that don't exist in other languages.
In this lesson, we’ll take a close look
at a very unique but tricky part Chinese pronunciation: tones.
Most syllables in Pinyin, which is the romanization
of Chinese writing system are made of an initial,
which is a consonant,
a final, which is one or a combination of
vowels, and a tone mark on top of the vowel
letter.
To many non-native Chinese speakers, the most
difficult part is the ups and downs of sounds,
also known as intonation, or tones.
There are four marked tones in Chinese.
The first tone is marked with this, a horizontal line.
It's a very high pitch tone that is long and
flat, meaning you have to hold it at the same
high pitch.
It’s sort of a robot talking like this,
with a high pitch and a monotone.
ā [pronounced slow] ā.
For example, in the word 蜘蛛 (zhīzhū)
spider, both syllables are in first tone.
蜘蛛 (zhīzhū)
The second tone is marked with this sign, like a slash.
Just like the sign indicates, the second tone
is a rising tone.
We start from a middle pitch and go up relatively
fast.
It’s the same intonation you would use in
a question like "what?" "where?" and "huh?"
á [pronounced slow] á.
Now, in the word 其实 (qíshí)
“actually", both syllables are in the second tone.
其实 (qíshí)
Third tone!
The third tone is marked with this sign, like a "v" shape.
This tone sign suggests that the pitch goes
down then up, which is half true.
It starts from a very low pitch, then dips
down to an even lower pitch before it goes up.
This is the true part.
The other misleading part of the "down and
up" description of this tone is that the down
and up portion isn’t of the same value.
When native speakers say the third tone in
combinations at normal speed, sometimes you
can barely hear the inflection.
It’s almost the first tone at a lower pitch.
ǎ [pronounced slow] ǎ.
The verb 打 (dǎ) "to hit" and 扫 (sǎo)
to sweep are both in the third tone.
打 (dǎ), 扫 (sǎo)
And the fourth tone is marked with this sign, like a backslash.
Just like the sign indicates, it's a falling tone.
It starts at a high pitch, then drops down
sharp and short, almost sounding angry.
à [pronounced slow] à.
The two syllables in the word "world" 世界
(shìjiè) are both in the fourth falling tone.
世界 (shìjiè).
Other than the four tones mentioned above,
there’s a fifth tone that doesn’t come
with a tone mark.
It's called the neutral tone, which is pronounced
without any stress.
This tone is very light and fast, similar
to how light and fast the "s" is pronounced
in the English word "yes".
In some regions of China and in Taiwan, the
neutral tone isn’t used commonly.
However, in standard Chinese Mandarin, the
use of neutral tones is common.
They're often found at the end of a reduplicated
word, or as a final particle in a sentence
or question.
For example, the second "ma" in 妈妈 (māma)
mom is in a neutral tone.
妈妈 (māma)
So is the "ma" in 好吗？(Hǎo ma?)
Is it ok? 好吗？(Hǎo ma?)
Now here is a diagram of the four stressed
tones.
This should give you a better idea of the
pitch range, the duration and the contour
of the four tones.
The X axis is duration, and the Y axis is
pitch, from low to high.
ā First tone is high, flat and long.
á Second tone starts from mid-lower pitch,
then goes up fast.
ǎ
Third tone is the lowest.
Starting low, then dipping down even lower,
and then climbing up.
It's the longest tone of the four.
à Fourth tone starts high, then falls sharply.
It's very short.
In Chinese, one syllable can represent many
different words when indicated in different tones.
Let's take the syllable "ma" for example.
When it's pronounced with the first high tone,
mā could be the Pinyin for 妈, which means
mother.
With the second rising tone, "má" could be
the Pinyin for 麻, which means "numb" when
used as an adjective.
In the third dipping tone, "mǎ" represents
horse, 马.
When pronounced with the fourth falling tone,
mà could be the Pinyin for 骂, meaning
to scold.
骂 (mà)
mā, má, mǎ, mà
All different!
Since we know how big of a difference the
tones can make, let's check out a tongue twister in Chinese, it goes:
妈妈骑马, 马慢, 妈妈骂马.
(Māma qímǎ, mǎ màn, māma mà mǎ.)
"Mom rides the horse, the horse is slow, mom
scolds the horse."
Now, can you say it fast?
妈妈骑马, 马慢, 妈妈骂马.
(Māma qímǎ, mǎ màn, māma mà mǎ.)
In most cases, the tone of a word is consistent and doesn't change.
But on some rare occasions, the tones change
a bit, depending on the following word.
First, it's the 3+3 = 2+3 rule.
When a third tone is followed by another third
tone, or in other words, when two third tones
are right next to each other, the first third
tone changes to the second tone.
For example, earlier in this lesson, I gave
you two verbs 打 (dǎ) "to hit" and 扫 (sǎo)
to sweep as examples of the third tone.
打 and 扫 can be combined to make the compound
word 打扫 (dǎsǎo), meaning "to sweep up"
or "to clean up."
But when 打扫 are right next to each other,
the first word 打 changes to the second tone:
dásǎo.
So rather than straining yourself trying to
make two difficult low-pitched third tones,
this tone-changing rule actually makes it
easier for us to say words with multiple third tones.
Another well-known Chinese word 你好 (nǐhǎo)
is in the same category.
你好 The two third tones together change
to 你好 (níhǎo), second and third tone.
Even though the sound changes in this rule,
the tone marks on Pinyin stay the same.
The second rule is the 2 + 4 rule.
This rule applies to the tone changing of
the words 不 "not" and 一 “one".
First let's look at 不, the negating word.
Originally, the word 不, meaning "not," is
pronounced as bù, with the fourth tone.
But when 不 is followed by the fourth tone,
in other words, when there’s another fourth
tone following the first fourth tone 不,
the tone of 不 changes to the second rising tone.
That's why I describe this rule as 2 + 4.
For example, we say 不要 (búyào) meaning
don't want.
Because 要 is the fourth tone, 不 has to
change to the second tone.
不要 búyào
We say 不是 (búshì) "am not, is not, are
not" because 是 is the fourth tone.
When 不 is used alone, or when followed by
the other three tones, namely
the 1st, 2nd and 3rd tones, it's still the
fourth tone.
For example, 不知道 (bùzhīdào) "don't
know"，
不同 (bùtóng) "not the same"，
不好 (bùhǎo) "not good."
The same tone changing rule applies to 一
one, but with one more variation.
When used as a numeral, 一 (yī) is in its
original first tone.
一.
When 一 is followed by the fourth tone, 一
becomes the second rising tone.
For example, 一样 (yíyàng) "same",
一次 (yícì) "once".
When 一 is followed by the rest of the three
tones, it becomes the fourth falling tone.
For example,
一般 (yìbān) “normally,"
一直 (yìzhí) "always,"
一起 (yìqǐ) “together."
Saying Chinese words with the right tones
can be frustrating at first.
My advice is that when you practice, always
hear and say the word as a whole, instead
of separating each syllable and its tones.
Do drills in tone combinations, and practice
every day.
Eventually, they'll come out of your mouth
as naturally as the tunes you're familiar
with.
For example, a lot of Chinese learners find
the third + second tone pair the most difficult.
Here are some examples you can practice saying
over and over again, until you get the hang of it.
First word: 美国 (Měiguó) "United States of America."
美国 (Měiguó)
小时 (xiǎoshí) “hour" 小时
女儿 (nǚér) "daughter" 女儿
So say 美国 小时 女儿, 美国 小时 女儿,
美国 小时 女儿, over and over again,
until it leaves a mark in your brain!
Hope you find this lesson useful.
I'll see you again on ChineseClass101.com! 再见！

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