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Lesson Transcript

Hi everyone.
Welcome to The Ultimate Chinese Pronunciation Guide.
In this lesson, you'll learn 7 Chinese consonants.
f, g, k, l, m, n, ng
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...
f
飞 fēi
房子 fángzi "house"
风水 fēngshuǐ "Geomancy/Feng shuey"
Like the F in the word 'find'.
f, f (slowly)
f, f (slowly)
The next consonant is...
g
高 gāo
给 gěi “to give”
工作 gōngzuò "work"
Like the K in the word 'skim' or 'skip'.
Be very careful with this sound though because it's not like the K in 'kit' for example.
The K in 'skim' doesn't have a burst of air at the end of the sound, whereas 'kit' *does*.
Sounds that have a burst of air are said to be aspirated, while sounds that *do not* have a burst of air, like this one, are unaspirated.
Unlike English, Chinese differentiates between aspirated and unaspirated sounds, so be careful of this.
k, k (slowly)
k, k (slowly)
The next consonant is...
k
口渴 kǒukě "thirsty"
顾客 gùkè "customer"
开关 kāiguān "switch"
This is the aspirated version of the K-sound, meaning there should be burst or release of air.
Like the K in the word 'kit'.
kʰ, kʰ (slowly)
kʰ, kʰ (slowly)
The next consonant is...
l
老 lǎo
龙 lóng "dragon"
力量 lìliang "power"
Like the L in the word 'let'.
l, l (slowly)
l, l (slowly)
The next consonant is...
m
母亲 mǔqīn
门 mén "door"
名字 míngzi "name"
Like the M in the word 'mouse'.
m, m (slowly)
m, m (slowly)
The next consonant is...
n
难 nán
您 nín "honorific term for 'you'"
牛奶 niúnǎi "milk"
Like the N in the word 'nice'.
n, n (slowly)
n, n (slowly)
And the final consonant sound is...
ng
北京 Běijīng
上海 Shànghǎi "Shanghai"
香港 Xiānggǎng "Hong Kong"
Like the ng sound in the word 'sing'.
ŋ, ŋ (slowly)
ŋ, ŋ (slowly)
Well done! You just learned your first 7 consonants in Chinese.
f, g, k, l, m, n, ng
In the next lesson, you'll learn 8 more consonant sounds that are identical to the ones in English.
Was seeing the pronunciation illustrations helpful? Please comment and share your thoughts.
See you in the next Ultimate Chinese Pronunciation Guide lesson!

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