大家好,
Learning Mandarin tones is probably one of the biggest challenges Chinese learners face especially for English speakers who didn’t grow up exposed to a tonal language.
But fear not, tones can be learned as an adult (I learned them in my 30s) and I’m going to show you a trick to make learning tones easier.
What Are Mandarin Tones?
Chinese is a tonal language. This means that different characters can have the same pinyin syllables but have different pitch patterns to carry different meanings.
The good news is that there are only 4 main tones in Mandarin, so you just need to learn them once and you’re set.
Many learners forgo learning tones because they seem too hard or confusing but this is a mistake. Tones are an essential part of proper pronunciation and speaking with improper tones can lead to miscommunication and misunderstandings.
Visualize The 4 (+1) Tones
There are four basic tones in Mandarin Chinese, plus a neutral tone. The trick to remembering tones is to visualize their sound whenever you hear or say them to reinforce your learning.
First tone (ā): This tone is high and level, with a steady and sustained pitch.
Second tone (á): This tone starts at a mid-level pitch and rises to a higher pitch.
Third tone (ǎ): This tone starts at a mid-low pitch, dips down, and then rises again.
Fourth tone (à): This tone is characterized by a sharp and falling pitch.
Neutral tone: The neutral tone is toneless or unstressed, often shorter and lighter in pronunciation. It is typically used for syllables that appear in certain grammatical structures or as a result of tone sandhi (tone changes in connected speech)
How To Easily Remember Tones
PS Trying to improve your pronunciation alone is difficult. That’s why I’m helping a few students with a case study this month to improve your pronunciation and speaking with personalized feedback. If you want help message me.
You’re probably asking, “But Danyo, they all sound the same to me, how am I supposed to remember these tones?”
I don’t often recommend brute memorization, but tones are one of the few exceptions because they are so important and foundational to everything you will learn later.
Also, you only have to learn four of them. You want to be able to reproduce all four tones on command to fully master this foundational skill.
To easily remember the four tones, use these English approximation tricks that helped me:
First tone: Say the English word “maybe” out loud. The first part of the word “may-” has the same tone as the first tone. If you ever forget the first tone, go back to “maybe”.
Second tone: The second tone is like the rising tone that happens at the end of a sentence in English. Like when we say the word “huh?” or “what?”.
Third tone: Most teachers teach the third tone as having a down and up component but I’ll let you in on a little secret that made learning this a lot easier. In real life, most native speakers don’t pronounce the second part (rising portion). In real life, only the first down portion is pronounced, especially when in the middle of a sentence. This is a low pitch. Think of the common English filler word “ummm” or “uhh”, it's the same tone.
Fourth tone: This has a similar tone as when we greet someone with “Hey!” in English, short and falling. Another example is think of Santa Claus saying “HO HO HO”, very similar to the 4th tone.
Practice With The Pinyin Chart
I introduced the pinyin chart in a previous lesson. It’s a vital tool that helped me improve my Mandarin pronunciation and tones.
I used the chart to practice hearing the differences between the four tones. I recommend using an interactive pinyin chart like this one to practice.
Each cell in the chart represents a specific Pinyin syllable, and it contains the Romanized spelling of the syllable along with the corresponding tone mark.
For example, a Pinyin chart cell might contain the syllable "ma" with a first tone, which represents the Mandarin word for "mother."
Exercise:
Practice your pronunciation using the table.
Pick an initial consonant (row). For example, you can start with “b-” and go through each column matching it with different final vowel sounds creating different syllables.
Click on them to hear the four tones and try to mimic or reproduce these sounds right after.
Regularly review the pinyin chart. Repetition is key to reinforce your learning and improve your pronunciation.
In Practice
Learning to speak fluent Mandarin requires you to master tones. I recommend using visualization, English approximations, and the pinyin chart to help you master tones.
Trying to improve your pronunciation alone is difficult. That’s why I’m helping a few students with a case study this month to improve your pronunciation and speaking with personalized feedback. If you want help message me.
闻而忘之;见而记之;行而知之,
Danyo
PS Here are some other ways I can help you level up your Chinese:
Copy Paste Speaking Course: The self-directed system I used to learn to get conversational, improve my listening and pronunciation and speak Chinese like native speakers
Language Learner OS: This is a digital system to help organize your language studies, track vocabulary, build connections, stay productive, and learn faster!
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Something I find useful is when I learn vocabulary, I always learn the tone with it. I am absolutely ruthless with myself and never consider a word learnt unless I know the correct tones as well!😁