Resources - tones - ChineseTones

1. Brief introduction to Chinese tones

Mandarin is a tonal language. That means that a tone is associated with each syllable. Chinese has four tones, which vary in pitch and duration. The meaning of the word is completely different if you change the tone. Mastering the tones is the key to speaking Mandarin. Your sentences won’t make sense if you do not use the tones correctly.

For example, the word "ma" can have a number of different meanings depending on how it is said.

Word with tone	Audio	Description of tone	Description of tone	Name of tone
mā		mother	The straight line over the word indicates that the word should be said with a flat and unchanging high tone.	1st tone
má		to bother	The mark going up above the word indicates the word should be said in a rising tone.	2nd tone
mǎ		horse	The dipping mark above the word indicates that the word should be said with a falling and then rising tone.	3rd tone
mà		to scold	The mark above the word indicates that the word should be said with a falling tone.	4th tone
ma		grammatical marker used to show a question.	When a word has no tone or mark above the word it is said to be neutral and is pronounced in an abbreviated manner with no emphasis.	Neutral

Using tones 1, 3, 4, and 5 in order we can form the sentence: mā mà mǎ ma?
This sentence asks the question: Did mother scold the horse?

The following diagram shows how the tones are pronounced in relation to each other.

2. Tones practice

Mastering the tones is the key to speaking Mandarin as well as a difficulty for learners. ChineseTones offers you an effective way to master Chinese tones. Please look through the lessons specially designed for learning tones.

A: Nǐ hǎo!
你好！
Hello!

B: Nǐ hǎo!
你好！
Hello!

A: Wǒ xìnɡ Zhào,jiào Zhào Měijiā.Nǐ jiào shénme mínɡzi?
我姓赵，叫赵美佳。你叫什么名字？
I am Zhao Meijia, and Zhao is my family name. What’s your name?

B: Wǒ jiào Lǐ Yǒnɡzhé.Hěn ɡāoxìnɡ rènshi nǐ. （wò shǒu）
我叫李永哲。很高兴认识你。（握手）
My name is Li Yongzhe. Nice to meet you. (Shake hands)

A: Wǒ yě hěn ɡāoxìnɡ rènshi nǐ.
我也很高兴认识你。
Nice to meet you, too. Are you Chinese?