Prepared By:

Dianne Pauline J. Rabe, LPT

Mandarin Instructor
笔画 | Bǐhuà | Stroke
笔画 Bǐhuà Stroke is the
smallest and the most basic
structural unit of Chinese characters,
consisting of dots and lines.
笔画 | Bǐhuà | Stroke
These strokes can be
divided into "basic"
strokes and
"combined" strokes.
= made up of two (2) or more basic strokes.
Chinese Tones are represented by
little lines above the letters, kind
of like accents in other languages.
Tones tell you how to accentuate
the sound. In Chinese, each
syllable has its own tone.
 REMEMBER:
• Tone marks are always put above the
VOWELS (Finals).

VOWELS/FINALS:
a o e i u ü
 VOWELS/FINALS:
a o e i u ü
1. hao 6. bie If there are two (2)
vowels/finals in a
2. chuan 7. luo Pinyin, put the tone
3. chai 8. mao mark on the vowel
whichever goes first
4. zhuo 9. wei on the ORDER of the
Chinese vowels/finals.
5. bei 10. bian
 And here’s how you’re supposed to pronounce
each tone.

•FIRST TONES are high and level.

They sound high and flat, like the second syllable in
“ta-daa!”
•SECOND TONES are rising tones
Think of them as asking “what?!”
SOURCE: https://web.mit.edu/jinzhang/www/pinyin/tones/index.html#tonemarks
 And here’s how you’re supposed to pronounce
each tone.

•THIRD TONES start low, dip and then go back up.

They’re often the easiest to recognize because of
the way the voice goes up and down.
SOURCE: https://web.mit.edu/jinzhang/www/pinyin/tones/index.html#tonemarks
And here’s how you’re supposed to pronounce
each tone.

•FOURTH TONES start high and fall low. They’re

also called falling tones.
Kinda like saying “hey”.
= counterpart to the second tone.
= fourth tone is harsh and bold.
SOURCE: https://web.mit.edu/jinzhang/www/pinyin/tones/index.html#tonemarks
And here’s how you’re supposed to pronounce
each tone.

•Lastly, NEUTRAL TONES

Good news: no effort needed to learn those! ☺

Examples:

ma lao peng bei mi

ACTIVITY NO: ______ DATE: _________
TASK: Put the correct tone marks on the
following Pinyin. Afterwards, take a video of
yourself/record yourself while pronouncing each
Pinyin.
1. hao – 1st tone 6. bie – 4th tone
2. chuan – 4th tone 7. luo – 3rd tone
3. chai – 3 tone
rd 8. mao – 2 tone
nd

4. zhuo – 2nd tone 9. wei – 1st tone

5. bei – 1st tone 10. bian – 3rd tone
NOTE:
a. Upload your self-made video in your OWN
Google drive.
b. Right click the video you uploaded then click
SHARE.
c. Change its privacy into “anyone with the link”.
This means, anyone on the internet with this
link can view the video you uploaded.
d. Click COPY LINK.
e. Go to our LMS. Paste the link of your video in
the assignment posted.
f. Finally, click HAND IN or TURN in. Wait for the
notification that your link is posted already.
Double check, then you’re all set. Wait for your
output to be graded by the instructor.