Chinese Course Basics

Some Crucial Rules with Tones !

It is important to remember which tones go with which words. It’s also important to know that sometimes the tone
associated with a specific word can change. Let’s see the rules :

1. When you have two 3 tones together, the first third tone becomes a second tone:
rd

Example: 你好 "nǐhǎo", when we say it, it becomes "níhǎo".

2. When you have a single word that is repeated, the second word becomes a neutral tone to soften the
sound:

Such as family titles:

爸爸 bàba
妈妈 māma
弟弟 dìdi (younger brother)
爷爷 yéye (grandpa)

3. When 不 is followed by another 4 tone then 不 becomes a 2 tone:

th nd

For example: 不会 is pronounced "búhuì".

4. if "一" is followed by a 1 , 2 , or 3 tone, it becomes a 4 tone:

st nd rd th

"一" is a very versatile word. When we’re talking about the number, "一" is easy to remember, it’s 1 tone.
st

But for example "一周", is pronounced "yìzhōu".

5. When "一" (yī) is followed by a 4 tone, yī become second tone and is pronounced as "yí ":
th

Example: 一半 pronounces as "yíbàn" rather than “yībàn".

At the beginning, If you couldn't pronounce tones exactly right, don’t worry, most of time, people could understand
what you are trying to say. As long as you take enough time to practice, your pronunciation will become better and
better.

What is Pinyin?
Pinyin, or Hanyu Pinyin, is the official phonetic system for transcribing the Mandarin pronunciations of Chinese
characters into the Latin alphabet in Mainland China, Taiwan, and Singapore. Chinese citizen used it to learn Chinese
from kid! It is used to teach Chinese too, and may be used as an input method to type in Chinese on your mobile
phone or computer.

The Hanyu Pinyin system was developed in the 1950s based on earlier forms of Romanization. It was published by the
Chinese government in 1958 and revised several times. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted
pinyin as an international standard in 1982.

The word Hànyǔ (simplified Chinese: 汉语; traditional Chinese: 漢語) means the spoken language of the Han people
and pīnyīn (Chinese: 拼音) literally means "spelled-out sounds".

At times, consonant clusters in Pīnyīn can seem just as nonsensical, but in general they are similar enough to
English. Please note:

ch as in chair, never the same as the ch in character.

q is much like ch, but is always followed by u or i to make a chew or chee sound respectively.
j is almost the same as in English.
zh also makes a j sound, but with more emphasis on your tongue at the roof of your mouth.
sh sounds the same as in English, like share.
x makes an sh sound where the s is drawn out a bit more.

Pīnyīn, like anything new, takes some time to get used to. Once you’re able to remember and associate the letters
that you’re already familiar that you’ve already used most of your life with different sounds, Pīnyīn can be an
indispensable tool in your learning process.

Here is a Pīnyīn table: http://lost-theory.org/chinese/phonetics/