{"id":9817,"date":"2019-11-20T23:50:10","date_gmt":"2019-11-20T23:50:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/introductory-chinese\/learn-chinese-pinyin-in-21-days-day-1-tones\/"},"modified":"2019-11-20T23:50:10","modified_gmt":"2019-11-20T23:50:10","slug":"learn-chinese-pinyin-in-21-days-day-1-tones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/learn-chinese-pinyin-in-21-days-day-1-tones\/","title":{"rendered":"Learn Chinese Pinyin in 21 Days \u2013 Day 1: Tones"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<h3>What are the Chinese tones?<\/h3>\n<p>In English, to<em><\/em>nes are used to indicate whether a sentence is a  statement or a question. Changing the tone in English will change the  mood or the emphasis of the sentence, but not the meaning of the  sentence. Chinese sentences apply the same rules.<\/p>\n<p>However, Chinese is a to<em><\/em>nal language; each Chinese character has a  tone. Each pinyin syllable in Chinese can have 5 possible ways to  pro<em><\/em>nounce by varying the tone (pitch). There are four to<em><\/em>nes and neutral  tone (toneless) in Mandarin Chinese. One syllable, pro<em><\/em>nounced in  different to<em><\/em>nes will usually mean different things. Comparing with  English, which o<em><\/em>nly has rising tone and falling tone, Chinese has four  to<em><\/em>nes including flat tone, rising tone, falling-rising tone and falling  tone. This fact makes the Chinese Tone Training a fundamentally  im<em><\/em>portant part of any serious Chinese learners. Since even you can  pro<em><\/em>nounce the pinyin of a Chinese character correctly, if you do not  master tones, Chinese speakers will not understand you.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Learning Chinese pro<em><\/em>nunciation is the toughest part. Do not worry!  With this 21 day pinyin crash course, you shall get familiar with pinyin  and mastering it very quickly!<\/p>\n<h3>Focus from Day 1 &ndash; Tones<\/h3>\n<p>Since to<em><\/em>nes are the most difficult part for Chinese learners, we  focus the to<em><\/em>nes from day 1 in this Pinyin Crash Course. We will practice  to<em><\/em>nes every day in the 21 day&rsquo;s Pinyin Crash Course.<\/p>\n<h3>Tone marks<\/h3>\n<p>In Chinese it is always very im<em><\/em>portant to pro<em><\/em>nounce characters and  words with correct tone. In transliterated Chinese, tone markings are  written over the central vowels in most syllables. Some syllables have  no specific tone, and then no sign is put above any vowel, or called  neutral tone. In Mandarin Chinese there are four to<em><\/em>nes and a neutral  tone.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The 1st tone, flat tone is marked with a line over a vowel such as &ldquo;a&rdquo; + &ldquo;-&rdquo; = &ldquo;\u0101&rdquo;.<\/li>\n<li>The 2nd tone, rising tone is marked with a rising line over a vowel such as &ldquo;a&rdquo; + &ldquo;&acute;&rdquo; = &ldquo;&aacute;&rdquo;.<\/li>\n<li>The 3rd tone, falling-rising tone is marked with a hook over a vowel such as &ldquo;a&rdquo; + &ldquo;v&rdquo; = &ldquo;\u0103&rdquo;.<\/li>\n<li>The 4th tone, falling tone is marked with a falling line over a vowel such as &ldquo;a&rdquo; + &ldquo;`&rdquo; = &ldquo;&agrave;&rdquo;.<\/li>\n<li>For neutral tone also called to<em><\/em>neless tone (called &ldquo;light sound&rdquo; in  Chinese), no marking is put above any vowel. For example, &ldquo;a&rdquo; + &rdquo; &rdquo; =  &ldquo;a&rdquo;.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Using numbers to indicate the tones<\/h3>\n<p>In addition to use tone marks, Pinyin uses numbers to indicate the tones.<\/p>\n<h4>Pro<em><\/em>nunciation Guide<\/h4>\n<p>The following is the example of &lsquo;a&rsquo; with tone marks.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>First tone: a1 or \u0101\n<div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>Second tone: a2 or &aacute;\n<div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>Third tone: a3 or \u01ce\n<div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>Fourth tone: a4 or &agrave;\n<div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The following table describes 4 to<em><\/em>nes and the neutral tone marking the sound &ldquo;a&rdquo;.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td>Tone<\/td>\n<td>Pinyin<\/td>\n<td>Des<em><\/em>cription<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>1st<\/td>\n<td>\u0101<\/td>\n<td>flat tone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>2nd<\/td>\n<td>&aacute;<\/td>\n<td>rising tone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>3rd<\/td>\n<td>\u01ce<\/td>\n<td>falling-rising tone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>4th<\/td>\n<td>&agrave;<\/td>\n<td>falling tone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>Neutral<\/td>\n<td>a<\/td>\n<td>no tone<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p>Each tone has a distinctive pitch co<em><\/em>ntour which can be graphed as bellow.<br \/>  <a href=\"http:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/20191121_5dd68752c43fe.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"148\" src=\"http:\/\/kidschinesepodcast.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/10\/FourTones1-300148.jpg\" title=\"FourTones\" alt=\"Learn Chinese Pinyin in 21 Days \u2013 Day 1: Tones\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Tone Exercise<\/h3>\n<h4>Tone Exercise 1: Tone Combination Drill<\/h4>\n<p>In this exercise, we will combine first tone syllables with the second, third, and fourth tones.<br \/>  Listen to the audio first, and then repeat.<\/p>\n<p>1. \u0101 &aacute;  \u01ce &agrave;<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>  2. &aacute; \u01ce &agrave; \u0101  <\/p>\n<div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>  3. \u01ce &agrave; \u0101 &aacute;  <\/p>\n<div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>  4. &agrave; \u01ce &aacute; \u0101  <\/p>\n<div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h4>Tone Exercise 2: To<em><\/em>ngue Twister Drill<\/h4>\n<p>Listen to the to<em><\/em>ngue twisters below. Try to mimic the sound as closely as possible.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pinyin:<\/strong> m\u0101 m\u0101 q&iacute; m\u01ce m\u01ce m&agrave;n m\u0101 m\u0101 m&agrave; m\u01ce<br \/>  <strong>Chinese characters:<\/strong> \u5988\u5988\u9a91\u9a6c, \u9a6c\u6162, \u5988\u5988\u9a82\u9a6c.<\/p>\n<div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>  <strong>English translation:<\/strong> A mother was riding a horse; the horse ran slowly, she scolded the horse.<\/div>\n<div class=\"chine-tie-zi-nei-rong-zhi-hou\" id=\"chine-2907028280\"><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1889418300638825\" crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display:block;\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1889418300638825\" \ndata-ad-slot=\"7273022922\" \ndata-ad-layout-key=\"-gw-3+1f-3d+2z\"\ndata-ad-format=\"fluid\"><\/ins>\n<script> \n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); \n<\/script>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In English, tones are used to indicate whether a sentence is a  statement or a question. Changing the tone in English will change the  mood or the emphasis of the sentence, but not the meaning of the  sentence. Chinese sentences apply the same rules.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,2],"tags":[58,12,40,302,150,74,151,157,114],"class_list":["post-9817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chinese-pinyin","category-introductory-chinese","tag-chinese-characters","tag-chinese-pinyin","tag-chinese-sentences","tag-in-mandarin","tag-learn-chinese","tag-learn-chinese-pinyin-in-21-days","tag-mandarin","tag-mandarin-chinese","tag-pronunciation"],"views":444,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9817\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chinesemoment.com\/my\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}