question! These mark the “tones” in Chinese. Since you asked, we’ll learn tones now.
Tones are sounds that happen when you move your voice in different ways as you speak. There are four tones and one neutral tone in Chinese. Let’s take a closer look.
Unit 3 Tones 第三单元—声调
Look at the table below. We’ll use the word “yu” as an example. We’ll discuss its meanings later.
| Tone | Mark | Description |
| 1st | yū | Flat or high level tone |
| 2nd | yú | Starts medium in tone, then rises to the top |
| 3rd | yǔ | Starts low, dips to the bottom, then rises toward the top |
| 4th | yù | Starts at the top, then falls sharp and strong to the bottom |
| Neutral tone | yu | Flat, with no emphasis; it’s shorter and lower in pitch than the 1st tone. |
If we put the descriptions into a visual form—sketch them out—we get a graph like this:
Four tones graph
Now, follow along with me: we are going to read yu with each of the four tones. You may use your fingertip to trace over the appropriate mark on the graph above, as you speak each one. Pay attention to how your finger and your voice move up and down to reach different “pitch” levels.
| Tone | Mark | Meaning |
| 1st | 淤 yū | become silted up |
| 2nd | 鱼 yú | fish |
| 3rd | 雨 yǔ | rain |
| 4th | 玉 yù | jade |
| Neutral tone | yu | Not every Chinese character has a neutral tone. Many particle words have neutral tones, such as ma—吗, ne—呢, etc. You’ll see that in the next chapter. |
Great work—now you know how tones are made and how different they sound. And just as with yu above, remember that one character can have four different tones, and that same character pronounced with different tones can have different meanings. In Chinese, there are some characters that you don’t have to pronounce with an exactly accurate tone (because there is not much risk of confusion); but for others, you have to pronounce their tones correctly. For example, the word mai: with third tone mǎi 买 means “buy”; but with fourth tone mài 卖 means “sell”! What a big difference in their meanings! You don’t want to get this wrong when you shop in China.
Okay! Now that you have learned what pinyin is all about, and you know the initials, finals, and tones, it’s time to use them. You will see that you’re able to speak Chinese sentences already. Listen to the audio and follow along with me to read some “Practice Pinyin.” Nice and loud…
Practice Pinyin 拼音练习
| bā | bá | bǎ | bà |
| gē | gé | gě | gè |
| mēi | méi | měi | mèi |
| wō | wó | wǒ | wò |
| hē | hé | hě | hè |
| mā | má | mǎ | mà |
| jiē | jié | jiě | jiè |
| dī | dí | dǐ | dì |
| yōu | yóu | yǒu | yòu |
Sentence 1
I have dad, mom, an older brother, an older sister, a younger sister, and a younger brother.
Wǒ yǒu bà ba, mā ma, gē ge, jiě jie, mèi mei hé dì di.
我 有 爸 爸，妈 妈，哥哥，姐姐，妹 妹 和弟弟。
Let’s keep practicing:
| shī | shí | shǐ | shì |
| guō | guó | guǒ | guò |
| zāi | zái | zǎi | zài |
| zhōng | zhóng | zhǒng | zhòng |
| mēi | méi | měi | mèi |
| rēn | rén | rěn | rèn |
| xuē | xué | xuě | xuè |
| wēn | wén | wěn | wèn |
Sentence 2
I’m American. I’m learning Chinese.
Wǒ shì měi guó rén. Wǒ zài xué zhōng wén.
我 是 美 国 人。我 在 学 中 文。
Ho, ho! You have now spoken two very important sentences. Practice them with your friends and family. They’ll be surprised with your progress in your first lesson. You’re able to speak some real Chinese sentences! Not bad!
Now, take a break, and then we’ll start a new chapter. There are a lot of interesting things ahead for you to learn.
Note 注释
The pinyin system has some rules which you need to know. I don’t want to go through them one by one here, because it would be too dry for you. Instead I will discuss these rules in the following chapters using examples, to make the pinyin rules easier for you to learn and to memorize.
Wǒ kě yǐ jìn lái ma?
May I come in?
Měi gè rén dōu xǐ huān zhōng guó cài.
Everyone loves Chinese food.
Hěn gāo xìng jiàn dào nǐ.
Nice to see you.
