Tones - Mandarin Chinese I

In Mandarin, words that have the same pronunciation can have different meanings depending on how the word is said. In this lesson, you will learn how tone affects words in Mandarin Chinese. The tone of a word describes how the pitch changes as the word is said. There are four tones and a neutral in Mandarin. The tones are represented in Pinyin by marks above the words and are read from left to right. The absence of a tone also has meaning.

For example, the word ma can have a number of different meanings depending on how it is said: mā, má, mǎ, mà, or ma.

Word with tone	English meaning	Description of tone	Name of tone
mā	Mother	High and level	1st tone
má	To bother	Rising from middle to high	2nd tone
mǎ	Horse	First falling then rising	3rd tone
mà	To scold	Falling from high	4th tone
ma	An interrogative particle	Brief and soft	Neutral

Tone marks

Tone marks are written above the main vowel of a syllable. The main vowel can be identified according to the following sequence: a>o>e>i>u>ü. However, when i and u are combined into a syllable, the tone mark is written on the second vowel.

Example: liú, guì

Pronunciation

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

Listen & practice

bā	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
bá	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
bă	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
bà	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
mī	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
mí	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
mĭ	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
mì	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
pū	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
pú	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
pŭ	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
pù	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.

tē	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
té	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
tĕ	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
tè	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
bō	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
bó	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
bŏ	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
bò	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
jū	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
jú	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
jŭ	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.
jù	You must have javascript and Flash Player to play this video.