Mandarin tones: a practical guide (with tone trainer)

In Mandarin the pitch of a syllable is part of the word. 買 (买) mǎi means to buy and 賣 (卖) mài means to sell, and only the tone tells them apart. There are four tones and a neutral tone, which is a manageable number. What makes them hard is that textbooks teach them one syllable at a time, and nobody speaks one syllable at a time.

Kungfucius's view, after meeting tones twice (once as a beginner, and once again on the intermediate plateau when the accent refused to leave): practise tones in pairs, learn what the third tone really does, and learn the tone with the word, never afterwards.

The four tones and the neutral tone

Linguists describe pitch on a scale from 1 (the bottom of your normal speaking range) to 5 (the top).

Tone	Mark	Pitch	Description	Example
First	ā	5 to 5	High and level, like holding a note	媽 (妈) mā, mother
Second	á	3 to 5	Rising, like a surprised "what?"	麻 má, hemp
Third	ǎ	2 to 1 to 4 on its own, 2 to 1 in most speech	Low	馬 (马) mǎ, horse
Fourth	à	5 to 1	Sharp fall, like a firm "no!"	罵 (骂) mà, to scold
Neutral	a	short and light	Takes its pitch from the syllable before	嗎 (吗) ma, question particle

Two frequent beginner errors: a first tone that is not high enough, and a fourth tone that does not start high enough. Both come from speaking in a narrow, polite pitch range. Mandarin needs the whole range.

The third tone is a low tone, not a dipping tone

Every chart draws the third tone as a deep dip followed by a rise. That full contour exists, but it is rare in real speech. You hear it when a third-tone syllable is said alone, or stressed at the very end of a sentence. Everywhere else the rise is missing.

The half third tone

Before a first, second, fourth or neutral tone, the third tone is just low: it starts low, sinks to the bottom of the voice and stays there. Teachers call this the half third tone. It is by far the most common form.

Word	Pinyin	English	The third tone is
老師 (老师)	lǎoshī	teacher	low, then high level
美國 (美国)	Měiguó	America	low, then rising
好看	hǎokàn	good-looking	low, then falling
我們 (我们)	wǒmen	we	low, then a light neutral syllable

If you learn only one thing from this page, make it this: think of the third tone as "the low tone". Learners who try to dip and rise in every third-tone syllable sound seasick, and their third tones get confused with second tones.

Third-tone sandhi: 3 + 3 becomes 2 + 3

Sandhi means a tone that changes because of its neighbour. When two third tones meet, the first one is pronounced as a second tone. The Pinyin spelling does not change, so you have to know the rule.

Word	Written	Pronounced	English
你好	nǐ hǎo	ní hǎo	hello
可以	kěyǐ	kéyǐ	can, may
很好	hěn hǎo	hén hǎo	very good
水果	shuǐguǒ	shuíguǒ	fruit

With three or more third tones in a row, the grouping of the words decides.

Phrase	Structure	Pronounced	English
展覽館 (展览馆) zhǎnlǎnguǎn	(展覽) + 館	zhánlánguǎn: 2, 2, 3	exhibition hall
我很好 wǒ hěn hǎo	我 + (很好)	wǒ hén hǎo: low, 2, 3	I am fine
小老虎 xiǎo lǎohǔ	小 + (老虎)	xiǎo láohǔ: low, 2, 3	little tiger
我也很好 wǒ yě hěn hǎo	(我也) + (很好)	wó yě hén hǎo: 2, low, 2, 3	I am fine too

When the first two syllables form a unit, both change. When the last two form a unit, the first syllable stays low and only the middle one rises. In fast speech 我很好 often comes out as 2, 2, 3 anyway. Do not calculate this while talking. Learn the common phrases as ready-made melodies.

One more detail: a third tone before a neutral syllable is normally low, as in 姐姐 jiějie, older sister. But where the neutral syllable was originally a third tone, some words follow the sandhi rule: 小姐 xiǎojie, Miss, and 哪裡 (哪里) nǎli, where, are pronounced xiáojie and náli.

The tone changes of 一 and 不

Two of the most common characters change tone depending on what follows. Unlike third-tone sandhi, many textbooks and this site write the changed tone in the Pinyin.

Situation	一	Examples
Alone, in counting, in ordinals and dates, at the end of a word	yī	一 yī, 第一 dì yī (first), 十一 shíyī (eleven), 星期一 xīngqīyī (Monday)
Before a fourth tone	yí	一樣 (一样) yíyàng (the same), 一定 yídìng (certainly), 一個 (一个) yí ge (one of)
Before a first, second or third tone	yì	一天 yì tiān (one day), 一年 yì nián (one year), 一起 yìqǐ (together)

一個 takes yí because 個 was originally a fourth tone, gè, even though it is usually said in the neutral tone.

Situation	不	Examples
Normally	bù	不好 bù hǎo (not good), 不吃 bù chī (not eat), 不來 (不来) bù lái (not come)
Before a fourth tone	bú	不是 bú shì (is not), 不要 bú yào (do not want), 不對 (不对) bú duì (wrong)
Squeezed in the middle of a phrase	neutral	對不起 (对不起) duìbuqǐ (sorry), 好不好 hǎo bu hǎo (OK or not?)

Both rules have the same logic: two falling tones in a row are awkward, so the first one rises instead.

Tone pairs: the 20 combinations with common words

Most Mandarin words have two syllables, so the real unit of pronunciation is the pair. There are only 20 combinations: four tones times four tones, plus four with a neutral second syllable. Kungfucius finds that practising these 20 melodies works far better than drilling single syllables, because a pair already contains the half third tone, the sandhi and the neutral tone as they occur in speech.

Rows are the first syllable, columns the second.

	+ 1st	+ 2nd	+ 3rd	+ 4th	+ neutral
1st	今天 jīntiān, today; 咖啡 kāfēi, coffee	中國 (中国) Zhōngguó, China; 歡迎 (欢迎) huānyíng, welcome	機場 (机场) jīchǎng, airport; 喝水 hē shuǐ, to drink water	吃飯 (吃饭) chīfàn, to eat; 高興 (高兴) gāoxìng, happy	媽媽 (妈妈) māma, mum; 東西 (东西) dōngxi, thing
2nd	明天 míngtiān, tomorrow; 時間 (时间) shíjiān, time	銀行 (银行) yínháng, bank; 同學 (同学) tóngxué, classmate	啤酒 píjiǔ, beer; 沒有 (没有) méiyǒu, not have	學校 (学校) xuéxiào, school; 然後 (然后) ránhòu, then	朋友 péngyou, friend; 什麼 (什么) shénme, what
3rd	老師 (老师) lǎoshī, teacher; 北京 Běijīng, Beijing	美國 (美国) Měiguó, America; 旅行 lǚxíng, to travel	你好 nǐ hǎo, hello; 可以 kěyǐ, can (said 2 + 3)	好看 hǎokàn, good-looking; 請問 (请问) qǐngwèn, may I ask	我們 (我们) wǒmen, we; 喜歡 (喜欢) xǐhuan, to like
4th	麵包 (面包) miànbāo, bread; 上班 shàngbān, to go to work	問題 (问题) wèntí, question; 去年 qùnián, last year	上海 Shànghǎi, Shanghai; 電腦 (电脑) diànnǎo, computer	再見 (再见) zàijiàn, goodbye; 現在 (现在) xiànzài, now	謝謝 (谢谢) xièxie, thanks; 爸爸 bàba, dad

Notes on the table:

• The whole third row uses the low half third tone, except 3 + 3, which is pronounced 2 + 3.
• In 4 + 4 the first syllable does not need to fall all the way. Save the full drop for the second.
• The neutral tone is short and unstressed. After a third tone it sits a little higher, after the other tones it drops.
• Taiwan Mandarin uses fewer neutral tones than the mainland standard. In Taiwan you will usually hear 朋友 péngyǒu and 喜歡 xǐhuān with full tones.

How to learn Chinese tones

1. Learn the tone with the word. A word without its tone is half a word. When you look something up in Pleco, listen to it and say it before you read the English.
2. Drill the pairs. Take one row of the table per day. Say each word, record yourself and compare with native audio. The AllSet Learning pronunciation wiki has a page for each tone pair.
3. Exaggerate. What feels like bad opera to you sounds like normal Mandarin to a listener.
4. Imitate whole sentences. Shadowing and chorusing train the melody of connected speech, which is where tones fall apart.
5. Get corrected early, then occasionally. A few sessions with a tutor on italki who does nothing but fix your tones are worth more than months of guessing.
6. Listen every day, even for five minutes. The ear has to settle the matter before the mouth can.

A wrong tone is not an accent. It is a different word, and usually a worse one.

What to do next

If you are new, read the guide to Pinyin first, so that the tone marks have something to sit on. Then record the 20 pairs from the table, today, badly, and again in a week.

If you are intermediate and your tones are "mostly right", pick the three combinations you find hardest (for most learners 2 + 3, 3 + 2 and 4 + 4 are on the list) and collect ten everyday words for each. More background on training the ear is under pronunciation and tones.