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Pronunciation
Tones
There are four full tones in Mandarin pronunciation, and one neutral tone. Let's read out the vowel ¡°a¡± and Pin Yin ¡°ma¡± in the five tones.
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First tone
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Second tone
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Third tone
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Fourth tone
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Neutral tone
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Flat
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Up
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Turn
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Down
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Soft
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¨¡
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¨¢
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¨£
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¨¤
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a
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- The first tone is marked as a straight line "¡ª". It has a long and sustained sound (as if singing a note).
- The second tone is marked upwards like this "£¯" . It is a rising tone (start from the lower part of your voice, then go up).
- The third tone is marked down and up like this "V". It is a low and curved tone. Try to go as low as you can and then bounce up.
- The fourth tone is marked downwards like this "£Ü". It is a falling tone (start from the grating highest part of your voice, then go down, as if exclaiming).
- The neutral tone has no mark. It is a short and light tone.
Tones should be marked on a vowel. If a word has more than one vowel, the tone should be marked on the main vowel of the word. Vowels are listed in the following order: a, o, e, i, u and ¨¹. As the vowel ¡®a¡¯ appears first in this list, the tone in the word "niao" should be marked on the vowel ¡®a¡¯.
The tones are indicated by numbers in the following groups. Let's mark them on the correct vowels. You can check your answers by clicking on the groups.
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Exercise
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liao2
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kuai4
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zui4
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xiu3
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yue4
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fei2
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nie1
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l¨¹e4
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gei3
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hua1
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Let's read the four tones together to tell out the difference between them.
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¨¡ ¨¢ ¨£ ¨¤
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m¨¡ m¨¢ m¨£ m¨¤
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