Language Learning 101 discussion

Ok so to begin, you need to understand how to pronounce things!

What You Need To Know

Pinyin is the spelled out pronunciation of a Chinese character (Ex. 你 nǐ <-- that's the pinyin)

Tone

Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language.

Tone is really important because depending on how you pronounce the word, it can mean different things.

These are the different ways you can pronounce a word in Chinese:

1st tone - flat sound, straight across like "maaaaa" Ex. mā (mother)
2nd tone - rising sound, sounds like a question, like "huh?" Ex. má (type of fabric)
3rd tone - down then up, like a dip, Ex, mǎ (horse)
4th tone - falling sound, like "crap!" Ex. mà (to scold)

Hear the different tones here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orx53...

**There's an exception though. To make Chinese sound more fluid, you sometimes need to pronounce the tone different from its usually sound.

Exception #1: If you have two third tone characters next to each other , pronounce the first character as second tone so it sounds more fluid (nǐ hǎo sounds better pronounced ní hǎo)

Exception #2: If you have a third tone character in front of a second tone character, pronounce the third tone character as fourth tone to sound more fluid (kě néng sounds better pronounced kè néng)

Stay with me here though! It's really not too difficult once you learn that^^

Any questions?

You explained this really well... O.O XD

Yeah...

Really? Thanks! Does it kind of make sense? This is definitely the hardest part of Chinese, understand this stuff ^^

Yeah, it does! I was confuzzled at first bit then I read ot kinda slow and it made sense! :D

Ok great! Listening to the video helps a bit too :)

I know! I'd love to help, Rachel, if you'll have me...

Of course Rose!

My Chinese teacher made us relearn the 3rd tone for a week because she told us it wasn't a dipping tonal thingy... She sent us a video of herself in attempt to reteach us but I can't even explain what she tried to tell us.... And she's Chinese so I'm not really sure :/

My Chinese teacher used to yell at me all the time because my third tone sucked XD it's gotten much better now though :)

Our teacher was like "YOU DO NOT PRONOUNCE THE THIRD TONE LIKE HOW IT LOOKS.... IT IS LIKE _____" and I don't even remember.... :/

Our teacher says "dip it low, dip it deep"

for 4th tone she says "hit the floor, concussion, pause"

1st tone she says "heeeeeeyy soul sister"

2nd tone is "hit the ceiling, concussion, pause"

lol my teacher says we need to dip it down, but you don't go back up

LOL, I am in a chinese class but my mum teaches it and all of us are chinese, and the one who pronounces the tones the least correct is a cantonese girl.

I think Chinese is the most popular language right now ^.^

yes.

yeah people are starting to see how important it will be in life. I want to go into business so I'm going to need to know Mandarin most likely!

I'm better in Chinese than I am in Japanese. :P
It's just so much easier.

You are? I've always wanted to learn Japanese, the manga shows when they are turned english are just fab and the stories (Which I can't read) seem very interesting.

Interesting.

I'm not very good at tone xD I mess up with the tongue movements, mostly, since you don't have to worry about those in English.
Thanks for the lesson! :)