Language/Mandarin-chinese/Pronunciation/Tips-for-Sounding-Like-a-Native

Chinese Pronunciation: Tips for Sounding Like a Native

你好 Chinese Learners! 😃

Pronunciation in Chinese is one of the first difficulties encountered by all beginners who embark on learning this language. However, a good pronunciation in Mandarin is the basis of everything if you plan to travel, study or work in China!

For people to understand you, you will need to be able to pronounce the vowel and consonant sounds correctly, but that's not all! You will also have to master the tones…

And this is where things get seriously complicated. Many beginners make fatal mistakes like skipping tones when learning Mandarin to focus only on Pinyin. Ouch ouch ouch… Bad idea!

If you want to sound like a native in Chinese, you need to have excellent pronunciation. Rest assured, there are techniques to improve yourself. And if you apply the right methods, you too can make it happen!

Pronunciation in Chinese: A brief recap of the basics to know

In the Chinese language, there are few possible sound combinations.

Not all initials (often consonants) go with all finals (often vowels). For you, there are only 400 possible syllables in Chinese, while there are thousands in other languages like French or English.

Also, most Mandarin words are only one or two syllables long. But how do the Chinese manage to understand each other with so few possible sounds in their language? They use tones!

Tones are used to differentiate words with identical pinyin

There are 4 tones in Mandarin, which allow each syllable to be pronounced in 4 different ways by changing the intonation.

For example the sound "ma" consists of the initial "m" and the final "a". But if you just say "ma" and omit the tone, that word can mean a lot of things: horse, mom, insult, sacrifice, do you?, etc. This is why you need to add a tone to make yourself understood.

• in the first tone, “mā” means “mom”;
• in the second tone, “má” means “numb, insensitive”;
• in the third tone, "mǎ" sign "horse"
• in the fourth tone, “mà” means “speaks out, insult”.

These nuances of sound may seem subtle to a foreigner, but to a Chinese, they make all the difference!

• More information about Chinese Tones: https://polyglotclub.com/help/language-learning-tips/chinese-tones

What will happen if you mess up the pinyin pronunciation or omit the tones?

If you want to speak Chinese well, you will need to master:

• initials and finals thanks to the phonetic transcription table of Chinese sounds (hanyu pinyin);
• tones and their variations.

If you don't know pinyin AND tones, the Chinese won't understand you, which can quickly become very frustrating...

Imagine asking for a "drink" （杯子－ bēi zi）in a bar and your interlocutor understands a "blanket" （被子 － bèi zi） just because you don't pronounce the tone well... In the end, it's a as if you were confusing the words "fish" and "poison" in French. The pronunciation is similar, but it changes the whole meaning!

Common mistakes not to make

This is how most beginners learn Chinese pronunciation. We will start from the example of the word “weather” 天气 ( tiān qì):

• they take the pinyin and they associate the sound with a mixture of letters in their native language. For example, the "tian" becomes "t + inspiration + i + ene".
• Then they add the tone t-inpiration-i-ene + 1st tone.
• They then add the second syllable of the word: qi “t-ch-i” + 4th tone.
• Instead of simply retaining the pronunciation of tiān qì (the weather), they will therefore retain t-inpiration-i-ene + 1st tone + t-ch-i + 4th tone. That makes it information to remember for a simple word… It looks like a mathematical equation!

Imagine having to go through this mental process every time you learn a new word in Chinese. It is not possible !

No wonder, then, that many beginners neglect tones. They have to retain so much information that they think that in the end, the tones may not be necessary. Big mistake ! If you omit them, you risk experiencing strange misunderstandings in China…

Now let's see how to pronounce syllables and tones in Chinese!

Better Pronounce Chinese Syllables with Pinyin

Before focusing on the tones, let's go back to the basics: the pronunciation of Pinyin!

If you confuse "x", "j" and "q" in Chinese, you will hardly be able to go further. If you've been learning Mandarin for several months, but still don't feel comfortable with pinyin, don't hesitate to review the basics now. Sometimes, when the foundations are not solid enough, it is better to start from the beginning, rather than stubbornly moving forward and always repeating the same mistakes.

If you're not comfortable writing pinyin in Chinese yet, start by reading this lesson: ➡ Pinyin Lesson.

Above all, avoid as much as possible writing Chinese sounds from you native language sounds, as is often recommended in language learning methods.

For example, to learn the pronunciation of the word 你好 (Hello), make the effort to learn the pinyin writing “nǐ hǎo” rather than its English imitation “Ni Hao”. Although it may help you at first, you risk distorting the sound and picking up bad habits!

I also advise you to listen to the sounds through audios and practice repeating them out loud. I'll explain later in this article how to sound as native as possible using this technique.

One last tip for the road: pay particular attention to nasal syllables, like “yin” and “ying”, which are often confused by beginners!

Pronouncing tones in Chinese, a possible difficulty to overcome

Master each tone separately

There are 4 tones in Chinese. Start by learning each tone separately.

Next, ask about tonal shifts. Indeed, some tones change if they are followed by another tone. For example, if two "third tones" follow each other, the first third tone will become a second tone. You follow ? It's not that difficult! You will understand better with the example below.

Take for example the word 你好 which is written in pinyin nĭ hăo. In reality, in practice, it will be necessary to pronounce “ní” and “hǎo”. It will be like this for all the words with two third tones that follow each other. You will also notice that it is much easier to pronounce this word thanks to the variations of the tones!

Learn the tones 2 by 2

Once you master each tone separately, I recommend that you start learning the tones 2 by 2, that is, by learning the words directly, rather than each syllable separately.

Makes sense when you think about it, but many beginners don't! Instead of learning to say “nĭ” and “hăo”, learn directly “ní hǎo” with the correct pronunciation (2nd then 3rd tone). A real energy boost, don't you think?

Don't neglect the tones in your learning

Most beginners learn tones theoretically and stop at this first step. But you want to sound like a native and have excellent Chinese pronunciation, right? So, do not neglect this element of language in practice.

Think about it every time you learn a new word or speak Chinese. At first it will be difficult, but it will become more and more natural.

If you don't use tones, your speech will sound choppy at best, and incomprehensible at worst. I hope you are now convinced of the importance of tones!

Tips to sound like a native Chinese

Listen to the pronunciation of a word and not just read pinyin

When you start, you have to start by learning the famous table of Chinese phonetics, as well as the different tones and their variations. This is the first step and the fastest way to learn Chinese... But don't stop there!

If you really want to improve in Chinese, you have to manage to stop thinking in terms of pinyin, but in terms of sounds. And for that, you have to listen to native speakers!

So, when you learn a word, I advise you to always listen to it on an application (for example Pleco, Chinese Pod or Forvo). You can also listen to the word in a YouTube video or ask a Chinese friend to pronounce it and correct your own pronunciation.

You don't have a Chinese partner yet? ➡ Find a Chinese Friend on Polyglot Club.

Learn tones with stories

Can't remember the tones? You learn them diligently, but you tend to forget them immediately? What if you invented little stories to memorize the tones?!

This memorization technique is ultra-powerful! Let’s take the example given by Menglong on the Chinese Tips forum to better understand this method.

For example, to remember the word 超市 (chao1shi4), which means “supermarket”, Menglong imagines a character having fun skidding along the aisles of a supermarket (chāāāāāāāāāāāāāāāo). Then, it stops short in front of the ray that interests it (shì!) It therefore gives a “chāāāāāāāāāāāāāāo shì!” You will never forget again that "supermarket" is pronounced with a first tone followed by a fourth tone (chāoshì). 🤩👍

Learn writing and pronunciation simultaneously

When you learn a new word in Chinese, you should not memorize the pronunciation and the writing separately. You have to learn Pinyin, Tone and Chinese Character simultaneously!

For this, take a Chinese writing notebook, write the character and above each character, note the pinyin and the tone. Listen to its pronunciation as advised earlier in this article. Write the character on one or two lines for each new word, listening and pronouncing each time what you write.

Listen to Chinese language broadcasts every day

The ideal for any Chinese learner would be to no longer think in terms of pinyin + tone, but to directly retain the sound, as a native Chinese would.

Indeed, Chinese children first learned to speak, then they learned characters. They do not study pinyin and tones. Besides, if you ask a Chinese the tone of a word, he will surely be wrong, because he is not used to differentiating the tone from the rest of the pronunciation.

Learning the sound without going through pinyin is almost impossible for a beginner in Chinese. So don't worry if you can't get there yet. But if you ever want to be successful in mastering tones perfectly, you'll also have to think long term. This is why we must sow seeds today by listening to natives speak. By dint of listening, your Chinese will become more and more fluent!

Do not hesitate to consult the forum to find ideas for Chinese TV series, cartoons or songs to practice your listening comprehension in Mandarin!

Other Lessons

• Alphabet and Pronunciation Pinyin
• The 5 Tones of Mandarin Chinese
• Accents
• Table of Chinese Phonetics