The Mandarin tones explained, with a chart
Mandarin has 4 tones and a neutral tone, and a syllable's tone is as much a part of the word as its consonants: mǎi is "to buy" and mài is "to sell". This page puts the tones on one chart, explains the three rules that change them in running speech — the third-tone rule and the special behaviour of 不 and 一 — shows where the marks go in pinyin, and ends with the twenty two-syllable tone pairs that are the best way to practise them.
The tones at a glance
Tones are described with Yuen Ren Chao's pitch numbers, from 1 (the bottom of a speaker's normal range) to 5 (the top). A tone written 35 starts in the middle and rises to the top; 51 falls from the top to the bottom.
- First tone, 55
- Second tone, 35
- Third tone, 214
- Fourth tone, 51
- Third tone before other tones: 21
| Tone | Mark | Chinese name | Pitch | What it does | Example |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | ā | 阴平 yīnpíng | 55 | high and level, held | 妈 mā, mother |
| Second | á | 阳平 yángpíng | 35 | rises from the middle to the top, like a surprised "what?" | 麻 má, hemp; numb |
| Third | ǎ | 上声 shǎngshēng | 214 on its own; usually a low 21 in speech | dips to the bottom of the voice; rises again only at the end of a phrase | 马 mǎ, horse |
| Fourth | à | 去声 qùshēng | 51 | falls sharply from the top to the bottom, like a firm "no!" | 骂 mà, to scold |
| Neutral | none | 轻声 qīngshēng | no fixed pitch; set by the tone before it | short and light | 吗 ma, the yes-no question particle |
The row most worth understanding is the third. The full dip, 214, is what the tone sounds like said slowly on its own or at the end of a phrase. Anywhere else — before a first, second or fourth tone, and before most neutral tones — it is only the low part, 21, and the rise never comes. This "half-third" is the commoner of the two in real speech, so the useful way to think of the third tone is as the low tone, which happens to rise when it has time to. A learner who dips and rises on every third tone sounds slow and sing-song.
The neutral tone
Many syllables have no tone of their own: grammatical particles such as 吗 ma, 的 de and 了 le, suffixes such as 子 in 桌子 zhuōzi (table), the second half of doubled kinship words such as 妈妈 māma and 爸爸 bàba, and the second syllable of a great many ordinary two-syllable words. A neutral syllable is short, and its pitch depends on the tone before it: lowish after a first tone, in the middle after a second, highest after a third, and at the bottom after a fourth. In pinyin it is written with no mark.
It can change the meaning. 东西 dōngxī, with two full tones, is "east and west"; 东西 dōngxi, with a neutral second syllable, is "thing, stuff" — one of the commonest words in the language.
Third-tone sandhi: two thirds make a second
When two third tones come together, the first one changes to a second tone. 你好 is written nǐ hǎo and said ní hǎo. 很好 hěn hǎo ("very good") is said hén hǎo; 水果 shuǐguǒ ("fruit") is said shuíguǒ; 可以 kěyǐ ("can, may") is said kéyǐ. Pinyin keeps writing the original tones, so the change is something to know rather than something to read.
To a Chinese ear the changed syllable sounds exactly like a second tone, which is why the rule is usually stated that way. Longer chains depend on how the words group together. 我很好 wǒ hěn hǎo ("I'm fine") is usually said wó hén hǎo at normal speed, but wǒ hén hǎo, with a low wǒ, if the speaker pauses slightly after "I". In practice, a run of third tones comes out as rising tones with only the last one keeping its low pitch.
不 and 一: two words with rules of their own
不 ("not") is a fourth tone, bù, and stays one before first, second and third tones: 不喝 bù hē, 不来 bù lái, 不好 bù hǎo. Before another fourth tone it becomes a second tone: 不是 búshì ("is not"), 不要 búyào ("don't"), 不对 búduì ("that's wrong"). Between two copies of a verb, in a question, it is neutral: 是不是 shì bu shì ("is it or not?"), 好不好 hǎo bu hǎo.
一 ("one") is a first tone, yī, when it is said on its own, when counting, in ordinals such as 第一 dì-yī ("first"), and at the end of a word, as in 统一 tǒngyī ("to unify"). Before a fourth tone it becomes a second tone: 一个 yí ge ("one, a"), 一样 yíyàng ("the same"), 一定 yídìng ("certainly"). Before the other three tones it becomes a fourth tone: 一天 yì tiān ("one day"), 一年 yì nián ("one year"), 一起 yìqǐ ("together"). Between two copies of a verb it is neutral: 看一看 kàn yi kàn ("take a look").
一个 is written yí ge even though 个 is said with a neutral tone, because 个 is a fourth tone underneath and the rule looks at that. Dictionaries write 不 and 一 with their original tones, bù and yī, while many textbooks for learners write the tone that is actually said, as this page does.
Where the tone mark goes
A pinyin syllable carries one mark, and the rule for where it goes is short:
- If the syllable has an a or an e, the mark goes on it: hǎo, méi, xiè.
- In ou, the mark goes on the o: dōu, zǒu.
- Otherwise it goes on the last vowel: guǐ, liù, duō.
The dots on ü stay when a mark is added: 女 nǚ ("woman"), 绿 lǜ ("green"). When typing pinyin without marks, a number after the syllable stands for the tone — ma3 for mǎ, and ma or ma5 for the neutral tone.
The twenty tone pairs
Tones are hardest not on their own but next to each other, where a rise has to land before a fall begins. Most Mandarin words are two syllables long, so the standard drill is the twenty combinations of a first syllable in one of four tones with a second in one of five, counting the neutral tone. Every word below is a common one; the third row shows the half-third before other tones and the third-tone rule in nǐ hǎo.
| First syllable | + first | + second | + third | + fourth | + neutral |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First | 飞机 fēijī, plane | 中国 Zhōngguó, China | 铅笔 qiānbǐ, pencil | 天气 tiānqì, weather | 妈妈 māma, mum |
| Second | 明天 míngtiān, tomorrow | 学习 xuéxí, to study | 没有 méiyǒu, not have | 学校 xuéxiào, school | 朋友 péngyou, friend |
| Third | 老师 lǎoshī, teacher | 美国 Měiguó, America | 你好 nǐ hǎo (said ní hǎo), hello | 考试 kǎoshì, exam | 我们 wǒmen, we |
| Fourth | 面包 miànbāo, bread | 问题 wèntí, question | 电脑 diànnǎo, computer | 再见 zàijiàn, goodbye | 谢谢 xièxie, thank you |
Say each row, then each column. Two cells need particular care: a second tone after a fourth, as in wèntí, where the voice has to climb straight back up from the bottom, and fourth plus fourth, as in zàijiàn, where the first fall is usually cut short so that the second can fall in full.
How to learn them
- Learn every word with its tone, from the first day. A tone learned later has to be unlearned from the wrong one first.
- Learn words, not syllables. The pair drill above is worth more than any amount of mā má mǎ mà, because words are where tones collide.
- Treat the third tone as low. Save the rise for the end of a sentence, and the rest of the system falls into place.
- Listen before you speak. Recorded native speech — not a description of it — is what trains the ear, which is why every Mandarin word in the course is played aloud.
How much work the tones are, set against the rest of Mandarin, is the subject of is Mandarin hard to learn; Cantonese, with more tones and fewer shortcuts, is compared in Mandarin vs Cantonese, and how many words you need to speak Mandarin shows what to learn them on. Shanghainese runs its tones the opposite way — the first syllable of a word sets the melody for the rest — which is explained in Shanghainese tones and tone sandhi, and which Chinese language has the most tones compares the whole family. The Mandarin course teaches tones from the first lesson, with a tone drill in its listening practice, and the 1,000 most common Mandarin words all carry their pinyin.
Sources
- Chao, Y. R. (1930). A system of tone letters. Le Maître Phonétique 45; and Chao, Y. R. (1968). A Grammar of Spoken Chinese. University of California Press — the 1-to-5 pitch scale and the values 55, 35, 214 and 51.
- Duanmu, S. (2007). The Phonology of Standard Chinese, 2nd edition. Oxford University Press — the third tone as a low tone, and third-tone sandhi.
- Wikipedia: Standard Chinese phonology — the tone values, the tone names, the half-third, the pitch of the neutral tone after each tone, and the sandhi of the third tone, 不 and 一.
- Wikipedia: Pinyin — the rules for placing the tone mark.