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VOWEL COMBINATIONS
These single vowels combine with each other or with the consonants of n or ng to form what are technically known as diphthongs. These combinations are pronounced as a single sound, with a little more emphasis on the first part of the sound.
You can learn these combinations in four groups:
| Group 1: | diphthongs starting with a/e/ê |
| ai | similar to y in my |
| ao | similar to ow in how |
| an | |
| ang | |
| en | |
| eng | |
| ei | similar to ay in may |
| Group 2: | diphthongs starting with i |
| ia | |
| ie | similar to ye in yes |
| iao | |
| iou | similar to you (spelled iu when preceded by a consonant) |
| ian | |
| ien | similar to in (spelled in when preceded by a consonant) |
| ieng | similar to En in English (spelled ing when preceded by a consonant) |
| iang | similar to young |
| iong |
| Group 3: | diphthongs starting with u/o |
| ua | |
| uo | |
| uai | similar to why in British English |
| uei | similar to way (spelled ui when preceded by a consonant) |
| uan | |
| uen | (spelled un when preceded by a consonant) |
| ueng | |
| uang | |
| ong |
| Group 4: | diphthongs starting with ü |
| üe | used only after j, q, x; spelled ue |
| üen | used only after j, q, x; spelled un |
| üan | used only after j, q, x; spelled uan |
1.2 Consonants
Consonants may be grouped in the following ways.
| Group 1: | These consonants are almost the same in Chinese and English. |
| CHINESE | ENGLISH |
| m | m |
| n | n |
| f | f |
| l | l |
| s | s |
| r | r |
| b | pronounced as hard p (as in speak) |
| p | p (as in peak) |
| g | pronounced as hard k (as in ski) |
| k | k (as in key) |
| d | pronounced as hard t (as in star) |
| t | t (as in tar) |
| Group 2: | Some modification is needed to get these Chinese sounds from English. |
| CHINESE | ENGLISH |
| j | as j in jeep (but unvoiced, not round-lipped) |
| q | as ch in cheese (but not round-lipped) |
| x | as sh in sheep (but not round-lipped) |
| c | as ts as in cats (make it long) |
| z | as ds as in beds (but unvoiced, and make it long) |
Group 3: No English counterparts
Chinese zh, ch, and sh have no English counterparts. You can learn to say zh, ch and sh starting from z, c and s. For example, say s (which is almost the same as the English s in sesame) and then roll up your tongue to touch the roof of your mouth. You get sh.
TONES
Chinese is a tonal language, i.e. a sound pronounced in different tones is understood as different words. So the tone is an indispensable component of the pronunciation of a word.
1.3 Basic tones
There are four basic tones. The following five-level pitch graph shows the values of the four tones:
• The First Tone is a high, level tone and is represented as ¯, e.g. 妈 mā (meaning mother, mom).
• The Second Tone is a high, rising tone and is represented by the tone mark ́, e.g. 麻 má (hemp or sesame).
• The Third Tone is a falling, then rising tone. As you can see from the pitch graph it falls from below the middle of the voice range to nearly the bottom and then rises to a point near the top. It is represented by the tone mark ˇ, e.g. 马 mǎ (horse).
• The Fourth Tone is a falling tone. It falls from high to low and is represented by the tone mark ̀, e.g. 骂 mà (curse).
In Chinese speech, as in English speech, some sounds are unstressed, i.e. pronounced short and soft. They do not have any of the four tones. Such sounds are said to have Neutral Tone. Sounds with the neutral tone are not marked. For example in 爸爸 bàba (daddy) the first syllable is pronounced in the fourth tone and the second syllable in the neutral tone, i.e. unstressed.
TONE CHANGES
Tones may undergo changes in actual speech (“tone sandhi”). The third tone, when followed by a first, second, fourth or neutral tone sound, loses its final rise and stops at the low pitch. Followed by another third tone sound, it becomes the second tone. This is a general rule and the notation of third tone sounds remains unchanged.
For example, in 所以 suǒyǐ (therefore, so), notation remains the third tone for both syllables, but the word is actually pronounced like suóyǐ.
Two important words 不 bù (no) and 一 yī (one) also undergo tone changes. You will find the details of their tone changes under these entries.
1.4 Syllables: Distinct units
Normally a consonant and a vowel, said in a particular tone, merge to form a syllable in Chinese. Every syllable is a distinct unit in speech. Learners should say each syllable clearly and give full value to most syllables in speech. The general impression of Chinese speech, described in musical terms, is staccato rather than legato (which could be used to describe English).
1.5 Pinyin: the romanization scheme to show pronunciation
As Chinese writing normally does not indicate pronunciation, a romanization scheme, known as pinyin, is used to represent the sounds and tones of Chinese, as in this dictionary. Pinyin is useful for learning the phonetics of Mandarin.
2 WRITING CHINESE: 汉字 Hànzi
Chinese is not phonetic like most European languages (in varying degrees). Chinese is written in logograms, known as 汉字 (Hànzi) and generally referred to as “Chinese characters”, or “Sinograms.”
2.1 Chinese characters as syllables
Each Chinese character is pronounced as a syllable. It is of course important to be able to read a character with the correct pronunciation.
2.2 The composition of Chinese characters: Meaningful components
Chinese characters can be analyzed into components. It is acknowledged that there are three kinds of components. Of the three, the most interesting to learners of Chinese is a group of components that convey certain meanings. The presence of such a component in a character gives you some clue to its meaning of the character. Hence, learning the meaning of these component parts will deepen your understanding of characters you know, and help you guess the meaning of unfamiliar characters. See List 1 on page xv.
2.3 The writing of Chinese characters
STROKES
Each Chinese character is composed of strokes. The table below shows the basic strokes. Recognizing the strokes in a character is helpful for finding a character or radical in the Stroke Index, List of Radicals and Radical Index. Each of the strokes shown in the table is counted as one stroke.
