Dialogue

Structure Drills

Sentence Pyramids

Sentence Pyramids illustrate the use of each new vocabulary item and structure introduced in the lesson. Use them to help you to learn how to form phrases and sentences in Mandarin. Supply the English translation for the last line where indicated.

Mandarin Pronunciation

Pronunciation and Pinyin

1. Introduction to the parts of the Mandarin syllable

The Mandarin syllable can be described in terms of three parts: an initial consonant, a final, and a tone. Syllables need not begin with an initial consonant, so we put the initial consonant in parentheses here.

Tone
(initial consonant)	final

In this lesson, we focus on the four Mandarin contour tones and on initials and finals that appear in this lesson’s Chinese vocabulary.

Tones

The four contour tones

In Mandarin, tones are a feature of pronunciation like consonants and vowels, and they serve to distinguish the meaning of a syllable. Tone involves the pitch of the syllable, and contour tones are tones in which the pitch has a particular shape, for example, level, falling, or rising, across the syllable. Mandarin has four contour tones and we look at their basic forms in this lesson. In Pinyin, contour tones are usually indicated with the following tone marks written over a vowel in the syllable: ˉˊˇˋ. Tones are sometimes indicated with the numbers 1-4 following the syllable, with 1 representing first tone, etc. Here are diagrams of the four contour tones of Mandarin, along with words in each tone that are introduced in Lesson 1. The diagrams indicate the pitch contour of each tone.

First Tone (1st Tone, level tone)

First tone starts high and remains high and level throughout the pronunciation of the syllable. It is also called a level tone. Click on the audio clip below to listen to these syllables, paying attention to the tone.

	Gāo (lǎo)shī shēng tā Zhāng

Second tone (2nd tone, rising tone)

Second tone starts at mid-range rises throughout the pronunciation of the syllable. It is also called a rising tone. Click on the audio clip below to listen to these syllables, paying attention to the tone.

	xué lái dé guó hé

Third tone (3rd Tone, falling-rising tone)

The basic form of third tone starts at medium pitch, drops to low pitch, and then rises. It is also called a falling-rising tone. Click on the audio clip below to listen to these syllables, paying attention to the tone.

	hǎo lǎo nǐ wǒ yě xiǎo

Fourth tone (4th tone, falling tone)

Fourth tone starts high and falls across the pronunciation of the syllable. It is also called a falling tone. Click on the audio clip below to listen to these syllables, paying attention to the tone.

	bù shì

Tone distinguishes the meaning of syllables in the same way that consonants and vowels do. Two syllables with different tones mean different things, even if the consonants and vowels are identical. Here are examples:

mā	mom	fāng	square
má	hemp	fáng	house
mǎ	horse	fǎng	imitate
mà	scold	fàng	put (something) down

Rules for the placement of tone marks in Pinyin

The conventions of Pinyin spelling specify the location of the tone mark in the syllable. The tone mark is always placed over a vowel. To determine the vowel that receives the tone mark, apply the following rules in this order:

1. If the syllable contains only one vowel, the tone mark occurs over that vowel. Examples: bù no, not, nǐ you, tā he, she, it.
2. If the syllable contains a or e, the tone mark is placed over the a or the e. Examples: Gāo (family name), xué(sheng) student, (nǐ) hǎo hello.
3. If the final is ou, the tone mark occurs over the o. Examples (from Lessons 2-4): dōu, yǒu
4. Otherwise, the tone mark is placed over the last vowel in the syllable. Examples (from Lessons 2-3): shuō, guó, duì.

Tone change for the word bù (不) no, not

When bù (不) occurs before another syllable with fourth tone, it changes to second tone (rising tone). Here is the rule that summarizes this change.

bù + 4 bú + 4
bù duì bú duì

In this textbook we will always write bù (不) in its original fourth tone.

Here are two-syllable words and phrases in which the tone of bù is changed to rising tone (bú).  Click on the audio clip below to listen.

bù  +  4		bú  + 4
bù duì  bù shì bù wèn bù mài bù zuò bù xiè bùbì bùdàn		bú duì bù shì bú wèn bú mài bú zuò bú xiè búbì búdàn

Initial Consonants

Here is a table of Mandarin initial consonants. In this lesson, we focus on the highlighted groups of initial consonants.

b p m

d t n

g k

j q

zh ch sh

z c

When consonants are recited in Mandarin (as the alphabet is recited in English in the form of the ABC’s), each group of consonants is followed by a particular “recitation” vowel. When we illustrate syllables with each consonant, the first example will be the recitation form of the consonant with its recitation vowel. Listen to the recordings and repeat each syllable aloud.

Finals

Here are the finals of Mandarin as they are spelled in Pinyin. The finals introduced in lesson 1 are highlighted.

Finals that begin with:	and end with a vowel:	and end with n:	and end with ng:	and end with r:
a	a, ai, ao	an	ang
e	e, ei	en	eng	er
o	(o), ou		ong
i	i, ia, iao, ie, iu/iou	ian, in	iang, ing, iong
ü	ü, üe	üan, ün
u	u, ua, uai,ui/uei, uo	uan, uen	uang, ueng

Here are words that include the finals introduced in lesson 1. Click on each line to listen to the syllables. Notice that the letter iis pronounced very differently when it follows a retroflex consonant like sh than when it follows other kinds of consonants. We will focus on the various pronunciations of the Pinyin letter i in lesson 5. Remember that the final ian rhymes with en and not with an.

a	tā, bàba, māma
i	nǐ, bǐ, mǐ, yī
	(lǎo)shī, shì, chī, zhǐ
u	bù, mù, lù, shū
ai	zài, mǎi, wài, lái
ao iao	hǎo, lǎo(shī), bāo, dào
	xiǎo, biǎo, piào, yào
ie	yě, bié, diē, miè
üe	xué(sheng), xuě, jué, què
uo	wǒ, bó, mò, fó, tuō
ang	zhāng, bāng, páng, fàng
eng	lěng, néng, děng
ian	jiàn xiān biān miàn

Notes on pronunciation and Pinyin spelling

Pronunciation Challenges

Tongue Twisters

Listen and repeat these tongue twisters until you can say them quickly three times in a row without making any errors. Practice makes perfect!

A
Tongue twister	Translation	Audio files
Bàba bào bǎobao.	Dad holds the baby.

B
Tongue twister	Translation	Audio files
Māma qí mǎ	Mom is riding a horse
mǎ màn	The horse is slow
māma mà mǎ	Mom scolds the horse

Quizzes

• Listening for information
• Listen and identify
• Reading and writing: Focus on Chinese Characters
• Focus on structure
• Communicating through reading and writing