Pronunciation · week one
Pinyin first
Sounds before everything else, while your habits are still forming. Six units, one each morning on days 1–6: native recordings, a 10-sound listening check, words to say out loud. Day 7 checks the whole map.
Six units, one a day
Nine out of ten on a unit's check makes it solid. Solid on every unit, and the map holds.
- 1Tones in wordsHear the four tone shapes once, then catch them the way they really come: in pairs, inside words.Day 1
- 2The puff of airb and p, d and t, g and k are not voiced against unvoiced, as in English. The only difference is a puff of air.Day 2
- 3Where the tongue goesThree families that English hears as one: j q x with the tongue tip down, z c s at the teeth, zh ch sh r curled up.Day 3
- 4Vowels that lieü, e and i don't sound the way they look — and -ian rhymes with yen.Day 4
- 5-n or -ng-n and -ng make different words, not different accents: 饭 is a meal, 放 is to put.Day 5
- 6Tones that changeTwo 3rds in a row, 不 bù and 一 yī change their tones, and some syllables go light. Hear what people actually say.Day 6
- 全The whole map20 sounds from all six units. A cold run before day 1 is your baseline.Day 7
Initials that don't sound like English
Hold a hand in front of your mouth: p, t, k, q, ch and c need a strong puff of air.
- b · p
Not voiced vs unvoiced — b d g are like the p/t/k in spin, stop, skin. p t k (and q ch c) need a strong puff of air. Hold a hand in front of your mouth.
- q
“ch” with the tongue tip down behind the lower teeth — like cheap, but further forward, with a puff of air.
- x
“sh” with the tongue tip down — between she and a hissed see.
- j
Like q without the puff of air — softer than English jeep, tongue tip down.
- c
“ts” as in cats, plus a puff of air — never “k” or “s”.
- z
“ds” as in kids, no puff — never English “z”.
- zh
“j” with the tongue tip curled up toward the roof of the mouth.
- ch
“ch” with the tongue tip curled up, plus a puff of air.
- sh
“sh” with the tongue tip curled up — heavier and further back than English.
- r
Start from the r in run: lips unrounded, tongue tip curled up toward the roof of the mouth. A slight buzz is fine.
Finals that look one way, sound another
- -ian
Rhymes with yen, not yawn or yan.
- -üe
German ü gliding to eh. After j/q/x/y it's written ue.
- -ui
Really -uei — a hidden “e” in the middle.
- -iu
Really -iou — a hidden “o” in the middle.
- -un
After j/q/x/y: ün. Elsewhere: uen, with a hidden “e”.
- -n · -ng
Different words, not an accent — keep in/ing, an/ang, en/eng apart.
- e
On its own: like the uh in duh, from further back — never English long “e”.
- i
After z c s: the consonant just keeps buzzing (zì ≈ “dzz”). After zh ch sh r: a buzzy “r” (shì ≈ “shr”). Never “ee”.
- ü · yu
German ü, French u: say “ee”, then round your lips. Written u after j/q/x/y.
The four tones
The gestures. Hear them here, then only ever practise them inside words.
Think low. In real speech it mostly just stays low; the full dip-and-rise shows up alone or at the end of a phrase.
Short and light — only ever after another syllable, as in 妈妈 māma. Its pitch depends on the syllable before it.
Three tone changes you'll hear all day
Unit 6 trains your ear on them.
- Two 3rd tones in a row: The first becomes a 2nd. 你好 is said ní hǎo. Pinyin still writes nǐ hǎo.
- 不 (bù): Becomes 2nd tone before a 4th. 不是 = bú shì, 不要 = bú yào.
- 一 (yī): 2nd tone before a 4th (一个 = yí ge), 4th before anything else (一天 = yì tiān). It stays 1st alone, when counting, at the end of a word, and in 第一.
Native recordings: Chen Wang (syllables) and Yue Tan (words), from the audio-cmn project, CC BY-SA. Source