Ahhhh yes, the dreaded Chinese tone. As we launch this Laowai Chinese podcast series for all you beginner learners out there, we’ve got to start with the basics. In my experience, tones are one of the most dreaded and intimidating parts of learning Chinese but training your ear to differentiate between them will be what sets you apart from the majority of laowai. In this show, we’ll spend a couple of minutes debunking the fear factor of tones, learn the four basic tones, and practicing a couple of tricky tone combinations that’ll get you well on your way to speaking like a pro.

If you can’t hear the difference of the four tones, yet, it’s OK! Go easy on yourself and keep practicing.

In this episode

• An explanation of why learning the tones is so important
• Learn the difference between the four major tones
• Practice tricky combinations (3/2 and 1/2)

3/2 combination practice

检查 jiǎnchá
解决 jiějué
水平 shuǐpíng
选择 xuǎnzé
以前 yǐqián
有名 yǒumíng
本来 běnlái
比如 bǐrú
表格 biǎogé
打折 dǎzhé
导游 dǎoyóu
否则 fǒuzé
感觉 gǎnjué
感情 gǎnqíng
海洋 hǎiyáng
减肥 jiǎnféi
警察 Jǐngchá

1/2 combination practice

明天 míngtiān
昨天 zuótiān
房间 fángjiān
旁边 pángbiān
时间 shíjiān
国家 guójiā
结婚 jiéhūn
离开 líkāi
聊天 liáotiān
邻居 línjū
年轻 niánqīng
爬山 páshān
其他 qítā
提高 tígāo
熊猫 xióngmāo
长江 chángjiāng
成功 chénggōng

Practice episode

Learning to master the tones in the Chinese language is important but it’s a process. Go easy on yourself! Chances are you’re not going to be a tone rock star yet but to get you well on your way to being able to differentiate the tones, we’ll spend all of our time today in practice. In this follow up show to the tones lesson, we’ll first go tone by tone and then get into a couple of quizzes with individual sounds and combination. Lastly, I want to review those tricky 3/2 and 1/2 combinations we covered in the lesson above. And if you missed the lesson and need a refresher, go on back to the last episode and have a listen.

Covered in this show:

First tone: That’s the one that goes straight across as a higher pitch than you probably are used to.

Ma       fang    jian      ji          yi         xian     tian     ting     hun     ba        shu      fa

Qi        xue      xi         dong   jia        zhuan xie       tou      zhuo    yao      xu        dao

Moving right along to second, going straight up:

Ma       fang    ji          yi         xian     tian     ting     pi         shi       shen    xue      zu

Ting    zuo      ti          tou      huo     nao      shi       mei      de        tong    pu       chen

And onto third tone, down and up a bit:

You     jiu        xiao     zhong  zen      wan     ju         yong    xi         zuo      mei      zhe

Da       zhen    nao      ba        gan      xue      ti          ma       zhi       fa         can      lan

And finally, fourth, straight down:

Dao     yue      yang    shang  xie       wen     xian     zhu      zai       yao      wei      huo

Qi        fang    yi         pi         hun     jiu        wan     yong    zuo      zhong  mo       le

Alrighty, now here’s a bit of a quiz. I’ve mixed up the tones with different sounds. Work to identify the tone first and if you really want to challenge yourself, go ahead and try to imagine the pinyin spelling as well. This list will be available online so you can see how you did. I’ll give you the tone right after a bit of thinking space.

Xing1              mei2               you3               de2                 dao4

Fang1             pi2                  shi2                 yue4               shen2

Bang1             xue2               xi2                   jiu3                 jian1

Yi1                  hun1               xiao3               shu1               zhong3

Zhi1                zu2                  zen3                wan3              yang4

Shen1             shang4           ju3                  yong3             xie4

Ting2              xi3                   tian1               zuo3                zuo2

Yuan2             mei3               wen4              ti2                   xian4

Zhu4               zhe3                zai4                 da1                 che1

Yao4               da3                 wei4                ba1                 bo1

Jia1                 qi4                  yi2                   zhen3             tou2

Qi1                  huo4               ba3                 nao3               zhuo1

Here are 25 different combinations. I’ll give you the numbers after you have time to think. It may be a good time to get your phone out if you want to be able to pause for a bit:

Zai4jian4        qi4che1          fang1fa3        mei2you3       shi2yue4

Fu4huo2        jia1ting2         tong2xue2     gong1yuan2  huo4zhe3

Bang1zhu4    Shi2jian1        xing1qi1         xue2xi2          ju3xing2

Yong3yuan3  gan3xie4        shen1ti3         can1jia1         de2dao4

Mei3tian1      zhong3zu2     xian4jing3      da4jia1           jie2hun1

Finally, scroll up to see the words that follow the pronunciation clips from the lesson on those two tricky combinations. Practice pronouncing them together to get your ears trained on them.

Connect with Ally

Send me a message at allison.mona@ymail.com or on wechat @ allymona.

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