Look Who it Was Random video

Introduction to the Four Mandarin Chinese Tones with Helena

1,140 views · Published 17 April 2017 · 3:27 · Indexed 23 October 2026

Channel: eChineseLearning · 2017 · Education

Watch on YouTube

For a Free Trial lesson with an eChineseLearning teacher in China, you can join us by signing up here today: https://goo.gl/uX6ExV

Since Chinese has a limited number of syllables, only about 30% of what English has, the tones are used to distinguish the syllables and pinpoint a meaning of a word.

First tone, or high-level tone (陰平/阴平 yīnpíng, literal meaning: yin-level): a steady high sound, as if it were being sung instead of spoken.

Second tone, or rising tone (陽平/阳平 yángpíng, literal meaning: yang-level), or linguistically, high-rising: is a sound that rises from mid-level tone to high (e.g., What?!)

Third tone (low tone, or low-falling-raising, 上聲/上声 shǎngshēng or shàngshēng, literal meaning: “up tone”): has a mid-low to low descent; if at the end of a sentence or before a pause, it is then followed by a rising pitch.

Fourth tone, falling tone (去聲/去声 qùshēng, literal meaning: “away tone”), or high-falling: features a sharp downward accent (”dipping”) from high to low, and is a shorter tone, similar to curt commands. (e.g., Stop!)

Then, the trickiest of all tones:

Neutral tone Also sometimes called the Fifth tone or zeroth tone (in Chinese: 輕聲/轻声 qīng shēng, literal meaning: “light tone”), neutral tone is sometimes thought of incorrectly as a lack of tone. The neutral tone is particularly difficult for non-native speakers to master correctly because of its uncharacteristically large number of allotone contours: the level of its pitch depends almost entirely on the tone carried by the syllable preceding it.

For a full lesson on the four tones of Chinese, you can join us here: https://goo.gl/W615n4

Follow along with today's lesson, subscribe and stay tuned for more and stay motivated to learn with us!

www.echineselearning.com

More from this channel