Say It Right - Mandarin Pronunciation

The Say It Right Series is a brand new video course from ChinesePod. This series of videos will guide you through Mandarin Chinese tones, pinyin, tone change rules, tone combinations, as well as useful information on how to pronounce Chinese like a native.

The Say It Right Series (S.I.R for short)is a self-study course which we have designed to be studied at your own pace. Since it is a video, you can come back to it at any time, pause, re-watch, and learn at your own pace. It can also be a great resource to study along with a teacher or language exchange partner.

In this lesson you will learn about Pinyin: what it is, where it came from, and how it is used by both native speakers and learners of Chinese. You will also learn about initials and finals, the building blocks of all Mandarin syllables.

Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language which means that by changing the tone or pitch of your voice, you alter the meaning of the word. Mandarin has 4 tones (and a neutral tone). In this lesson, Fiona will give you a brief overview of the tones before we get started learning about in more depth.

The Neutral Tone (sometimes called the 5th tone) in Chinese is quite simple, but there are a few pronunciation techniques that will help you sounding more like a Native speaker. The Neutral Tone is used in two different respects: the emphasis pattern and "In the flow" which is how it sounds when spoken in a sentence.

First tones drill video.

Mandarin tones don't just exist in isolation; they flow together in combination to form sentences. This means that Chinese can often sound quite musical. In this video you will learn some tips on how to say a 1st tone and a 3rd tone in combination with each other. By mastering these tones as a chunk, you will immediately begin sounding like a Native speaker.

Second tones drill video.

Mandarin tones don't just exist in isolation; they flow together in combination to form sentences. This means that Chinese can often sound quite musical. In this lesson: learn how 2nd and 3rd tones sound in combination and how two 3rd tones sound when chunked together.

Third tones drill video.

Mandarin tones don't just exist in isolation; they flow together in combination to form sentences. This means that Chinese can often sound quite musical. In this lesson, learn how 2nd and 4th tones sound in combination.

Fourth tones drill video.

The Neutral Tone (sometimes called the 5th tone) in Chinese is quite simple, but there are a few pronunciation techniques that will help you sounding more like a Native speaker. The Neutral Tone is used in two different respects: the emphasis pattern and "In the flow" which is how it sounds when spoken in a sentence

Fifth tones drill video.

Chinese characters have set tones, but certain characters are more flexible, and change their tone depending on what characters precede them. Tone change rules are spoken rules which means that the written tone marker above the pinyin does not change, but the tone, when spoken, does change. These three rules will help you attain the natural flow of the language because they are designed to make

While the tone change rules seem quite simple, it's quite easy to get confused when you actually put them to use. In this short lesson, you will learn a super-easy and useful hack for remembering them just by saying the four tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, and spicy.

Tone change drill video 2.

This lecture continues with a more in-depth look at tone change rules, with useful explanations from our pronunciation expert, Xu Laoshi. Feel free to take your time and watch it in chunks if you find this easier.

Tone change drill video 3.

This lecture continues with a more in-depth look at tone change rules, with useful explanations from our pronunciation expert, Xu Laoshi. Feel free to take your time and watch it in chunks if you find this easier.

Labial sounds are sounds that are made by using one or both of your lips as the main articulator. For example, bo, po , mo and fo are sounds in Mandarin that all require your lips to touch. This lesson will provide you with useful techniques for mastering these important initials that learners often mess up.Check out this guide by Patrick Zein for further explanation on how to grasp Mandarin C

First initial sounds drill.

In this lesson, we go over three groups of initials that learners frequently struggle with. The groups we will cover include: J, Q, X; Zh, Ch, Sh and Z, C, S. Be sure to follow up with the practice drills to hammer down what you have learned from this lecture!

Second initial sounds drill.

This lesson teaches you the I, U, and Ü sounds. These sounds are considered the most difficult finals in the Mandarin language and we provide in-depth hacks to help you make these sound just like a native speaker. Be sure to follow up on this video with the practice drills to hammer down what you have just learned.