Lanki

Beginner guide

Mandarin tones: notice the shape

Tone marks are part of pinyin: they guide the pitch contour of a syllable. Practice hearing and producing them within whole words and sentences.

All guides / Mandarin tones: notice the shape

What the marks mean

In standard Mandarin descriptions, a macron (ā) marks a high level first tone, an acute accent (á) a rising second tone, a caron (ǎ) a dipping third tone, and a grave accent (à) a falling fourth tone. An unmarked syllable may have a light neutral tone. These are useful approximations, not a substitute for listening.

In the first lesson: 我 is wǒ and 你 is nǐ. Compare them with 是 shì. Look for the marks, then try to hear the difference in a trustworthy spoken model.

Slow down before speeding up

Say one syllable, then the whole phrase. Pay attention to where pitch moves rather than forcing every syllable to sound isolated. Real speech can change the surface sound of a tone in context; beginner notation is a guide, not a recording of every pronunciation.

See how pinyin works and use the first lesson for examples.