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How to pronounce 声调

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shēng声diào调tone; note

How to pronounce

in Mandarin Chinese

shēng声diào调

tone; note

HSK 6

Synthesized Mandarin audio · Vivian voice

shēngFirst tonediàoFourth tone

See it in a sentence.

。

Mandarin has four tones.

。

There was a sudden change in her tone.

Hear the difference

A syllable has a shape.

Tone marks show how pitch changes. Colors help you follow each syllable in the app.

ā First toneHigh and level
á Second toneRising
ǎ Third toneLow, then rising in isolation
à Fourth toneFalling
a Neutral toneShort and light

These are dictionary tones. In natural speech, tones can change with context. A third tone often stays low before another syllable.

Dictionary and example sources

Definitions adapt CC-CEDICT through HSK 3.0, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Definitions are shortened for study.

Examples include Lock In original sentences and the Tatoeba Project, under CC BY 2.0 France. Chinese text is normalized to simplified characters. Pinyin follows the study dictionary.