。
A thief snatched her phone.
How to pronounce 小偷
How to pronounce
in Mandarin Chinese
xiǎo小tōu偷
thief
HSK 6
Synthesized Mandarin audio · Vivian voice
xiǎoThird tonetōuFirst tone
Hear it in conversation
My house was robbed, which means a thief entered my house
Select a word for its meaning.
See it in a sentence.
。
Beware of thieves.
。
The thief ran away.
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.