How to pronounce
in Mandarin Chinese
zāoFirst tonegāoFirst tone
Hear it in conversation
The worst consequence of unclear division of labor
yǒu有chá查shù树nà那me么zāo糟gāo糕ma吗
wǒ我de的嫂zi子zhēn真de的hěn很zāo糟gāo糕
My sister-in-law must be terrible
Select a word for its meaning.
See it in a sentence.
That's too bad.
Everything is bad.
。
Losing one's health is worse than losing money.
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.