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Hi there! I am Studyfin, your friendly Chinese tutor. Today we will explore how tones change the meaning of words in Mandarin Chinese!
Pinyin is a way to write Chinese words using English letters. It helps us sound out words. But there is a twist! We also need to use tones.
Tones are how your voice goes up or down. Mandarin Chinese has four main tones. If you change the tone, you change the whole word!
Let us look at the word 'ma'. With a flat first tone, 'mā' means mother. With a rising second tone, 'má' means hemp. With a dipping third tone, 'mǎ' means horse. With a falling fourth tone, 'mà' means scold!
Imagine you want to say the word for 'mother' in Chinese. You know the letters are 'ma'. How do you choose the right tone so you do not say 'horse' by mistake?
- Look at the word you want to say. The word is 'mother'.
- Think about the four tones. The first tone is a high, flat sound.
- The third tone is a dipping sound that goes down and then up.
- Recall that 'mā' with a flat first tone means 'mother'.
- Recall that 'mǎ' with a dipping third tone means 'horse'.
- Choose the first tone! You say 'mā' with a high, steady voice.
