🔊 Chinese Pronunciation Rules · Tones / Four Tones / Neutral Tone / Tone Sandhi

💡 This page is a reference guide for shadowing practice and similarity scoring. Speech recognition only recognizes your Chinese when tones, neutral tones, and tone sandhi are pronounced correctly. A low score usually means your tone contour is off, not your initials or finals. Click any 🔊 button to hear the standard pronunciation.

1. What Are Tones?

Mandarin tones describe the pitch contour of a syllable (not volume or length). The same syllable ma becomes a completely different word depending on its tone. We use the "five-degree" scale: 1 is the lowest pitch, 5 is the highest.

妈

mā (55)

First tone · High level
High and flat, like holding a long note

麻

má (35)

Second tone · Rising
Mid to high, like a surprised "huh?"

马

mǎ (214)

Third tone · Falling-rising
Dips low then rises, the longest tone

骂

mà (51)

Fourth tone · Falling
Starts high and drops fast, short and forceful

Practice tip: "Draw" the tone contour in the air with your hand before speaking. Don't let the first tone drift downward, and make the fourth tone sharp and short — these two mistakes hurt recognition scores the most.

2. Common Tone Confusions

Confusion	Key difference	Listen
2nd tone má ↔ 3rd tone mǎ	2nd tone rises smoothly; 3rd tone dips to the bottom first, starts lower, and lasts longer
1st tone tāng ↔ 4th tone tàng	1st tone stays flat; 4th tone falls sharply from high to low
4th tone shì ↔ neutral tone shi	Neutral tone has no contour; it is light and short (e.g. 钥匙 yào shi)

买mǎi to buy 卖mài to sell 问wèn to ask 闻wén to smell 汤tāng soup 糖táng sugar 躺tǎng to lie down 烫tàng hot/scald

3. Neutral Tone

A neutral tone is a weak, toneless syllable: short, light, and its pitch is determined by the previous syllable. In pinyin it is written without a tone mark.

Type	Examples	Notes
Particles	好的 · 走了 · 吃着 · 吗 · 呢 · 吧	Always read lightly
Reduplication second syllable	妈妈 · 爸爸 · 看看 · 慢慢儿	Second syllable is neutral
Location / direction	桌子上面 · 出去 · 起来	Final syllable is neutral
Noun suffixes	桌子 · 我们 · 石头 · 木头	子 / 们 / 头 are always neutral
Meaning-distinguishing neutral tone	东西 dōngxī (direction) ↔ 东西 dōngxi (thing)	Neutral tone changes the meaning

If you read a neutral tone too heavily, the recognizer may hear it as a different word — this is the second-biggest reason Chinese shadowing scores drop.

4. Tone Sandhi Rules

1. Third-tone sandhi (most important)

Third tone + third tone → second tone + third tone: 你好 nǐ hǎo is actually pronounced ní hǎo; 很好 → hén hǎo; 水果 → shuí guǒ.
Third tone + non-third tone → half third tone (only falls, doesn't rise, 21): 好人 hǎo rén, 老师 lǎo shī, 请坐 qǐng zuò.
Three third tones in a row: Group by meaning, usually pronounced "2nd + 2nd + 3rd": 我很好 → wó hén hǎo; 展览馆 → zhán lán guǎn.

2. Tone changes of 「一」 (base tone yī)

Before a 4th tone → read as 2nd tone yí: 一个 yí ge, 一样 yí yàng, 一定 yí dìng
Before a 1st/2nd/3rd tone → read as 4th tone yì: 一天 yì tiān, 一年 yì nián, 一起 yì qǐ
When spoken alone, as an ordinal, or at the end of a phrase → base tone yī: 第一, 一月一日, 十一

3. Tone changes of 「不」 (base tone bù)

Before a 4th tone → read as 2nd tone bú: 不是 bú shì, 不去 bú qù, 不要 bú yào
Other cases → 4th tone bù: 不好 bù hǎo, 不来 bù lái, 不吃 bù chī
In the middle of a V-not-V question it is neutral: 去不去 qù bu qù, 好不好 hǎo bu hǎo

4. Erhua

The suffix 「儿」 does not form its own syllable; instead it curls the tongue at the end of the previous vowel: 花儿 huār, 玩儿 wánr, 一点儿 yìdiǎnr, 小孩儿 xiǎoháir. Final -i / -n drop before the r-coloring.

Pinyin usually still writes the base tone (nǐ hǎo), but spoken Chinese must follow the sandhi rules. Shadowing scores are based on your actual pronunciation.

5. How to Use These Rules for Shadowing Scores

If the recognized text shows the wrong tone on a homophone (买/卖, 问/闻), your tone contour is off — review Sections 1 and 2.
If a whole word is split or misrecognized (e.g. 「东西」 heard as two separate characters), you are probably reading the neutral tone too loudly.
If sentences like 「你好 / 我很好 / 一个 / 不是」 lose points, check whether you applied the correct tone sandhi.
Start with 0.6× slow speed to stabilize the tone contours, then return to 0.9× normal speed to improve your score.

On any Chinese lesson page, click the 「🎧 跟读对比」 button in the lower-left corner to practice and receive a 0–100 similarity score.