View source for Tone changes for multiple consecutive third tones

{{AKA|tone sandhi|变调规则 (biàndiào guīzé)}}

The smart students always ask, "OK, so what happens when there are a bunch of 3rd tones in a row?" This is an excellent question!

In theory, ''all'' third tones would become second tone except for the very last one. In practice, such a "string" of third tones doesn't usually go beyond three in a row. This is because in natural speech multiple third tones in a row will usually broken up by pauses. In this case, the last word/character in each "group" will be pronounced as a third tone.

=== Examples ===

So, in theory, it would go like this:

<div class="liju">
* 3-3-3-3-3-3 &rarr; <em>2-2-2-2-2</em>-3
</div>

In practice, it usually goes something like this:

<div class="liju">
* 3-3-3-3-3-3 &rarr; <em>2-2</em>-3, <em>2-2</em>-3
</div>

=== Audio ===


== Sources and further reading ==

* Wikipedia: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tone_sandhi#Mandarin_Chinese Tone sandhi: Mandarin Chinese]

[[Category:Tones]]
{{Basic Pronunciation|B1|20|For example: 法语也有语法|tone|ASP7512B}}
{{Related|Four tones}}
{{Related|Tone pair}}
{{Related|Tone pair 3-3}}