Erhua

Also known as: erization, 儿化 (érhuà) and 儿化音 (érhuàyīn).

"Erhua" refers to the addition of a final "-r" sound to a syllable in Mandarin. It is especially common in the Beijing dialect, but is also a feature of standard Chinese as well.

A Few Rules about Erhua

Erhua can be confusing to beginners because it's slightly more complicated than simply adding an "-r" sound to the end of a syllable.

1. The character 儿 (ér) can be a syllable, as in the two-syllable word 儿子 (érzi), but erhua is not a syllable; it is pronounced as part of the syllable that it attaches to
2. When you add erhua to the end of a syllable ending in -n or -ng, you don't pronounce the -n or -ng; you pronounce the final -r sound instead
3. The vowel sound of a syllable may change slightly with the addition of the erhua (e.g. "shi + -r" may sound kind of like "shar")
4. Erhua can be written as 儿, but it doesn't need to be written to be pronounced (e.g. a southerner will generally pronounce 花 as "huā", but a Beijinger will pronounce it as "huār")

Common Examples of Erhua

• 花儿
• 小鸟儿
• 盖儿
• 小孩儿
• 好玩儿
• 羊肉串儿
• 生鱼片儿
• 没事儿
• 土豆儿
• 馅儿
• 小偷儿
• 一半儿
• 有点儿
• 一点儿
• 一会儿

Writing Erhua

For a few select words, it is customary to write out the erhua using the character 儿:

哪儿

Optional Erhua

For many other words, writing the 儿 is optional. Northerners will likely pronounce the following words, no matter whether it is written with or without the 儿.

Common Examples of Erhua

• 花(儿)
• 小鸟(儿)
• 小孩(儿)
• 好玩(儿)
• 鞋带(儿)
• 牙签(儿)
• 羊肉串(儿)
• 生鱼片(儿)
• 没事(儿)
• 豆腐脑(儿)
• 小黑点(儿)
• 让座(儿)
• 土豆(儿)
• 小米(儿)
• 小偷(儿)
• 一半(儿)
• 圈(儿)
• 转弯(儿)
• 相片(儿)
• 有点(儿)
• 一点(儿)
• 小摊(儿)

Sources and further reading

• MIT.edu: Erhua Recordings (MP3)
• Wikipedia: Erhua
• Wikipedia: 儿化音

A2 pronunciation points