Tone pair

Level
Related to
1. Four tones (A1)
2. Tone change rules (A2)
3. Tone changes for "bu" (A2)
4. Tone changes for "yi" (A2)
5. Tone changes for third tones (A2)
6. Tone changes for multiple consecutive third tones (B1)
7. Advanced tone change rules (B2) (B2)

Tone pairs are an important unit of pronunciation to focus on as learner's tones gradually improve.

The concept

The 20 pairs

There are 20 tone pairs because there are four main tones and one neutral tone, but a neutral tone can never be the first syllable in a word or phrase.

	1st Tone	2nd Tone	3rd Tone	4th Tone	Neutral Tone
1st Tone	1-1	1-2	1-3	1-4	1-0
2nd Tone	2-1	2-2	2-3	2-4	2-0
3rd Tone	3-1	3-2	3-3*	3-4	3-0
4th Tone	4-1	4-2	4-3	4-4	4-0

You might be tempted to think that 3-3 doesn't count, because after the tone change it's the same as 2-3. But actually, you really need to practice this tone change as part of a tone pair, so you'll definitely want to practice 3-3 pairs, just like all the others.

Sources and further reading

Websites

Sinosplice: New Feature: Mandarin Chinese Tone Pair Drills
Sinosplice: Mandarin Chinese Tone Pair Drills
Hacking Chinese: Focusing on tone pairs to improve your Mandarin pronunciation

Videos

YouTube: [The Most Effective Way to Learn Mandarin Tones - Tone Pairs - Google Hangout with Yangyang] (08:16-27:18)