Property:Summary
A text summary of a pronunciation point. It is of type String.
A
China is a fascinating land full of variety. That includes all kinds of different accents! +
Although you probably know the three main tone change rules, there are a few more obscure ones that more advanced learners may want to tackle. +
E
Not all sounds in Mandarin are hard! This part covers "p", "m", "f", "d", "t", "n", "l", "s", "g", "k", "h". +
F
There are four main tones in Mandarin Chinese. Your quest to master them starts here! +
I
Some background information about pinyin for absolute beginners. HINT: pinyin was not created as a pronunciation guide for foreigners! +
N
Whether you think of it as "the fifth tone," or "the zeroth tone," it's a little tonal trick you'll need to know. +
P
Learn all the sounds and individual syllables that make up all the words in Mandarin Chinese. +
There are certain seemingly inconsistent things about pinyin that trip everybody up at first. Here they all are, together in one convenient list. +
Capitalization, apostrophes, punctuation... all good to know! +
What happens when a word has a certain pinyin reading in the dictionary, but is often pronounced differently by native speakers? It ends up on this list! +
R
You won't find these in our chart, but if you're an intermediate learner, it's time to let you in on the little secret of these syllables' existence. +
T
The vowel "a" in Mandarin isn't too hard, so let's start with that one. Now you can make actual syllables! +
The letters "c" and "z" in pinyin can totally throw you off at first, but the sounds they make are not too difficult for most learners. +
These similar sounds shouldn't be too hard for speakers of English, but it's important to pay close attention to the vowel sounds that they combine with. +
The letter "e" in pinyin can represent several different vowel sounds, and it's important to learn them all. +
In pinyin, "i" makes more than just one sound. Be sure to learn in what syllables it sounds different. +
The "j", "q", and "x" sounds are all foreign to speakers of English, but absolutely essential to master for good Chinese pronunciation. +
The "o" and "u" vowels in Chinese aren't quite as straightforward as one might hope, and the two get confused a bit, so it's useful to learn them together. +
This is probably an "r" sound unlike any you've ever made before. It doesn't exist in English, but it can be learned! +
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