Erhua
- Also known as: erization, 儿化 (érhuà) and 儿化音 (érhuàyīn).
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Level
"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.
Contents
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.
- 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
- 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
- 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")
- 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
- 鞋带儿
- 牙签儿
- 破烂儿
- 羊肉串儿
- 生鱼片儿
- 没事儿
- 豆腐脑儿
- 小黑点儿
- 让座儿
- 边儿
- 土豆儿
- 小米儿
- 馅儿
- 小偷儿
- 一半儿
- 圈儿
- 转弯儿
- 没味儿
- 画儿
- 相片儿
- 有点儿
- 一点儿
- 小摊儿
- 一会儿
- 起名儿
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.
花
Sources and further reading
- MIT.edu: Erhua Recordings (MP3)
- Wikipedia: Erhua
- Wikipedia: 儿化音
