Learn Chinese Pronunciation and Pinyin 2 - Difference Between -UO and -OU

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[@westonding8953]

As a native Mandarin speaker, I will make it clear they are very different phonemes. -ou is like an English word "owe" or "oh" but more voiced. -uo is not present in American English but sounds like "wo" considerably closer to the Spanish -o.

[@21stcenturyphantom]

谢谢你！Chris, I hope you see this. I remember first seeing your videos many years ago when I didn’t have an interest in studying Chinese but they still captivated me. Now, I’ve attended 2 weeks of Chinese evening classes, visited China and I’m soon starting a degree in Chinese and Japanese. Your videos are always very clear and I especially find your advice and guidance from your own experiences in learning Chinese to be very beneficial. Always a pleasure to watch.

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

That's great. It's amazing to hear that you have been so inspired and that you are able to start your formal studies. Glad my videos have played a part! Best of luck!

[@Xinalong]

As native spanish speaker, this one didn't help me too much. However, I can deeply understand that this is useful for english native people due to the english pronunciation. Great video anyway Chris =)

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

Some of the sounds may be more confusing/easier/more difficult to speakers of different languages. This series is designed with English speakers in mind, but it will be helpful for everybody. If you're finding it easy then that's a good sign!

[@westonding8953]

-ou is pretty much just like and English "oh" but more voiced. It's not very prevalent in Spanish. (I speak Spanish too.)

[@antondxb5401]

Thanks Chris! 谢谢你。

[@moviesync3131]

I hear ou pronounced differently like ow in how 旅游 ?? I even heard 朋友 pronounced as ow Is there a change of pronunciation at times?

[@saram788]

These are probably considered minor differences to Chinese speakers and likely depends on dialect/where someone is from. The "o" in pinyin "ou" is analyzed by linguists as /ə/, which is a "completely relaxed" vowel - it can be many things and still be understood as long as it doesn't sound like the "a" in pinyin "ao".

[@adamrydz]

Hello Kriss Thank you for this initiative to explain pronunciation based on real examples. I would like to suggest you a topic for one of the episodes, a noticeable change i pronunciation of 'e'. Taking examples from the episode 1: 承諾 / 承诺 chéngnuò - 'e' in fact is being pronounced closer to sound /æ/ in british pronunciation of the word 'can' /kæn/. 火車 / 火车 huǒchē - 'e' is being pronounced closer to sound /e/ in british pronunciation of the word 'shame' /ʃeɪm/. [Disclaimer, English is not my mother tongue so examples of english words I gave may not entirely match the pinyin 'e' sound]. Classic example is the word 什麽/什么 where you can hear both the sounds, first /e/ than /æ/. There are plenty more examples where pinyin 'e' sounds sometimes like /e/ and sometimes like /æ/. I wonder if only I noticed the difference, and whether there is any rule explaining which pronunciation of the pinyin 'e' one should use? Another question is about the example of from the episode 1, a word 桌子. In your film the final sound I hear is .../e/, while pinyin suggests 'i', a sound that you can find in 是。

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

You're welcome Ada! I will be releasing my video on the 'e' sound soon. It's actually different when it's just an 'e' sound and when it's in 'eng'. I will also be explaining the 'i' sound in pinyin in a later video, thanks!

[@ianmcd7957]

Where is the previous video on duo? My searches only find video game videos of Duo!

[@FluentinMandarinDotCom]

It's here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gIi2c4OvirSklac :-)

[@CollyNoon]

You only say {ou}...but I want to know is about(uo),,,,, please tell more about(uo)

[@sdushdiu]

With all due respect, we DON'T need yet another superfluoustonal scheme to memorize. The classic tonal indicators and/or the simple number suffix indicators work just fine.

[@ianmcd7957]

sdushdiu I had a lot of difficulties with guo and gou when I watched other videos. This one has helped.