Mandarin Chinese Pronunciation, Video 2: Mandarin's Consonants

[@arvidlindberg3603]

I've been trying to learn Chinese for over a year on and off and I can say that this was the 10 most informative minutes I've had so far. Excellent stuff, precise and clear! Keep it up!

[@nekozombie]

did you learn? :o

[@ihaveseverefrootsnackism]

@@nekozombie I'm curious too xD

[@silverbowftw5225]

tell us about the other 9 please xD

[@silverbowftw5225]

@@ihaveseverefrootsnackism same

[@GuitarreroDaniel]

This is the MOST useful video about Chinese pronunciation that I've ever seen. A lot of people is assuming that pinyin is a substitute for IPA and because of that is truly difficult to find the the IPA notation for Chinese words. Thank you very much!

[@FluentForeverApp]

Hi Daniel, you're very welcome! We're happy to know you found this video useful 😊

[@ajayempee]

I'm a linguist I understand everything these guys were saying. My ears struggled a little bit to hear the distinctions between the fricatives and affricates but OMG my mouth struggled hugely to actually *make* the sounds... Very tricky phonemic and phonetic distinctions for an 'average' native English speaker to master.

[@michaelgeracie9228]

Thanks for the remarkably clear and informative video!

[@katieharris1854]

Really pleased to find one of these for Mandarin too! I've used the videos you made for French and Spanish and they saved me from spending weeks trying to figure out the sounds on my own. 谢谢

[@bexhampton8487]

I love you thank you. i studied linguistics/IPA in college and crave this type of content when learning another language. my ultra noob chinese just improved massively thanks to this lmao

[@facorread]

I love watching these videos again and again, pausing, and reviewing. Thanks for this tool!

[@depufull]

Finally a video with ipa

[@FluentForeverApp]

We hope you find it useful!

[@feng7691]

excellent work. As a Chinese native speaker, I feel you guys explained very well. I liked how you were explaining the aspirated and unaspirated, especially at 4:04 you got amused by b and b.

[@FluentForeverApp]

Thank you for your kind words! 😊

[@taosit5282]

I just realized that I've been pronouncing the mandarin r wrong as a native mandarin speaker. Thank you for your video, it's amazing!

[@diamondkingdiamond6289]

I think it's more likely that either the video got it wrong, or there is variation between certain dielects and speakers.

[@dimwitsadvocate6264]

Ha ha! As a newbie, I'll have to listen to this video a bazillion times!

[@roydollins]

The tradition holds that zhou, da, zi, guo, bi etc. consonants are voiceless in Mandarin, however if you listen closely to your Chinese friend, Gabriel, you will actually hear some level of voicing. What is going on there? I've seen the same thing before; textbooks say it's supposed to be voiceless but in reality you do hear some voicing. Or is it just me?

[@grahamo8863]

We don't know if we made the consonants voiced or not. Maybe they are affected by the sounds before, naturally. Just like you guys don't distinguish "p" in sport from "p" in port.

[@michaeltheboombringer2848]

There is no phonemical difference between voiceless and voiced consonants in Mandarin so some speakers might voice them before some vowels.

[@白洛闻]

Hello. I'm Chinese and I can tell you that most Chinese can't tell if it is voiced. No matter it's voiced or not, we consider them the same. Thus, we can't tell if we are actually voicing or not. Sometimes we voice it and sometimes we don't, but no matter we voice or not, we are pronouncing the same one.

[@MaestroRigale]

It's all a matter of when the vocal folds begin to vibrate as compared to the opening of whatever articulators are meeting to restrict the airflow. Languages like Italian or Spanish have a similar issue, but in the reverse direction: a clearly voiced consonant paired with an unaspirated-voiceless, or tenuis, consonant. In voiced consonants, the voicing precedes the release, in aspirated voiceless consonants, the voicing comes well after the release, hence the audible puff of air. With unaspirated-voiceless/tenuis consonants, the voicing and the opening occur simultaneously, which to English ears more like a voiced consonant, but to other ears sounds more like a voiceless consonant, depending on the contrast present in their language. Some languages, such as Armenian, have a three-way contrast between voiced, tenuis, and aspirated-voiceless consonants, such as that demonstrated with English vs. vs. . The /k/ of , when isolated, sounds to us to be more voiced than voiceless, and there could even be a margin of error regarding the simultaneity of the voicing and articulatory release that contributes to that. When you start to really, really parse the subtle differences between various phonemes and allophones present in languages, you start getting differing interpretations and opinions on the nature of speech sounds, even among very well educated linguists familiar with the languages in question.

[@Alkis05]

@@白洛闻 Thank you for your comment. You just about saved my sanity.

[@Sebax]

Telling apart aspirated and unaspirated consonants is more difficult than the voiced and unvoiced I first thought they were 😅 very insightful video

[@FluentForeverApp]

We're glad you found the video helpful!

[@tinieblas6429]

💯for the Scarlet's tie and Scarlet sty example

[@Alkis05]

Well, there is something odd going on here, because when she pronounce "gài" [kai] I still hear something between that and [gai]. So maybe the consonant is a bit voiced? EDIT: some chinese people in the comments said that they can't differentiate very well voiced from unvoiced. So it's indeed not so cut and dry.

[@chanameegan5721]

Thank you for the video, it was very useful There is one thing that confused me however. Everywhere else I've looked says that ʂ is retroflex, but in the diagram in this video, the tongue tip is flat and not rolled backwards, is it a dialectic variant?

[@mindsetnovice]

Yeah, it just varies between different regions and between different speakers.

[@raidenshogun4552]

The way I hear it, unaspirated consonants can be voiced in certain positions, given that in phonetic context voiced sounds are allophones of pinyin b, d and g. Either way it's not gonna change the meaning because in phonemic context aspiration is the distinction of mandarin and not voicing. The pinyin h can be pronounced either /x/ or /h/. /x/ is the standard pronunciation while /h/ is a dialectical or regional variant.

[@darklaboratory1697]

Wow, Gabriel, hope you know that you're awesome! Your channel is just so so so useful! Wish you luch in your things : )

[@flat-earther]

Is that a mistake at 6:20 the IPA of the qi and ji both have the small h aspiration mark please help me understand

[@boobella899]

that's a mistake x = [ɕ] q = [tɕʰ] (aspirated) j = [tɕ] (unaspirated)

[@cuentadeyoutube5903]

This video is amazing, I'm doing the chinese trainer at the moment and this is very helpful to understand sounds that all sound alike to me (I'm a spanish speaker, zh ch sh and others sound the same). The only problem I have with this video is how fast you go through it all, what is the rush? I wish you would space out the different pronunciations and examples (like when you say "zh as in .., ch as in ...")

[@thecrazyinsomniac]

Where have you been my entire adult life?

[@darrenlim5112]

No wonder English speaker has their own accent when speaking Mandarin. Their 爸ba sounds like "bar" instead of "spa" without s sound.

[@laurakelly631]

valuable info...but zooms so fast! Really...too fast. Need more time to absorb and hear the tones

[@ramzy-6566]

great.

[@ramzy-6566]

Thank you so much.

[@FluentForeverApp]

And thank you for being with us!

[@abhinavchauhan7864]

2:15 pee tee and key are names of the alphabets not sounds or consonants

[@viskyye2896]

Very great and helpful

[@Alkis05]

Me: "Let's learn how to pronounce chinese consonants correctly" Me after: "I gotta learn how to pronounce english consonants better"

[@grahamrussell7549]

Great set of videos, they have given me the knowledge and extra motivation to pick up learning! I am currently learning pronunciation, pinyin and Zhuyin. Regarding w in this video, I am getting a bit confused as Zhuyin (BoPoMoFo) doesn't have a w (IPA) [according to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bopomofo], only a w (pinyin) = u (IPA) = ㄨ in Zhuyin. Is this a mistake in the video where the IPA for wanfan is wrong? I know that IPA w and u are very similar, was that the reason, or am I missing something? Thanks!

[@kylierachie8824]

according to en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:IPA/Mandarin, w(u) or -u (pinyin) and ㄨ (zhuyin) can be transcribe as - /w/ consonant (semivowel) - /u/ vowel

[@schlutia]

your video is so useful.but only 3000ppl watch this. it's so sad

[@AdventureInHanziLand]

a few notes for everyone watching this in 2024. - 0:36 the word is fan [fan], but the speaker says something closer to [fæn], the same happens at 0:46 with wanfan - 3:58 the IPA for po and bo should be [pʰwo] and [pwo], instead of [pʰo] and [po] - 6:20 the IPA for ou ji should be [t͡ɕ], instead of [t͡ɕʰ] - 7:17 although there are multiple correct notation, the most frequent/recent one for the Chinese r is [ʐ] instead of [ɻ], which makes it a voiced version of [ʂ] I didn't check the last part of the video, hope my comment will eventually prove useful for other fellow learners. Have a great day

[@MrNicoJac]

5:27 5:48 6:22 2:07 5:33 6:03 5:46 6:22 5:47 6:23 4:37 5:47 6:23 2:03 4:37 6:22 5:47

[@nekozombie]

what was the point of this

[@adapienkowska2605]

@@nekozombie Mistakes in her pronunciation. This is not how 'textbook' Mandarin is pronounced and it is not what he is talking about. I am rather disappointed.

[@nekozombie]

@@adapienkowska2605 oooh, gotcha. Thanks!

[@spacevspitch4028]

Great...so in spite of the sleek presentation, this series of videos is ultimately useless?

[@jriceblue]

I'll probably figure this out as I go, but: is there rounding (of the lips) in any of the c/z/sh/ch/zh/x/q/j fricatives?

[@kechiren9528]

nope

[@lf00t]

I was watching your video about Russian sounds and it said that D and T were made with the tip touching the front teeth, while English T and D is with the tip touching the alveolar ridge. How about the Chinese D and T? is the tip at the upper teeth or at the ridge?

[@FluentForeverApp]

Super question. I just asked my Mandarin speaking friend and she's saying that her Ts are made in the same spot as in English.

[@lf00t]

Thanks Gabe!

[@kechiren9528]

Chinese Ts and Ds are in the same position as russian Ts or spanish Ts, different from english

[@darkerhippo5852]

​@@FluentForeverApp No. Mandarin T and D are different from the English ones. The tip should touch the front teeth, as Mr kechi ren has said. Your Mandarin speaking friend was either saying the English T/D wrong, or not careful enough to realize the difference albeit saying them right, or, quite unlikely, saying the Mandarin ones wrong, for which acquisitions of foreign languages could be responsible.

[@elmerdaserdmannchen2604]

If I pronounce "b" like a voiced /p/ instead of an unaspirated /pʰ/, will I be understood?

[@elmerdaserdmannchen2604]

Alright, thank you very much.

[@adapienkowska2605]

If you pronounce "b" voiced most speaker won't notice as long as you don't aspirate.

[@lf00t]

is the mandarin L same as the Received Pronunciation "light L"?

[@FluentForeverApp]

Yes! It basically is the same as the light L in RP. I think some RP speakers do lift the backs of their tongues up slightly, even for that L, but others do not, and either way, it's going to be so close that it may even be indistinguishable.

[@ventice11o]

when pronouncing distinct consonants the lady goes too quickly - nothing can be distinguished.

[@rzeka]

"Aspiration? Is that like sweat on my butt?" -Ted Cruz, 1988

[@dargon881]

You have a mistake!!! Xi pronounce like the soft s in pinyin ! Like Russian "сь"

[@grahamo8863]

The explanation is right but the girl has a little southeastern/taiwanese accent.

[@humanbeing6714]

OMG it's so hard ... :(

[@derekeano]

This video makes me feel dumb. I can barely hear any difference between some of the Chinese and English sounds

[@FluentForeverApp]

It's normal not to hear the difference! This is why our app focuses on pronunciation at the start, including minimal pairs training. It can take some time to be able to hear the difference between different sounds in the languages, especially when you've never been exposed to certain sounds before. However, it *is* possible to train your ears to distinguish between them. Take a look at our Quick Start Guide here which will explain our approach to learning a language, starting with pronunciation training! fluent-forever.com/quick-start-guide

[@koffron9696]

It seems like after the reform in last century the "new mandarin" (the standard one in China nowadays) no longer distinguishes "j, q, x" from "z, c, s" (both like ts, tsʰ, s), while in "old mandarin" (like in Taiwan) still does "j, q, x" as "tɕ, tɕʰ, ɕ".

[@Belier1988]

s 1:48

[@NyersKrem]

Wtf