Master Chinese Tones | Pronunciation Training

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【About this video】
This video will help you understand the KEY to pronouncing Chinese tones correctly. Learn the characteristics of each tone AND practice them with me! This video is ALL YOU NEED to master Chinese tones!
⚡️ Time code:
00:00 The Key to Mastering Chinese Tones
00:10 Introduction
00:45 What You Should Know
02:10 The 1st Tone
03:02 The 3rd Tone
03:39 Practice Time (1st, 3rd tones)
04:33 Solving the 3rd Tone Myth
05:46 Skillshare
07:08 The 2nd Tone
08:18 The 4th Tone
09:29 The Neutral Tone
10:37 Recap
11:38 Thank you for watching to the end!
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[@GraceMandarinChinese]

⭐️ The first 1000 people to use the link will get a free trial of Skillshare Premium Membership: skl.sh/gracemandarinchinese05211 - I haven't made a pronunciation video for a while And I noticed a lot of people were searching "Grace Mandarin Chinese tones" so here it is!! 🥳 I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it! 💛

[@deontesampson1991]

Grace! My favorite teacher! & wait a minute something is different🤔 did you record in your room or you just sat somewhere different? you always Surprise us with something different that's so like you laoshi :) what will she come up with next!? 🤣 ❤️❤️❤️ #Grace4president #nodebate #united(Grace)ofAmerica #Ijustcameupwiththat1 😄

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

@@deontesampson1991 I moved to a new place! 😎

[@deontesampson1991]

@@GraceMandarinChineseCai juele!! 😎 Congratulations president you deserve it all of your hard is paying off !❤️😄

[@markjosephbacho5652]

Wow. Your video is so helpful! You even had a little break time 😆 Just a suggestion, could you please limit the use of SMPTE colored bars sound effect? It's not very pleasant to hear due to it's pitch 😅

[@Abeturk]

21+ tenses in turkish language... Anatolian Turkish.verb conjugations A= To (toward)(~for) (for the thick voiced words) E= To (toward)(~for) (for the subtle voiced words) Okul=School U=(ou)=it= (it's that)=(it's about ) Git=Go (verb root) Mak/Mek (emek)=exertion /process Git-mek=(verb)= to Go (the process of going=get-mek =to get there now on ) Gel-mek= to Come 1 .present continuous tense (now or soon, right now or later, currently or nowadays) it's used to explain the current actions or planned events (for the specified times) YOR-mak =to tire (~ to try , to deal with this) >Yor=~go over it (for the subtle and thick voiced words) A/E Yormak=(to arrive an idea/opinion onto what's this) I/İ/U/Ü Yormak=(to arrive wholly on it) is used as suffix="Yor" (iaʊr) positive. Okula gidiyorsun ( you are going to school)= Okul-a Git-i-yor-u-Sen > School-to Go-to-try that-You=(You try-to-Go to school) Evden geliyorum ( I'm coming from home) = Ev-de-en Gel-i-yor-u-Men > Home-at-then Come-to-try i-Am=(from home I try to come) negative A)..Mã= Not B)...Değil= it's not (the equivalent of) examples A: Okula gitmiyorsun ( you are not going to school)= Okul-a Git-Ma-i-yor-u--Sen (School-to Go-Not-it-try that-You) -(You that try-it's-not-Go to school) B: Okula gidiyor değilsin ( you are not going to school)=Okul-a Git-i-yor değil-sen (You aren't trying-to-Go to School) Question sentence: Mã-u =Not-it =(is) Not it? is used as....suffixes ="Mı-Mi-Mu-Mü " Okula mı gidiyorsun? ( Are you going to school?)= Okul-a Ma-u Git-i-yor-u-sen ? (To-school/ Not-it / You-try-to-go)(~Towards the school or somewhere else are you going ?) Okula gidiyor musun? ( Do you go to school?)= Okul-a Git-i-yor Ma-u -sen ? (To school /Try-to-go /Not-it-you) (~You try to go to the school (anymore) or not ?) (Do you go to school at some specific times ?) Okula sen mi gidiyorsun ? (~Are only you that going to school ?) 2 .present simple tense ( it's used to explain our own thoughts about the topic) (everytime, always or never ,at all, often,rarely, any time or sometimes, now on, soon or afterwards, so it's possible of course inshallah) positive VAR-mak =~ to arrive (at) ...(to attain).....(for the thick voiced words) is used as suffixes >"ar-ır-ur" ER-mek=~ to get (at) ...(to reach).....(for the subtle voiced words) is used as suffixes >"er-ir-ür" examples Okula gidersin ( you go to school)= Okul-a Git-e-er-sen (I think that> you get to go to school) Kuşlar gökyüzünde uçar ( the birds fly in the sky )=Kuş-lar gökyüzü-n-de uç-a-var ( The birds arrive at flying(get to fly) in the sky) Bunu görebilirler = (they can see this) = Bu-ne-u Gör-e-Bil-e-er-ler =(They-get-to-Know-to-See this-what-that)>They get at the knowledge to see what's this Question sentence: In the question sentences it means : is not it so? or what do you think about this topic? Okula gider misin? (Do you get to go to school ?)= Okul-a Git-e-er Ma-u-Sen ?>You get to Go to School Not it ?=(What about you getting to go to school ?) negative Bas-mak =to dwell on (~ to press onto/into) (~to go by pass so (leaving it) (for the thick voiced words) Ez-mek = to crush (~ to press down) (~to compress) (~to go quickly passing over)(for the subtle voiced words) Mã= Not Ma-bas=(No pass)=Na pas=(not to dwell on)>(to give up)=(vaz geçmek) (in the thick voiced words) suffix ="MAZ" Ma-ez= (No crush) =does not>(to skip over)=(es geçmek) (in the subtle voiced words) is used as suffix ="MEZ" example Okula gitmezsin ( you don't go to school)= Okul-a Git-ma-ez-sen (You no-crush--Go to school)=( you skip of going to school) O bunu yapmaz (s/he doesn't do this) = Bunu yap-ma-bas ( s/he no-pass--Do this)=(s/he gives up doing this) Niçün şuna bakmazsınız = (why don't you look at that )=Ne-u-çün şu-n-a bak-ma-bas-sen-iz (2. plural)= what-that-factor at that you give up looking 3.simple future tense (soon or later) it's used to explain the events we thought that will happen Çak-mak =~to fasten , ~to tack, ~to keep beside (for the thick voiced words) Çek-mek=~to attract , ~to take ,~to bring beside, ~to keep close, ~to want (for the subtle voiced words) suffixes= ("CAK"-djäk) - ("CEK" -djek) positive.. Okula gideceksin ( you'll go to school)= Okul-a Git-e-çek-sen (~You bring (in the mind)-to-Go to school) (~You wil -to-Go to school) Ali kapıyı açacak ( Ali will open the door)= Ali Kapı-y-ı Aç-a-çak (~Ali keeps close to open the door) negative A. Okula gitmeyeceksin (you won't go to school)= Okul-a Git-ma-e-çek-sen (~you don't take to go to school) B. Okula gidecek değilsin (you're not gonna go to school)= Okul-a Git-e-çek değil-sen (~you are not that to go to school) 4 . simple past tense (currently or before) it's used to explain the completed events which that we're sure about Di = now on (anymore) Di-mek(demek) = ~ to deem , ~ to mean, ~ to think this way is used as...suffixes=.(Dı-di-du-dü) positive Okula gittin ( you went to school)= Okul-a Git-di-N Okula gittin mi ? (did you go to school ?)= Okul-a Git-di-N Ma-u ?( You went to school Not-it ?) Dün İstanbul'da kaldım (I stayed in Istanbul yesterday)= Dün İstanbul-da kal-dı-M negative Okula gitmedin ( you didn't go to school)= Okul-a Git-ma-di-N Bugün hiç birşey yapmadık (We did nothing today) =Bugün hiç birşey yap-ma-dı-K Beni zaten görmediler (They did not already see me) =Ben-i zaten gör-me-di-ler 5 .storial past tense (which we did not witness)- (just now or before) it's used to explain the completed events which that we're not able sure about MUŞ-mak = ~ to inform , (muş=moush) (muşuş=mesaj=message...muştu=müjde=evangel) means... I'm informed about - I noticed that- I got it- I learned such - I heard that - so they say...or it seems such (to me) if it's within any question sentence .Do you have any inform about? .do you know..have you heard?.are you aware?. or does it look like this? is used as suffixes= (Mış-miş-muş-müş) positive Okula gitmişsin ( I heard about) you went to school)= Okul-a Git-miş-u-sen (I realized You've been to school) Hata Yapmışım=Hâtâ Yap-mış-u-men (Seems that I've made an error) Yanılmışım (I noticed I fell in a mistake) negative A. Okula gitmemişsin (I heard that) you didn't go to school)= Okul-a Git-ma-miş-sen (I learned about) You're not gone to school) B. Okula gitmiş değilsin (I've been informed about) you hadn't gone to school)= Okul-a Git--miş değil-sen (Got it) You haven't been to school. İbrahim bugün okula gitmiş mi? =do you know /have you heard did Abraham go to school today? 6.Okula varmak üzeresin (You're about to arrive at school) 7.Okula gitmektesin (You're in (process of) going to school) (~you have been going to school) 8.Okula gitmekteydin (You had been going to school) 9.Okula gitmekteymişsin (I learned,,you've been going to school) 10.Okula gidiyordun (Okula git-e-yor er-di-n) (You were going to school) 11.Okula gidiyormuşsun (Okula git-e-yor er-miş-sen) ( I heard that) You are going to school)(2.I learned you were going to school) 12.Okula gidecektin (Okula git-e-çek erdin) (You would go to school after/then)(2.~I had thought you'll go to school)(3.~You'd said going to go to school) 13.Okula gidecekmişsin (Okula git-e-çek ermişsen) (I heard that) you'd like to go to school then)(2.I learned that you'll go to school) 14.Okula giderdin ( Okula git-e-er erdin) (You used to go to school bf) (2.~you would go to school bf/then) 15.Okula gittiydin ( Okula git-di erdin) ( I remember you went to school) (2.~I had seen you've gone to school) 16.Okula gitmiştin ( Okula git-miş erdin) ( I know that) you had gone to school) 17.Okula gitmiş oldun( Okula git-miş ol-du-n) (you have been to school) Bu bir Elma = This is an apple Bu bir Kitap = This is a book Dur-mak=to keep to be present there Durur=it keeps to be present there is used as suffixes=(Dır- dir- dur- dür- or Tır- tir-tur-tür) It's usually used on the correspondences and literary language... (formal) Means within the official speeches =(that keeps to be present there) Bu bir Elmadır= (bu bir elma-durur)= This is an apple (that keeps to be present there) Bu bir Kitaptır= (bu bir kitap-durur)= This is a book (that keeps to be present there) Means within the daily speeches =( I think that or I guess that) (informal) Bu bir Elmadır= (bu bir elma-durur)= (I think) this is an apple Bu bir elma gibi duruyor=Looks like an apple this is (~this looks like an apple) Bu bir Kitaptır= (bu bir kitap-durur)= (I think) this is a book Bu bir kitap gibi duruyor=This looks like a book 18.Okula gidiyordursun =(Guess that) You were going to school /bf or after that) 19.Okula gidiyorsundur =(I think that) then you are going to school ) 20.Okula gidecektirim =(Guess that) I would have to go to school /bf or after that ) 21.Okula gideceğimdir=(I think that) ~I'm going to go to school ) 21.Okula gideceklerdir=(I think that) they are going to go to school ) 22.Okula gitmiştirler =(Guess that) they had gone to school /bf or after that) 23.Okula gitmişlerdir = They have been to school (officially) 23.Okula gitmişlerdir =(Looks like that) they have been to school ) ....(informal) 16..."Okula gitmişlerdi"or"Okula gitmiştiler" =They had gone to school Anlayabilir misin= Aŋı-la-y-a Bil-e-Er Ma-u-sen? =You get at the knowledge to understand not it ?>Can you understand ? Anlayabilirim= Aŋı-la-y-a Bil-e-Er-Men = I Get-to-Know-to-Understand =(I get at the knowledge to understand)= I can understand Anlayamam = Aŋı-la-y-a Al-Ma-Men =I don't get (to have something) to-Understand = I can not understand Aŋ= moment Aŋı= memory Aŋıla=get via memory (save in memory= make it become a memory)

[@Squallkng]

I have been studying Chinese for a long time and this topic has never been explained in a way as clear as this. Thanks!

[@thinhle2348]

just because she looks "good"?

[@JolieGirl2002]

@@thinhle2348 ? what lol... I'm a chinese beginner and this explanation was genuinely very helpful

[@user-yt8it5zi5y]

@@JolieGirl2002 Chinese grammar is not difficult.

[@user-yt8it5zi5y]

Don't be afraid of the tones, you can master it.

[@jacquelinejiang7565]

As a Chinese speaker I have to say, she points out so many things that us Chinese speakers do without even knowing that we are doing them.

[@huegihuguenin429]

The "creaky voice" description of the third tone was super helpful. I never thought of it that way. 谢谢。

[@Terrsky]

As a Chinese, I never thought of it that way either, lol.

[@SzHo-lz1rl]

that's very professional

[@minji202]

I love the fact that you explain it in a motivational way. I took Chinese classes in school (only 2 classes because the rest was canceled due to lock down) and the teacher told us that due to the fact that our native language is not tonal, we won't be able to pronounce Chinese words correctly. It ruined my motivation. But this video made me want to continue my Chinese learning journey again. You are definitely a way better teacher than the one I had in school!

[@tknode3065]

That is the biggest BS i have heard in my life. There are people from south america in Taiwan who speak chinese almost as fluently as spanish. Was your teacher a mainlander by any chance? I know some of them like to hate on chinese learners for some odd reason.

[@clonkex]

What a horrible teacher. Of course you can learn to pronounce Chinese correctly.

[@linderoes7832]

Your teacher have bias

[@xsoireg]

@@tknode3065 do u have a prejudice against mainlanders? I had both mainland and Taiwanese teachers and all of them helped me improve. And I am from South America btw. Just cut your BS

[@bullhead420]

Teacher is trash

[@graycamellia7634]

I've always struggled with tones greatly since my native language, (Korean), is not a tonal language. My Chinese teacher recommended me this video and it's definitely helped greatly! This is a very clear explanation on how to pronounce these tones because whenever I tried to say tones, it always came out kind of awkward and unnatural ㅠ_ㅠ So thank you for this informative video!

[@user-jj6mx3tc1g]

Most Han people are from tonal language, except Wuhan dialect ~

[@user-jj6mx3tc1g]

Learning Wuhan dialect is super easy for foreigners.

[@eyeofthasky]

korean IS a tonal language ... even if not in the same way. may be better just called pitch. the difference between e.g. ㅂ and ㅍ at the beginning of words is that ㅍ like all voiceless consonants brings a high tone into the first syllable, whereas ㅂ like all underlying voiced sounds will have a low/normal pitch there. the second syllable of a word always has a high tone which then in the subsequent syllables drops to normal pitch. so, this might be a further difficulty to _not_ bring that into chinese

[@Srae17]

@@eyeofthasky This is a blessing.

[@patrickmichaelmolen6416]

I spent some time as an exchange student in Wuhan at HuaZhong University and noticed differences in my interactions with people but was never able to pin point it to the Wuhan dialect being non-tonal. Is this accurate? Wuhan being non-tonal? I have family members from Wuhan. On the vast university campus I would interact with students and teachers from all over different parts of China who brought their own local dialects to the University as well as their mastery of Mandarin. Many of the common local Wuhan people I would interact with for example the farmer selling fruit at a stall or the small shop owner selling merchandise spoke with various levels of the Wuhan dialect and brought different levels of Mandarin mastery. Example, Wuhan has three “boroughs” Hankou, Hanyang and Wuchang”. Hankou was like Manhattan with buildings in the mid late 1990’s and Wuchang was more spread out and was where my university HuaZhong was located. I noticed very slight differences in a Hankou vs. Wuchang person but it was almost imperceptible. Also a farmer living 25 miles outside of Wuhan who came into the city to sell fruit brought with him an entirely different local dialect that was mutually unintelligible from both the local Wuhan dialect and Mandarin. As far as foreigners picking up Wuhan dialect easier my experience is very outdated mid and late 1990’s so maybe you are correct today but that was not my experience back then. There were tons of foreigners in Wuhan and we used to gather at certain bars, one I fondly recall as Zanzibar owned by a nice guy from Africa. The foreigners were made up of University students, autoworkers from European car firms manufacturing autos in Wuhan, American firms such as CocaCola where foreign expats were put up for two years etc. etc. I only knew of one gifted Palestinian that had mastered Mandarin and the local Wuhan dialect. This kid was so gifted in language abilities that he was taking the bus every weekend to go to the countryside 20 miles outside of Wuhan to study a different 3rd Chinese language different from both Mandarin and Wuhan hua.

[@jeremye8041]

Do you have any tips on how to pronounce the tones fluidly/smoothly in sentences? E.g. like how to transition from 4th to 1st to 1st to 3rd to neutral?

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

I haven't had any tips on that for now, but I'll look into it! Thanks for letting me know!

[@TheModicaLiszt]

A video on that would be helpful :)

[@jessyca9833]

Oh this is exactly what I'm interested in as well! I find very difficult to have fluidity in my pronunciation (versus sticking too hard on the proper pinyin and sounding like a Google Translate voice ahaha) when I try I tend to become sloppy with the tones unintentionally in trying to reproduce common reductions (Grace has a video about these common shortenings e.g. wo3men = wo3m when speaking fast). So I have noticed certain tone combinations are more difficult for example for me passing from to 2 to 3 in a 3-3-3- or 3-3 sequence is difficult and as my last third tone tends to sound like a 4th tone. Because 3-3- becomes 2-3 the transition between a raising tone to a low tone is difficult to achieve to make sure that the third tone sounds like a third tone and not dropping and linking it making it sound like a 4th. I hope my example is somewhat clear haha!

[@Tee_Chee]

Please make a video on this when you can...it will be very helpful

[@bryansproles2879]

I definitely need this 😅 It's tough enough having to think about the tone I'm about to say (that's its own issue...there are SO many Chinese "words" I know, where I can recognize the hanzi, but I just straight up never remember the tone for that meaning...), but then as I'm saying a sentence, it feels very disjointed...not very fluid at all, unless I'm completely comfortable with a particular sentence.

[@NoobixCube]

The creak on the third tone is called “vocal fry”, and usually happens when you push your pitch lower than your voice can handle. I never realised before this video, but I’ve been doing that on the third tone since I started learning Mandarin. I graduated with a four year degree majoring in this damn language, and I still fell like I know literally nothing when I encounter a native speaker. Mandarin is SO much harder than Japanese. One year studying Japanese and I’m basically fluent.

[@christinekinyua942]

You want to say that it takes an year or over ...to learn these languages. I thought it could at least take like 6 months

[@justinb.5277]

I've heard students of Japanese say its a lot harder than Mandarin 😂 japanese kanji are insane. The vast majority have two completely different ways to pronounce each one. and very few ways to know which one is the correct way in a given circumstance.

[@NoobixCube]

@@justinb.5277 There is that. Japanese kanji can be broken into three broad categories: traditional Chinese characters imported from China, characters simplified in Japan (not necessarily in the same ways China would later simplify), and characters that look Chinese, are made of perfectly valid radicals, but do not occur in the Chinese language, as they were made up in Japan in the style of Chinese characters. The reason for the multiple readings is because Japanese as a spoken language already existed prior to contact with China. Initially, Chinese characters were used solely for their phonetic value to write Japanese sentences, but using a writing system from a language where most words top out at three syllables for a language where four syllables is the average was rightly considered insane. That said, the Chinese phonetic reading (more or less, as it was at the time, differing now for both languages drifting in different directions) is preserved for words with a Chinese origin. Generally speaking, nouns will use the Chinese reading, thanks to the nature of trade. I say generally because I can already think of exceptions in both directions, but it's a good rule of thumb for an unfamiliar word to assume a noun uses the Chinese reading. English is kind of the same, remember. We have words if French and German origin which change the pronunciation rules for the same letters based on the origin of the word, so it shouldn't be that alien a concept to us.

[@NoobixCube]

@@justinb.5277 The parts of Japanese I find much easier are first, the tones. Japanese teachers will tell you Japanese is flat. It isn’t, but you can be perfectly well understood if you keep it flat, and if you listen to native speakers, their pitch accent will steadily seep into your speech. You’ll never know you’re doing anything different, but you’ll come off sounding far more fluent. There are full explicit rules on pitch accent, but trying to learn those by rote is a great way to slow your speech down and only be understood in Tokyo. Better to cultivate the skill to absorb the pitch accent. Second, the grammar. Chinese plays pretty fast and loose with concepts like word class, to the point you have to know contextually if you’re reading a noun, adjective, or verb. There are clear logical rules in Japanese that govern each, various classes of verb and adjective, too. What may scare some people off is the explicit registers you can speak in, but the rules governing the registers make speaking the language like bumper bowling. You know what form of a verb to use because of the rules about the register. The third very easy thing about studying Japanese isn’t actually related to the language at all, but is a matter of cultural exports. If you want to find Chinese language media to train yourself on, you’re limited to martial arts movies and period dramas, basically. There isn’t even a good source in the west of Chinese language ebooks. If you want to train yourself on some Japanese media, they have a huge TV and film industry, obviously anime and manga, practically every book ever written gets a Japanese translation (likely a Chinese translation, too, but the Japanese is MUCH easier to track down), and there’s games, too. Huge sprawling RPGs that’ll have you reading page after page of text. Considering game consoles were banned in China until the mid 2000s (some Famiclones were sold as home computers to get around it), China doesn’t have the gaming industry to compete there, and games were seldom translated to Chinese. It’s a lot easier to find Japanese language material to practice with, is what I’m saying. For a westerner living in a western country, immersing yourself in Chinese media is a lot more difficult than immersing yourself in Japanese media.

[@justinb.5277]

@@NoobixCube I was just standing in a Books a Million when I read your reply, deciding whether to get a book on Chinese or Japanese......I chose Japanese. Arigato!!

[@JonasTjader]

Great video, hardest part of Chinese!

[@gordainramsypie2960]

@@cedar4539 it’s an excuse to watch c dramas more 😂

[@salmawu8627]

@@gordainramsypie2960 agreeeee 😂😂😂😂😂

[@joburgerer4127]

@@gordainramsypie2960 Could you recommend some shows?

[@gordainramsypie2960]

@@joburgerer4127 I can try! Could you let me know if you have watched any c dramas? So I won’t recommend something old.

[@mandarinforall88]

Tq for sharing...Ms

[@smartmandarinkatrinalee]

老師這部影片的呈現方式看起來更專業了！背景也不一樣了👍👍 很棒！加油！

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

謝謝Katrina老師❤️

[@rubenjacobs1237]

I agree, all those 课本 make her look very smart.

[@deadshothd6329]

lol

[@patricktu3352]

I've been studying Mandarin for about 15 hours and your tips were really insightful. Particularly that the third tone can be falling without the rising; the first tone only has to be relatively higher pitch than the rest; and that the neutral tone simply carries forward the previous tone. These are good to know!

[@jaywhypeemom3980]

15 hours???you are so determined

[@mango-pm2xx]

@@jaywhypeemom3980 xDDD

[@roxiethecockapoo1138]

1 year later, just a reminder to keep at it, you got this! :)

[@ferx3703]

you got thiss

[@lostwords5646]

How about now? Still going at it? :)

[@laura2089]

omgggg. when she explained how the third tone is usually pronounced without the rising at the end i nearly died. i swear ive been listening to chinese an i thought i was losing my mind at how some words were being pronounced. great video!!

[@user-nk8zx1yw8s]

This is literally the best tutorial for tones I have seen. Teachers and other youtubers make it seem so much harder…

[@kdandsheela]

I've studied Chinese for years and never thought about how the first syllable in words like 爸爸 and 叉子 were elongated, it's cool to know that the neutral tone has its own purpose!

[@billiusjames6403]

As a native Chinese I think that the neutral tone is just to pronounce the character lightly, because in Chinese it is just 轻声 (light tone), like the way in English you pronounce the unstressed syllables

[@Jforjenny02]

I’ve been waiting for this for soooo long♥️

[@gintaresprauniute3612]

I really love your videos on pronunciation, they're so insightful! I hope you'll do even more videos on Chinese phonetics:)

[@arfantrikusumarf3080]

Thank you so much for this video, Grace!

[@tiddlypom2097]

This is so well explained, thank you! ❤️

[@MrGanbat84]

Love Mandarin 🇨🇳🇨🇳🇨🇳 from Korea 👏👏🇰🇷🇰🇷🇰🇷

[@LukeBlough]

This video was really awesome! I've always struggled with tones, so it's nice to get any tips that I can!

[@blo0p324]

Thank you so much for this video. It helps me a lot to differentiate between those tones :)

[@makotohanazawa6560]

First time watching and you are a legend. I could imagine it would make learning Chinese a breeze for all the learners out there. Good work!

[@giancarloantonucci1266]

Thank you, Grace! By FAR the best channel on KZbin for this stuff.

[@thereaper3466]

You have amazingly simplified it to us! Thank you very much 🙏🏽

[@jola9236]

So glad I found your channel!! Thank you Grace 💞💞

[@sethunyaleepo6650]

This is so useful. Thank you so much❤💖

[@priyanshusoni553]

This is one of the best video i have seen regarding Chinese tones on KZbin...thanking you from my heart ❤

[@adriennewashington4024]

You are awesome! I am currently taking Chinese classes and I struggle with my tones. This video is so helpful! 👍👍👍

[@pablollthek]

Great lesson, so helpful! Thank you!

[@pineswood]

This is very helpful ❤️ thankyou so much Grace☺️

[@DarthJF]

I really needed this video. I've been focusing on reading in my Chinese studies and know that my tones are all over the place, so I decided to focus on improving them this summer. This came at just the right time. 谢谢老师！

[@luxiaomao]

you're so didactic, thanks for the lesson ♥

[@dounnia3112]

I love your videos and how easy it is to follow with you !!!

[@scottramlal849]

Great video! Keep up the good work

[@milkeubaby]

I was literally searching for your pronounciation video yesterday and now it's here! 谢谢 🥰

[@sianais]

This is the best way anyone has every explained this.

[@mc-yh3ew]

this video helped a lot!! thank you so much

[@plaidygami]

This has been immensely insightful. Thank you so much.

[@bendikgautebjrnson8329]

This is the ultimate Chinese tones video I've been looking for! Very nice explained! My idea for a follow-up to this video: "from isolate tones to a smooth sentence", where you could show how sentence melody changes from a robot-speech to smooth human sentences. Many of us are able to hear and produce tones on our own when they're isolated, but to put them together to make a full sentence is a challenge already

[@thefakenews3150]

This makes way more sense then what others were telling me. I had a feeling sounds were getting altered when used in conjunction, but no one could explain it. Thanks for the useful video.

[@Scarlet8375]

Thank you for this video! I was stressing about this a lot when I started learning Chinese and this helps a lot

[@astauma9873]

really helpful, thank you for making learning chinese easier!

[@im.onalei]

When I tried to learn Chinese by myself I had a hard time dealing with tones I watched some videos but still found it hard... but now, omg, this is so helpful, like honestly, you are an excellent teacher!

[@leamaz9622]

I swear she looks like bae suzy!!!!

[@bethanylum2689]

I really like how you explained this.

[@kumajiii]

the amount of help i got from this video is insane, thanks love 💜

[@Manabi05]

Oh thanks I really needed this video !!! 😁❤

[@zhanglee7947]

Hello, can we be friends?

[@JairoMorales123]

Thank you this helps, 3rd tone and neutral tone always confused me until now!

[@lamtuvi]

Thank you Ad very much for your excellent video lesson !

[@FitProVR]

This is the best way I've ever heard tones explained. TYSM. Liked and Subbed.

[@keiiita]

THIS IS SO HELPFUL! I FINALLY UNDERSTAND! omg ive been trying to understand for so long and now i dO, NOW I JUST NEED TO PRACTICE!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

[@suethinker852]

thank you so much for this video! had my first Chinese lesson yesterday and it really made me feel as if I was never able to learn Chinese. your video brings back hope that I will master the tones eventually.

[@EvilMelon1]

Omg this makes tones make so much more sense! Thank you!

[@RayNoorAly]

This is amazing! Thank you!

[@davewill4713]

Thank you for making this video! I've just started learning Chinese, and I thought that the "OK" example at the beginning was a really good way to introduce tones. To a lot of English speakers, the idea of tone changing the meaning of a word sounds very alien and intimidating, but when you think about it like that, we also use intonation to change meaning, just not as dramatically.

[@pinyinsongs]

Thanks Grace. Great video and helpful for beginners.

[@phuongkern8027]

This video is incredible! Thank you 🙏

[@henryt8008]

absolutely love the aesthetic of your videos and your manner of teaching! extremely helpful and well laid out. 谢谢你！

[@CAMC_17]

Wait....this was the BEST and most MODERN way of learning the differences in pitch. I loved the way this video was structured! With an example from a show, and practicing by repeating after you! Within the first 1 minute into the video I felt encouraged and uplifted to continue my studying of Mandarin!! Thank you so much your videos are so much help!

[@araschanne1]

This is a great video! The rise at the end of the 3rd tone always confused me.. you solved it for me. 谢谢 :)

[@agniD]

The best video about tones I have seen so far!

[@Love_N_Let_Live]

Thanks for the video! I've only been learning Chinese for a couple months now, but this was a great help. Subbed. 🙂

[@bullseye0419]

Her point about using intonations in other languages is spot on.

[@louieshen455]

however there's no intonations in English just so you know

[@bullseye0419]

However there are tones, commonly referred to intonations, just so you know.

[@coldfire774]

@@louieshen455 we use intonation all the fucking time lol. It even changes the meaning of an entire sentence at times

[@louieshen455]

@@coldfire774 okay, we are talking about completely different things. You can change your pitches in English to express different degrees of feelings, the same hold true for all languages. But these intonations or tones are habitual in English and are never hard and fast or as important as in Chinese, I can speak English with a weird tone and people still understand fine, while not following the tones in Chinese will only let you make big mistakes and get yourself embarrassed. Imagine how people can simply relate this back to English and misunderstand Chinese tones.

[@louieshen455]

@@bullseye0419 You can say that as long as you r happy. However, that's completely different. The intonations you referred to is habitual. Has anyone ever taught you in primary school how to split up 'Hello' and pronounce 'He' and 'LLO' separately? The pitch with which you naturally pronounce this word is the 'tone', not the intonations under influence of emotions. And like I how I replied to the other guy. You can change your pitches in English to express different degrees of feelings, the same hold true for all languages. But these intonations or tones are habitual in English and are never hard and fast or as important as in Chinese, I can speak English with a weird tone and people still understand fine, while not following the tones in Chinese will only let you make big mistakes and get yourself embarrassed. Imagine how people can simply relate this back to English and misunderstand Chinese tones.

[@tommo3786]

I'm juuuuust starting to learn Chinese and this is the only explanation so far that's made me actually understand the application of the tones! Awesome video! Keep them coming girl, you're awesome!

[@pbasswil]

Wow, you have serious teaching skills, Grace - much appreciation!

[@methodmakeupacademy8609]

OMG this makes it so much clearer! Thank you!

[@mamamam1037]

thanks Grace! I've been struggling with tones for months and you explained it so well;) it's easy to understand and remember 💓

[@zhanglee7947]

Hello, can we be friends?

[@levitatingmonkeys9544]

thank you for the video! this really helps :)

[@clifford2222]

你棒极了 😮 best tip about neutral tone ever, thanks!

[@ambersimerly1803]

I'm just starting Mandarin and I KNOW without a doubt you are a top notch resource. In the short time I've been learning, I've noticed the change in the 3rd tone and didn't understand why. Thank you!!~♡

[@notgiugiu]

this was incredibly helpful! my first language is brazilian portuguese, so I struggle a bit with the pronunciation in mandarin, and I was worried I wouldn't understand the tones, but now it is so much clearer to me, thank u!!

[@camila9027]

I love your way to explain this! It was so easy to understand. ❤❤

[@darielleyson4037]

Thank you Teacher Grace!

[@VilleHalonen]

Thank you! The examples were very enlightening, but I especially appreciate the "creaky voice" identifier for the third tone! It makes so much sense. I've only studied Mandarin for a little more than a month and my own native language, Finnish, can be spoken entirely in monotone (someone quipped that it's a language you can speak with your lips frozen stiff). In addition, while I'm relatively bad with identifying tones, I'm personally really good at imitating them when I hear them. So I've had a lot of trouble trying to find my own pitch for speaking Chinese. I easily just imitate the pitch of the speech samples which are often from people with a higher voice than mine. I think your tips will actually help me find my own natural pitch!

[@Dojan5]

This is incredibly cool! I'm not really studying Mandarin, just sporadically as a hobby. The tones always seemed really difficult to me, despite my native language definitely having tonal components (not quite to the extent of Mandarin, but definitely in the sense where the wrong tone changes the meaning of words or sentences), but this explanation is so succinct and easy to follow. Thank you so much!

[@36cowboysintotalatramranch]

English has tone, too! It's not the full thing but it is a pitch accent system like Japanese.

[@Tee_Chee]

This is really clear and easy to remember

[@MarkusBlue]

What an excellent explanation! Really this is something not found in books!

[@jessejean6947]

Grace we love you and appreciate everything you do for us !! 😭❤️

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

I love you all so much too! ❤️

[@ScribStat]

This is super helpful, because I was having such trouble figuring out how to pronounce the 3rd tone. I kept thinking I had to pronounce it exactly how it looked and couldn't condense the mid-to-lower-to-high of the 3rd tone properly in the middle of a series of words, especially to separate it from the 2nd tone. But thinking of the 3rd tone (with other words, not in isolation and not at the end) simply as the low tone with a lil gravel to it makes it a lot easier and distinct than the 2nd tone, too! I'm very thankful for this video.

[@Cheerisme123]

Super practical and useful tips! Thank you! I’ve been in China for 2 and a half years, and this is exactly how the tones have sounded to me during my time here. Your explanations were accurate!

[@sacredxgeometry]

This channel is the BEST! Thank you for opening my mind about how this language works! I am enjoying learning about Chinese from you and your channel. Very glad that I subscribed. Definitely the _most straightforward_ and clear channel there is on this.

[@aRebecaLima]

You are an amazing teacher! I loved the dynamic in your video. It definitely made it more simple for me to understand this topic which is not that easy get ahold

[@zhanglee7947]

Hello, can we be friends?

[@GarethLategan]

I'm not learning Chinese at all but I still really enjoyed the video! Now I understand what my friend means when she talks about tones

[@user-bz2jc9we7z]

Coming across this video was kind a reward for the many hours expended on checking another chinese tones tutorials. Thanks a lot!

[@jarcadipane2849]

This was an awesome explanation. Keep up the great work ! Thank you..

[@winq9322]

I’m fluent in Chinese but I could watch Grace’s videos all day long 😂

[@akshara-go2kf]

Can you please teach, I really wanna learn it please.😭

[@kaykaysweetie98]

I'm currently learning on Rosetta Stone and failing the listening exercises because I continuously mix up the tones. The way you explained makes it seem so easy, this is great!

[@derekeano]

This video really is amazing. Thanks Grace. Awesome English explanation and very concise information

[@simk7227]

this video was posted at the perfect time bc i've been researching tones to help better mine all week haha

[@Jincaii]

For some reason I always struggle with the 2nd tone and often accidentally make it the 4th. I've been really struggling with how to correct this and your video really helped! Thank you so much!

[@magicale940]

Me too 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[@GordonLonghouse]

I'm sure that your explanation of the third tone will save a lot of people a lot of trouble. It took me months to figure out that, contrary to what the teachers say, it is not generally a "bouncing tone".

[@alexianaughton3811]

Thank you so much Grace ❤❤

[@Flyingsearat]

This is actually so helpful ! 谢谢 😊

[@amazonpolyglot]

As a brazilian from the Amazon region, the difficilty i had most, was to pronounce the j, q and x sounds, due to the fact that the tongue is positioned in the inferior and not in the superior palate, like zh ch and sh. r is also different. Thanks Grace. Wonderful classes. Amazon greets you!

[@mr559]

My native language is Hmong (Hmoob dawb/White Hmong dialect) which is also a tonal language that makes use of 7 tones. So learning the tones in Mandarin have been easy to understand. The more difficult part for me would be to learn the tonal changes like the two 3rd tones.

[@nauticoom]

Definitely the best explanation for Chinese tones :)

[@frangild]

Best explanation i have come across, thank you!

[@burntoast7628]

I already speak Chinese fluently, why am I watching this? By the way, these are really good videos and I recommend them to any beginner, 加油！

[@simon39wang43]

I’m also a native speaker, but I’m still working on improving my Mandarine pronunciation. I’m getting better and better!

[@ADeeSHUPA]

@@simon39wang43 Are You from 中華民國

[@simon39wang43]

@@ADeeSHUPA I’m from🇨🇳

[@S_T_fania]

谢谢😊

[@candicelaurel4397]

My high school teaches chinese. Sooo im learning chinese so I can get the basic things you need to learn

[@genace]

Lots of good advice! The other day I was actually wondering exactly how high the first tone should be.😅 It’s a relief that it doesn’t need to be too high so I’m glad you clarified that just in time. And the new setting looks really great by the way!!

[@GraceMandarinChinese]

Haha thank you Josh! I know many students are confused by how high the first tone should be😉 Glad to be helpful!

[@calvinlafrance567]

This is so helpful!

[@bazil83]

Thank you for making this video! It's helped me tremendously in my learning and understanding of Mandarin... Granted I'm only about 4 or 5 weeks in, but it's helped so much!