Mandarin Chinese TONES GUIDE That Schools Don't Teach You

[@RonaldMcPaul]

This is an awesome explanation of all the individual tones, better than 90% of the ones you'll see. My note to all the viewer in the comment second is this: Learning the individual tones and then they to add them piece but piece, one by one, into a sentence and sounding like natural does. not. work. at all. I'll prove it you, when you say the word "recital" do you think about the vowel property of the first e, like reh, then stop, load into your brain the vowel sound of ci like sigh and then the a like ahll ? No! You absolutely never, for starters that process is way to slow, impossibly too much mental processing power to rapidly switch between quickly coming syllables. An elementary school teacher will do this: they say "sound it out," they will have you repeat out a syllable so that you don't have to stop and mentally perform the operation of taking a syllable in your head and then applying the in this case 'vowel appropriate transformation" then the next one, to the end, and then and this is important they speed it up, and repeat more and more untill I the whole chunk is a in your auditory memory. The the word gets put in a sentence that you know the rest of the worst for and you over that until you can get it down. Chinese teachers, none them do this. You never get built up to the whole verbal segment at the same time you learn them. The most progressive of all, all they do is increase it to tone pairs. Then they have you read or listen aloud and because that's what their own teachers did which is the stupidest thing you could possibly do with foreigners because foreigners can pronounce it yet like every native Chinese kid. Don't believe me as an intermediate learner that focused in tones they way I was told as hard as I could? The top 4 famous polyglot Luca Lamparaielo says the same thing. The way tones are taught like this is wrong. Tone pairs is slightly better but sentences do not present this way where even numbers of tone pairs form a sentence with no other separations with commas and neutral tones and drawn out particles and deemphasizations.

[@RitaChinese]

Wow thanks for the long message, Ronald! As adult learners, you def don't need to go through the whole process in which Chinese kids acquire our mother tongue. And I agree - knowing and being able to distinguish the four tones and the neutral is just the very basic step of getting an idea of how Mandarin Chinese, being a tonal language, works in terms of pronunciation. But if you have a solid foundation of tones, it def helps you to build up your own "Chinese voice" in tone pairs, phrases and even in a sentence, which needs so much more listening and imitation. Unfortunately, a lot of learners haven't realized the importance of honing tones in Chinese learning, therefore still struggling with improving their level up and communicating with natives better.

[@raheemagbalaya9207]

@@RitaChinese my teacher tone are a little bit hard but I am still getting there

[@cmmndrblu]

learn them in pairs and train the 16 combos. much more practical as many words are two syllables

[@TulekBehar]

TLDR , still I could understand

[@TulekBehar]

You have much charisma and are a cute hard working person. One remark. Many other teachers do teach good tones grasping approach. Just so you know

[@uniquexie9970]

Tones are REALLY IMPORTANT!!! I'm a Chinese teacher and I've been telling my students the importance of tones over hundreds of times! 😂 I'm going to recommend this video to my students! 范老师讲得太好啦！

[@RitaChinese]

谢谢谢(?)老师😊😊 Your students are so lucky to have a responsible teacher like you😄❤️

[@uniquexie9970]

@@RitaChinese Yes!是谢，范老师很smart!!!😄

[@ajax7590]

I’m glad you help students with that my tones suck mostly because I’m teaching myself Chinese

[@QuizmasterLaw]

This is DEFINITELY worth watching no matter your level of Chinese. 1) Rita uses tone contour charts so you can see what the tones look like 2) Rita provides SERIES OF CHARACTERS USING THE SAME TONES INCLUDING HANZI not just pinyin 3) Rita explains how to enunciate your tones Properly including the neutral tone 4) Rita includes examples of Westerners trying to speak the tones so you can see you're not the only one having trouble at this 5) Rita is super cute. I think it's one of, maybe the, best videos on this important topic. If you want to speak Chinese you Must get the tones right.

[@RitaChinese]

I agree with everything you said😆 Thank you so much for your comment😄🙌

[@unchilgisam]

6:47 exaggerate 8:40 tone pairs 8:45 connecting tones 9:02 neutral 9:22 sample pairs, neutral

[@Alrak2025]

You explain so good!! I can see myself watching this over and over

[@RitaChinese]

Awesome!! It just takes time to find your own Chinese tones. Keep it up!

[@bodycoach2]

The outtakes are worth the wait 👍

[@RitaChinese]

haha yayyy🙌

[@lillia.jitianu2455]

I have just started learning mandarin a few days ago and honestly the tones were giving me a headache. No video explained why it sounds a certain way, no video explained HOW to produce that sound...however after your video I can positively say, that I went from 0 to 80. BIG BIG HUGE THANK YOU!! ♥♥♥♥♥

[@RitaChinese]

So glad to hear that! Good luck with your Chinese learning journey😄

[@lillia.jitianu2455]

@@RitaChinesethank you so much! You are an amazing teacher 🩷🩷🌟

[@jwaggoner1991]

This is the first time I’ve heard to find my own vocal range and it was always frustrating trying to repeat after the women I was watching 😭

[@linguapiyush]

I'm watching from India 🇮🇳 . I'm learning Mandarin Chinese 🇨🇳 thanks such a big help for English speaking 🗣️ speakers.

[@bobster1982]

Thanks for this! I'm literally at day 1 of learning mandarin and your videos have given me more insight than anything I've found! Please keep making videos!

[@RitaChinese]

Aww thank you! Will do for sure😄 Appreciate it!! Good luck with your Chinese learning journey😊

[@damarisalberto2974]

My kindergarten daughter just started her Chinese classes today, so I’m here trying to learn this to help her with her homework. Keep in mind I have no idea in speaking Chinese , but I love her ❤️

[@KeithHoranParkour]

Such great advice! It's hard to realize what someones "natural" tone should be relative to their voice. The examples you give take out all the guessing work! I think I've been going way too high on my first tones this whole time! I can only imagine what it sounds like to a native speaker 😂😂😂 Thanks again!

[@RitaChinese]

You're very welcome!! Keep it up🙌😄

[@sasino]

No teacher ever said it so I had to figure that on my own, I'm glad Rita is the only teacher who clearly made this point

[@tazbod6723]

Madame Rita, you are fantastic. That was clear and helpful. Thank you, sweetheart.

[@Tokyoilyba]

im a thai learnerrso i got some basics knowledge from thai tone🥰🥰

[@Madcowe]

Just wanted to say I love your energy :D Subscribed! 加油！

[@sahassaransi_mw]

I love your humor !

[@RitaChinese]

haha 谢谢！

[@peach9265]

I'm super new to all this and was a little overwhelmed when I first witnessed tones, but this video was really helpful in simplifying it for me! Thank you!

[@RitaChinese]

So happy you find my videos helpful🙌😄 Good luck with your studies!

[@RJ-hi5pw]

So glad to see you explain the third tone properly. It's always bothered me how it's been taught as 'falling and rising'. This causes learners to pronounce it as 2nd tone in sentences. I was expecting you to teach that way too, but you explained it perfectly; It's the lowest point of your throat, to the extent that sometimes the syllable gets cut off. 你是个很棒的中文老师。我订阅了！还有我遇到想学中文的朋友会推荐你的channel

[@swt5736]

I love everything about this video and many people commented on all the awesome aspects, but I just want to add, I love the real life examples with pinying, character, translation and you pronouncing it right after explaining something PLUS, the "other" tones against it to contrast! So helpful!!

[@RitaChinese]

Glad you like the video so much😄🙌

[@swt5736]

@@RitaChinese I found the full sentence in just 1 tone really fun too!

[@mdsixteen]

Wish I had this video 5 years ago, I had to learn this unconsciously and after years of struggling this video still helps me to keep this in mind

[@amelielaboureur2919]

Thank you so much! I've been struggling with tones since I started learning Chinese. I couldn't figure out how to do them correctly and I couldn't find anyone who explained them other than by repeating them. Thanks to you, I now understand and can pronounce them more easily! 谢谢你

[@mklinger23]

That simplification of the third time really helped.

[@KoharuMacchiato]

I highly recommend practicing tone pairs! it helps SO MUCH with my speaking and listening! 🎉

[@midinette]

Perfect explanations! For a long time it was difficult for me to connect the two syllables of a word because I didn't have the notion of adjustment of the tone of the second syllable to the first one...really important. Very good job 👌👌👌👌👌

[@RitaChinese]

That's a great takeaway from my video!! Yeah the tones are connected when speaking, so it def takes some time to practice so you will hear it clearly and speak more naturally😊

[@TheZenytram]

Hi, I'm 29yo Brazilian, i got unemployed bc covid and for some reason i got interested in learning i lil bit of Chinese. Tones are easier then i thought it would be, idunno if me being a sorta mediocre guitar player helped with that, but from the get go i got it right. I recorded myself saying every Chinese sentence you've said here and i was able to replicate it at full speed, although the pronunciation was all over the place the tons i nailed it down hahaha

[@jeanneallie1826]

I'm using your excellent videos to work on my Chinese when I"m not working with my teacher. I love how you're relaxed and you make it feel fun and less stressful. Xie xie!!

[@L-mo]

You are so good at teaching this! Thank you.

[@chrisf1600]

This is superb, thanks. I've been getting very puzzled about how to pronounce the third tone. All the pictures show that there should be a "dip" in the pitch, but you often don't hear than in spoken examples. You explained it brilliantly. So glad I found your channel, thank you :)

[@KRYoung_dev]

Me at how easy you made this: *WHAT!* [first tone] 谢谢范老师！！

[@RitaChinese]

haha glad you find it helpful!

[@marianarroyave4509]

Thank you thank you thank you, I've been learning chinese for like a year now but I'm very insecure about my pronunciation, ao I don really practice speaking. I will start to do what you suggest!

[@jesusherrera13]

That is the key: to find my chinese tone in my natural voice! I think I got it, now Google Translator can understand me better, you gave me more motivation. Both your style and explanation are excellent... Gracias ;)!

[@RitaChinese]

Glad you find my content helpful! And seems you’re improving already😄👍 Good job!

[@PugsyP]

Im 29, swedish and want to learn mandarin, thats all, thank you

[@nonglouie5106]

Of all the videos on learning Mandarin this really worked for me. thank you

[@KristinaisOkay]

Love how you explained it, thank you!!

[@sahassaransi_mw]

What a helpful video ! I’ve never had it emphasized to find my own range and wow ... I’ve been doing it wrong all along ! A lot to learn even after two years of learning haha . Also I’ve heard some people say that 2 tone is from middle to high , not low to high , what do you think ?

[@RitaChinese]

Are Hu? Thank you so much😊❤️ Always happy to help! And good question! For practice, I strongly suggest to exaggerate the syllable a bit, i.e. to fully pronounce the tone and acquire the feeling of sliding up (from the lowest point to highest tone), as well as to distinguish the 2nd tone from 3rd tone/1st tone. When we speak in day-to-day life, though, we just pronounce the sound in a rising trend without a clear start and a end, and this is why people say it’s “middle to high.”

[@Hadmaerd]

My god this video is so good that we can basicly remove all the other tones-related videos from KZbin, thank you very much, the best

[@paoyogapao9993]

Thank you so much! It is the firt time i heard "find your oun tone" ! So great! And the tips! Duo xie!! 😊

[@RitaChinese]

Glad you find it helpful!

[@peterbayne7227]

Fun video, you have a very fun and engaging style of teaching. As for tones... they give me nightmares. They are one of the main reasons I quit trying to learn Chinese, as I couldn't say them properly nor hear them well when listening. The 2nd and 4th tones are the hardest for me (probably as they are the ones that vary their pitch while 1st and 3rd tend to be flat),

[@RitaChinese]

I can understand. It definitely takes time, maybe a lot for some people, to get the hang of tones! But Chinese learners will eventually get there if they invest time and effort into it! I'll launch a pronunciation course later this year to make sure that everyone can have access to mastering Chinese tones! Hope it will help you pick up Chinese again by then hahah.

[@peterbayne7227]

@@RitaChinese Maybe. My coworkers would like me to try learning Chinese again (I live and work in Taiwan), but my confidence and motivation are pretty low to be honest.

[@psychogenesis6755]

This is actually really helpful. Thank you so much

[@maxcrc]

Some people say that studying a tonal language knowing already another tonal language can help. Yes, it can help but until a certain point. For example i speak Thai and the high, rising and low tones are not the same than those of Mandarin. pitches and sounds are little bit similar but different, It helps because you already know what tones are, but you definitely need to study the sounds anew from scratches.

[@newcreation1cor517]

“三声说的我真的很渴” 你的花絮我看了！！😂 谢谢你做得这些视频！做一位非母语者的中文老师，看这种视频很有帮助！可以改正自己的发音，也能帮助他人说得更标准一点。真的很感谢！ （如果语法词汇有错误，请尽量说！）

[@ameurmustapha6942]

thank you for making me more ambitious to keep on learning chinese, struggling by myself

[@ivomoreira42]

You're a really great teacher, all your content is amazing and you're super funny. I love it! I think a good recommendation would be to dive into the rhythm of the sentence itself after mastering the tone patterns, because even within a sentence they might sound slightly different or a bit more or less stressed than the others!

[@RitaChinese]

Thank you so much, Ivo! And yeah, good catch on rhythm! There are just so many aspects to consider when it comes to pronunciation! I'll talk about it more in future videos😊

[@ferrumchnop6617]

Recommendation to listen to someone with a similar voice pitch is great advice.

[@Kruger590]

Thank you so useful and very clear!

[@Pradhi_R]

谢谢老师，我是在学中文的一个学生。我总觉得在学中文的时候 最难的part是声调。而且学到声调也非常重要。所以我们外国人要很努力得学声调，因为我们母语中 没有什么叫声调(even though we emphasize the sentences using different intonation , it doesn’t change the meaning )我们支持您。非常感谢拍这样的视频和帮我们学习中文 如果这评论里有错的话，对不起

[@adriansidor4725]

You absolutely nailed it! Instant sub

[@fullnineacademy]

Thank you very much Rita! I could not understand the second tone the most, but the way you had explained it! I finally got the tones correctly!! I have rewatched this many times already!

[@davidscottkrause1]

This is one of your best videos. Educational, yet so funny. At 2:59. 😂

[@jeanfranl305]

Excellent video, you have a great way of explaining the tones. I find those examples quite catchy! A refreshing approach with gestures, fairly concise and easy to understand explanations.

[@Scatrex]

7:39 but getting distracted by those other things is the best part! ...

[@alinalian4235]

🐟说”范老师大有前途 必须点个赞！”👍

[@RitaChinese]

哈哈哈谢谢大家伙儿捧场！我要是有剪辑师一礼拜我出一个！（真是剪到眼瞎...

[@cellardoor70]

Best tone illustration on youtube!

[@RitaChinese]

Glad you find my videos helpful🙌😄

[@darrellwong4097]

I love the way explain the tones! I think it’s the hardest part of learning to speak Chinese…. Along with listening comprehension! ☺️ I think a language partner of the opposite sex is more motivating…..😂Thanks so much for your help!

[@RitaChinese]

Yeah tones are definitely something different and difficult for a lot of Chinese learners! But it's so important and crucial to Chinese learning, too! Hope my pronunciation course will help you master it and make your learning process easier!

[@richardybanez9052]

You Are So Mind Blowing Smart.And A Brilliant Teacher.Richard.

[@RitaChinese]

Thank you, Richard!

[@VilleHalonen]

I'm just starting out and one of my main challenges has definitely been that of discovering my own tone range. I'm easily influenced by other speakers and voices: when I sing, I tend to imitate a performance I know instead of interpreting it myself. I also have a relatively low voice, so I don't often run into examples where the vocal register is even near my own. Your examples are wonderful! I'll try to keep those in mind. Subbed -- from a vomit position!

[@MoonLiteNite]

@6:55 i have a bad hearing, so bad i learned ASL when i was a teen, just in case i ever went deaf. I have always wanted to learn chinese but just starting to try to tell the ones apart always felt impossible. But i decided to give it a shot for a year.... so here i am! Good luck me!

[@BiiKay675]

这样的老师讲课的时候，什么是吃饭呀？什么都我要学。😁 谢谢老师🌹

[@RitaChinese]

哈哈哈不客气！老师可以不吃饭😄😄

[@TheGretaoto]

Amazingggggg!!!!!!!!!!!!! Your channel is a must for Chinese learners!

[@madisonc3521]

I feel like I’m the best at the 3rd tone because for some reason I talk really deep when I talk In Chinese I’m a girl too

[@cats4hir3]

Good explanation and funny. Kudos who edited the videos.

[@rokko_fable]

Hey girl, thanks for the tips. I have some Chinese relatives, let's see what happens.

[@RolandZen]

I have always wanted to learn Chinese but I forget the tones with time. I will practice the tone with this video. Hopefully I can memorize it correctly

[@sunvaj6754]

Great lesson! Thanks for sharing.

[@Alastair-ix8pz]

Great video👏Thank you. You deserve more subscribers.

[@anthony9189]

Thank you , thank you for making these videos. I’m so happy I have found such a great teacher, you have made my learning fun and very informative. Thank you for helping all of us learn your language. P.S you have a awesome since of humor your great. Thanks Rita

[@wlb7854]

Hugely underrated channel, thanks a lot. What can you suggest for learning vocab? Like at least from HSK 1 to HSK 5? Should I learn from poems or maybe movies? WIth much love from Russia.

[@RitaChinese]

Glad you like my content! It depends on your interest and learning goal. I don't usually recommend poems, because it's not the most practical materials for learning. TV shows might be a lot better, and for learning vocab, just try to use them in real sentences as much as possible😊

[@vim5793]

I like 3rd tone the most. You can say "Wŏ shĭ nĭdě băbă, Lŭkĕ" with it

[@meostyles]

Finding your own voice is something I have definitely struggled with! I find that there are more chinese female teachers and youtube vloggers, so it is harder to hear what a natural male sounds like. I also find that pitches tend to be less emphasised towards the end of sentences and often drop off in pitch.

[@RitaChinese]

Totally! Maybe check out some Chinese TV shows or series, like the hit shows of this summer "Rap Star" and "隐秘的角落," or podcast like 故事FM, and just be exposed to the sounds and flow more! And you have good ears! The pitch at the end of the sentence tends to be weakened or even dropped indeed, as long as there's not important information. 👍👍👍

[@meostyles]

@@RitaChinese Great tips, thank you! If you ever get a chance to do a video on intonation and pitch, it would be super appreciated😃

[@egosirius]

Easy, the channel Xiaomanyc. It's a guy that speaks fluent Chinese. Love his channel.

[@Abd-Kader]

Great job! This is second time watching... with the intention of practice. I enjoyed so much.. ❤️❤️ Laoshi can you please mention the name of the movie that ... 爸爸不要 and two friends were practicing Chinese Thank you so much for such great content!!

[@Mephora]

It's crazy to me how people can differentiate the second and fourth tone. I can see the pitch goes in totally different directions in the waveform, but to me they sound like they both go up

[@hollo0o583]

There was an other channel that had a pretty good tone program (according to my nnot even Chinese learning ass… I’m just interested in tones…) but I couldn’t really follow along, because her voice was way higher!

[@mr.youtube975]

Daaaamn you so good at this. Thanks so much

[@RitaChinese]

Yayy glad you like my content!

[@tyhayter5022]

6:37 to slow it down. this is even better when you put youtube's player speed to 0.25 try it

[@aaqibrehman6983]

Thank you but now I gotta rewatch rush hour

[@RitaChinese]

Hahaha

[@chriszhengfeng]

Such a great video, and a great channel! 你把声调解释得很好，在我看来汉语声调是学汉语中最难的方面！

[@billyboy80]

I don't know chinese yet but I will one day ! much Love rita

[@jerrymahajan]

我是Jerry，我从来澳大利亚，我没有工作因为我还是学生在高二。我很喜欢你的中文可因为诗篇很clear和你非常knowledgeable.谢谢！

[@RitaChinese]

不客气！很高兴你喜欢我的视频！你学中文学了多长时间了？😊

[@jerrymahajan]

@@RitaChinese 大约六个月但是因为我是学生，有的时候我非常忙所以我只能学习中文在假期

[@RitaChinese]

明白！加油💪💪有问题可以问我😊

[@jerrymahajan]

@@RitaChinese 好的！谢谢Rita老师

[@jerrymahajan]

Rita ! You're videos are really high quality keep it up!

[@RitaChinese]

Thank you, Jerry! Will do!!😊

[@wobblyorbee279]

2:13 this is so true thank you for pointing this out... and also our teacher dont teach us the third tone like that 2:53 wait so if there are multiple tones in a row we are going to pronounce it like that? 4:15 omg exactly

[@EowynG191]

I love all your videos!!!

[@RitaChinese]

Thanks!! Glad to hear that!!

[@tino8850]

Tq 4 the lesson, Fan Laoshi

[@sahassaransi_mw]

Who is the woman at 7:13? Her accent seems so authentic !!

[@RitaChinese]

Vanessa Branch, a British actress😊😊 Yeah her Chinese sound really good! I heard she studied in Middlebury College that is famous for language teaching!

[@jaysee6320]

3:35 that dab caught me so off guard xD

[@michaelnathan1675]

The video i have been looking for :)

[@umargul5644]

Great 👍

[@giovannimoncada237]

Gracias love you,

[@jeremytee9960]

Really love your videos and the content you put out! Was wondering about what software you use to depict those audio tonal spectrograms? I found them very fascinating and useful. I found some software called Praat that supposedly is some high-tier research-grade stuff for linguistic analysis, but the learning curve is too high for me.

[@jinhuizhang3979]

I am also a native Mandarin speaker and I would say this is a fantastic introduction to Chinese Tones. (Ta Tian Tian He Ba Bei Ka Fei really got me! hahahahahahhaha!)

[@mm-gi5mx]

I've got similar voice to Feng Xiaogang😂😂

[@dandrasolano1900]

Thank you for the video. I really love your content. What do you think I should do if i don't have a teacher to help? Do you think I can still learn?

[@L4poker]

Very helpful thank you!

[@RitaChinese]

My pleasure!! Glad you found my content helpful😊🙌

[@timothydouglas9474]

你的视频很有用！ 谢谢你

[@Mrowiec]

I just started learning the language few days ago, and my 1st conlusion is that 1st and 2nd tones are the same, but there's a big conspiracy trying to hide this fact. Or I just can't hear the difference (yet?). I'm sure it's the former tho.

[@jingxixue1940]

我看到了，我是南昌大一新生，18岁呦，小姐姐双语与你的颜值相匹配，太优秀了，我也很喜欢英语，期待着与老师的下一次相遇，加油！！！

[@RitaChinese]

哇这么小，未来可期！KZbin好的学习资源很多，我们都加油啊😊 我也继续努力多拍点视频！

[@jingxixue1940]

@@RitaChinese 互助共勉，加油！！！

[@squigglove]

I second NOT dating to learn language. I started dating Puerto Ricans to help my Spanish endeavors, it ruined my life in several ways; and after 20 years I don't know any Spanish!

[@kokostudioku]

5:10 6:45 8:23 9:21

[@rklevens]

I watch Chris' channel often and yours showed up as a recommended channel. I studied some Mandarin many years ago so I remember very little. I found your way of explaining everything so fun and helpful. I look forward to more of your videos. 谢谢！

[@RitaChinese]

Thank you for watching and following, Robert! Appreciate it! Glad you found my videos helpful, and I've been working on the next video now😄 Stay tuned!

[@rklevens]

@@RitaChinese Why doesn't Chris help promote your site? I think you will get a lot more viewers interested in learning Chinese. Best of luck!

[@RitaChinese]

He actually did after I posted the latest video haha. And it apparently worked😄😄 Thank you so much for your support💪💪

[@vlad85ilver]

I've to speak it correctly on the first attempt. I'm always mistaken as a Chinese by everyone around me. 😅 99.99% of the time, Chinese will start speaking Chinese with me. Thank you for these amazing eduvideo.

[@shahfuddinshukor1994]

Do you look like a Chinese?

[@andiarbeit3591]

我喜欢中文，也很喜欢饿文！你的电影很好看。 Ps: what is your sign? (我的是龙）