The Four Chinese Tones

Why Are Tones Developed? Are they important?

Image : ChineseForUS

Have you ever wondered why Chinese has 4 tones, while most other languages do not? It is because Chinese has a limited variety of sounds, hence tones are used to differentiate Chinese characters with the same pronunciation. For example, “妈”, “麻”, “马”, “骂” are all pronounced as “ma”, but each of them is of a different tone! These words can be translated into “mother”, “numb”, “horse” and “scold” respectively. These English words have different pronunciations, making them easily distinguishable unlike Chinese. This explains why Chinese uses tones to differentiate characters. There are 4 tones in Chinese, known as “阴阳上去”. One of these 4 tones is placed above a letter in the Pinyin of each Chinese character.

First Tone (阴平/ 第一声)

Imagine someone reading a passage out loud with a monotonous voice, that’s probably how the first tone would sound. It sounds flat and consistent throughout the whole syllable and is drawn with a straight line across.

Second Tone (阳平/ 第二声)

Now try reading this out loud: “like this?”. Did you notice the increase in pitch when you read “this”? You got it! That’s how a second tone sounds like. The second tone rises and is associated with the intonation used in English when asking a question. It looks like a rising diagonal line when written.

Third Tone (上声/ 第三声)

The third tone is like a roller coaster ride, plunging deep down before it soars up. It is also called the “dip tone” and it is written with a letter “v” above a letter in the Pinyin.

Fourth Tone (去声/ 第四声)

The fourth tone is the opposite of the second tone, falling sharply to the end of the tonal range, and is marked with a decreasing diagonal line. This tone can be associated with anger, so you could try saying “go away!” in an angry tone, and “away” should sound similar to the fourth tone.

Neutral Tone (轻音/ 第五声)

Some say there are 5 tones in Chinese, while others do not consider this neutral tone as part of the Chinese tones. We shall leave this topic for another day. Ironically, the neutral tone doesn’t have a tone, neither is it shown on the Chinese tone chart. It is pronounced softly and quickly, and it’s easy to pick up!

Chinese is hard, or is it?

If you ask me, learning a new language is not going to be easy, no matter which language you pick. But as the saying goes “nothing worth having comes easy”, why not challenge yourself and see how far you can go?

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Hey! I am Xinyu, a friendly and optimistic uni student with a love for capturing sunsets and beautiful skies! You can either find me rope skipping at void decks or watching Chinese dramas in my free time. I find the Chinese language and culture mesmerising, and I hope you will too as you read through my articles. See you around!