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Aspirated and Unaspirated Sounds
We'll explain aspirated and unaspirated sound to help increase your accuracy and confidence towards pronunciation.
Dàjiā hǎo. From this lesson onwards, you’re able to read and speak all the sounds in Chinese. Unbelievable, right? From now, I will help you to increase your accuracy and confidence towards pronunciation. So if you have any questions for me, now is your chance to ask.
คุณเปนยังไงบาง. Nǐhǎo, Zhū lǎoshī, Im Zhānɡ Yǒnɡzhì from Thailand.
Nǐhǎo, Yǒnɡzhì. I have been following learning Chinese phonetics, but I’m confused with d and t. Oh, well, d, your vocal chords should not vibrate. d. d. Good. For “t”, the air flow through the middle of your teeth is too strong. Move your tongue back a little bit, and let it touch the back of your upper teeth. t. Ah, we should avoid friction between the tip of the tongue and the teeth, right? Yes. Can you read this initials? No problem.
b p d t.
Do you know the difference of them? I think when saying p and t, you have to use tongue strengthen the airflow in your mouth. Yes. I have a good method to help you to remember them. Have a look, b, p. That’s a good method. Yes. So you try to read the following words? Of course. Pǎobù run, pánɡbiān, beside, dìtiě, subway.
Very good. Let’s make things a little bit harder now. Bring on the challenge. Read this jingle.
Dà dùzidà tùzidùzi bǎo letùzi pǎo le.
Wow. Good enough. Nǐ dùzi bǎo ma? No, I didn’t have any breakfast. I’m so hungry. Oh, I have something for you to eat. zǎocān, breakfast. zǎocān? z, it’s like aligned your teeth, and remember, it’s like you touch the electricity. z. z. Very good. c, the position of the pronunciation is basically unchanged. The difference is the airflow is stronger here. Have a try. c. No. c. You can put your hand in front of your mouth, and you can clearly feel the airflow. c. c. Yes, you got it. Can you try to read the following initials? z, c, zh, ch, j, q.
Please read after me: z. z. zh. zh. j. j.
Very good. c. c. ch. ch. q. q.
OK, some words. Zhīchí, zànchéng, quánjiā,jiàqián.
Jiàqián, means price. When you ask for price, you can say duōshǎo qián. duōshǎo qián? It’s very useful. Yeah, qián, money. duōshǎo qián? duōshǎo qián. Very good. Next time, when you go to buy something, you can say, duōshǎo qián? OK. That’s all for this video. Zàijiàn. Zàijiàn.
From this lesson onward, you are now able to read and speak all the sounds in Chinese. Now, you should practice and increase your accuracy and confidence towards pronunciation. In this video, Zhāng Yongzhi, a student from Thailand will learn with you.
Yongzhi can’t pronounce d and t well. Do you have the same problem?
- d, different from d in the English word “dog”, your vocal cords should not vibrate.
- t, different from t in the English word “test”, the airflow through the middle of your teeth should not be too strong. Make your tongue touch the back of the upper teeth and avoid friction between the tip of the tongue and the teeth.
b,d,z,zh,j are unaspirated sounds while p t c ch q are aspirated sounds.
- z, aligned your teeth, you can feel friction here.
- c , the position of pronunciation is basically unchanged . The difference is that the airflow is stronger. If you put your hand in front of your mouth, you can clearly feel the airflow.
Some words to practice: Click to listen
- zhīchí — support
- zànchéng — agree
- quánjiā — whole family
- jiàqián — price (When you ask for price, you can say “Duōshǎo qián?”)
This article is from the online course:
Learn Chinese: Introduction to Chinese Pronunciation and Tone
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Learn Chinese: Introduction to Chinese Pronunciation and Tone
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