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The r sound and compound finals iu ui un

Méinèi Jiànwǔ, a student from Japan felt “r” is quite difficult for Japanese. Do you have the same difficulty? When you pronounce r, the shape of your mouth is the …

Delivering wishes (Happy birthday song)

We have learned “shēngrì”(birthday)and “chūnjié”(spring festival). How to deliver your wishes on these special day or festival? We use “kuàilè”(happy). For example, Shēngrì kuàilè! — Happy birthday! Chūnjié kuàilè! — Happy Spring festival! …

Articulation position of z zh j

Xuē Zàilín,a student from South Korea thought that z zh j are very difficult. In this video, let’s figure it out together with her. When you pronounce “z zh j” …

Expressing “I want…”

When you want something or want to buy something, you could say “Wǒ yào……。”(I want)Please listen and read those sentences about asking for some fruits to practice your pronunciation. Audio …

Tone Practicing

Many learners feel tones are the most difficult part in Chinese. When learning tones, you should remember the fixed sounds of each tone first. The first tone is high and …

How to bargain in Chinese?

As we learned, you can say “Duōshǎo qián?”to ask price. So how to do the bargaining? Here are the common expressions: Audio Tài guì le。— Too expensive. Piányi yìdiǎnr ba! …

Aspirated and Unaspirated Sounds

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 …

Delivering your comments and judgments

To deliver simple comments or judgements, we usually say “hǎo” for good, “bùhǎo” for not good. Here are some more expressions. Click to listen. Audio fēi cháng hǎo — Excellent …

The special “third tone”

As we have learned, when two third tones are placed next to each other, the first one is pronounced as the second tone. The third tone however also changes when …

Basic Rules of Modified Tones

Tones are relatively difficult for many learners because there are 4 tones and neutral tone in Chinese. Moreover, tones may be influenced by other tones. For example, we say “níhǎo” …

How to address your family member?

Chinese kinship terms are comparatively complicated. In China, it’s very impolite to call the elders’ names. Let’s have a look at how to address some relatives.Audio yéye — grandfather nǎinai …

Tips for pronouncing er after a final

The pronunciation of finals will have different changes when they are combined with “er” after them. You can remember how to pronounce a certain word when you learn it ignoring …

er and er-colored words

“er” is a special final in Chinese Pinyin. When pronouncing it, make “e” sound and then roll your tongue. As a final, “er” can only be a syllable itself, meaning …