Learn to Speak Mandarin Chinese Online Free » tones http://freechineseblog.com Learn to Speak Mandarin Chinese Online Free Wed, 17 Feb 2010 07:49:34 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 How to say “How are you?” in Mandarin Chinese http://freechineseblog.com/how-to-say-how-are-you-in-mandarin-chinese/ http://freechineseblog.com/how-to-say-how-are-you-in-mandarin-chinese/#comments Sat, 19 Jul 2008 10:45:32 +0000 admin http://www.freechineseblog.com/?p=125 In this video you’ll learn how to say How are you? in Mandarin Chinese. Today was a rough day! I went out and shot a really fun video at a famous Taipei landmark and when I got home I realized that the lighting was too dark! If anybody has good advice on what kinds of cameras to buy and how to shoot good YouTube videos in poorly lit places please let me know. Thanks!


To say, “How are you?” in Mandarin take the characters for hello, nǐhǎo (你好) and attach them to the character ma (吗). Ni and hao are pronounced with the third tone and ma is pronounced with a fifth  neutral tone. Ma is the question mark particle in Chinese and makes a question when found at the end of a phrase or sentence. Notice that ma doesn’t have any tone mark? There is no inflection in the voice when saying ma. So, put it all together and say nǐhǎoma (你好吗)? How are you?


]]> http://freechineseblog.com/how-to-say-how-are-you-in-mandarin-chinese/feed/ 0 Mandarin Chinese Tones Video Tutorial http://freechineseblog.com/how-to-pronounce-the-four-tones-in-mandarin-chinese/ http://freechineseblog.com/how-to-pronounce-the-four-tones-in-mandarin-chinese/#comments Tue, 15 Jul 2008 14:47:54 +0000 admin http://www.freechineseblog.com/?p=27
Chart showing the relative changes in pitch fo...
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In this video you’ll learn how to pronounce the four tones in Mandarin Chinese. Mandarin Chinese has four tones. In the beginning of your studies these tones may be really tricky for you. But, once you get the hang of them it’s smooth sailing. Here are the four tones:

1. Flat
2. Rising
3. Dipping
4. Falling


In the first tone your voice is flat and does not go up or down. In the second tone your voice goes up, as if somebody were telling you something and you answered them with a question, saying, “Yeah?”. The third tone is the trickiest. You voice starts at its “natural” level, dips low, then comes back to its natural level. Sometimes it’s hard to hear the difference between the second and third tone. The fourth tone is pretty easy. Your voice starts at its “natural” level then drops fast. When you’re practicing the tones it’s okay to use a loud voice and exaggerate your voice. By the way, if you cannot get the tones right away don’t worry too much. The Chinese people will probably understand you and be happy just to ear that you’re trying!


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