The 4 Mandarin Chinese tones: hear them, see them, say them

Hear each tone, then check yours

Each card shows the tone’s pitch on the 1–5 scale (1 = your lowest comfortable note, 5 = your highest). Tap to hear it.

Mandarin tones chart

What each tone feels like

• 1st tone (mā). High and level, held like a sung note. Start near the top of your range and do not let it sag — a sagging 1st tone starts to sound like a 4th.
• 2nd tone (má). Rises from the middle to the top, like a surprised "what?". Rise more than feels natural. A small rise is heard as a 3rd tone.
• 3rd tone (mǎ). Low. On its own it dips and comes back up; inside a phrase it just stays low and creaky. Treat it as a low tone. The full dip-and-rise only appears alone or at the end of a phrase.
• 4th tone (mà). Falls fast from high to low, like a firm "No!". Start high. A 4th tone started mid-range, or falling slowly, sounds like a 3rd.
• Neutral tone (ma). Short and unstressed; its pitch follows the syllable before. Cut it short. A stressed neutral syllable can change the word: 东西 dōngxi "thing" vs dōngxī "east and west".

Tone pairs: the 20 combinations

Most Mandarin words have two syllables, and a tone sounds different next to another tone. Four tones followed by tones 1–4 or a neutral tone make 20 pairs. Pick one, listen, say it, and see which syllable’s tone came through.

The third tone and its change (3 + 3 → 2 + 3)

The third tone is low. Textbooks draw a dip and a rise, but the rise only appears when the syllable is alone or ends a phrase; before a 1st, 2nd or 4th tone it stays low and creaky (the “half third”: 很忙 hěn máng).

When two 3rd tones meet, the first becomes a 2nd tone: 你好 is written nǐ hǎo and said ní hǎo. Pinyin keeps the dictionary tones, so the rule has to come from you. In 我很好 the middle syllable changes: wǒ hén hǎo.

More examples and the three-syllable cases: third tone sandhi rules, or check your own text with the tone change checker.

不 and 一: the two words that change tone

不 (bù) becomes bú before a 4th tone: 不是 bú shì, 不对 bú duì. Before tones 1–3 it stays bù: 不忙 bù máng.

一 (yī) becomes yí before a 4th tone (一个 yí gè, 一样 yí yàng) and yì before tones 1–3 (一天 yì tiān, 一起 yì qǐ). It keeps yī alone, when counting and at the end of a word (第一 dì yī).

Full rules with more examples: 一 and 不 tone changes.

Words that differ only by tone

Get the tone wrong and you say a different word. Tap to hear both.

Why learners get tones wrong

Almost nobody fails at tones because they cannot hear pitch. They practise with their eyes instead of their ears, sing the full V on every 3rd tone, drill single syllables only, and never check.

1. 1. Letting English intonation take over

   English questions rise at the end and statements fall. In Mandarin the tones stay where they are: in 你是老师吗? (nǐ shì lǎoshī ma?) the question lives in 吗, and 师 keeps its high, level 1st tone instead of rising.

2. 2. Saying the full dip-and-rise 3rd tone everywhere

   The textbook 3rd tone (214) is heard mostly alone or at the end of a phrase. Before a 1st, 2nd or 4th tone it is just low (the "half third"): 很忙 hěn máng starts with a low, creaky hěn, not a full dip.

3. 3. Starting the 1st tone too low

   The 1st tone sits near the top of your comfortable range and stays flat. Started from your normal speaking pitch it sounds bored, and if it sags at the end it starts to sound like a 4th.

4. 4. Rising too little on the 2nd tone

   A small rise is heard as a 3rd. 2nd and 3rd are the pair learners confuse most — both when listening and when speaking — so exaggerate the rise at first.

5. 5. A slow, soft 4th tone

   The 4th tone starts high and drops fast, like a firm "No!". Start it from the middle of your range or let it fall slowly and it starts to sound like a 3rd.

6. 6. Stressing neutral-tone syllables

   The neutral tone is short and light. Give it full weight and you can change the word: 东西 dōngxi is "thing, stuff"; dōngxī with a full 1st tone is "east and west".

7. 7. Skipping the tone changes

   你好 is said ní hǎo, 不是 is bú shì, and 一个 is yí gè. Pinyin keeps the dictionary tones, so the rules have to come from you.

8. 8. Drilling single syllables only

   Most Mandarin words have two syllables, and a tone sounds different next to another tone. Once the four tones are clear on their own, practise them in pairs — the drill below has all 20.

Seven tone exercises, in order

Fifteen minutes a day beats an hour and a half once a week: tones are a motor skill.

1. Tone pairs. Most words have two syllables, and the hard part is the jump between them. Work through the 20 pairs above, one row a day, until each comes out without thinking.
2. Minimal pairs. Same syllable, different tone, on demand: 买 mǎi / 卖 mài, 汤 tāng / 糖 táng. Say one, then the other, and check which one came out.
3. Exaggerate, then shrink. Make each contour twice as big as feels natural, then bring it down to conversation size without losing the shape. Most learners speak with tones that are too flat, not too big.
4. Shadowing. Play a short line, say it back immediately over the audio, at native speed. It moves tones from single words into connected speech.
5. Sentences. Tones that survive drills often die in sentences. Read short sentences aloud and check which syllables slipped — it is usually the 3rd tones and the last syllable.
6. Dictation. Listen and write the tone numbers. You cannot reliably produce a contrast you cannot hear, so perception sets the ceiling.
7. Review your own misses. Keep a short list of the words whose tones came out wrong and retest them a few days later. Spend your practice on what you actually get wrong.

A four-week plan

• Week 1: single tones and minimal pairs. Say mā má mǎ mà above until all four come through.
• Week 2: tone pairs, one row of the grid a day.
• Week 3: the tone changes — 3 + 3 words and 不 / 一 — until ní hǎo comes out without thinking.
• Week 4: short sentences, read aloud and checked.

Where the tone mark goes

• If the syllable has an a or an e, the mark goes on it. (hǎo, méi, xiè, guāng)
• In ou, the mark goes on the o. (dōu, zǒu, gòu)
• Otherwise it goes on the last vowel — so iu marks the u and ui marks the i. (guó, liù, duì, shuǐ)
• ü keeps its two dots under the tone mark. (lǜ (green), nǚ (woman))
• Without marks, a number after the syllable gives the tone; 5 or 0 is the neutral tone. (ma1 ma2 ma3 ma4 ma5)

Type tone marks with the pinyin tone mark tool; hear every syllable in every tone on the pinyin chart with audio.

Questions about Chinese tones