Chinese tones are the pitch patterns that turn one syllable into different words. Mandarin has four of them plus a light "neutral" tone, and every syllable you say carries one. Get the tone wrong and mǎ (horse) becomes mà (scold); get enough of them wrong and a native speaker has to stop and guess.
This page does three things: it lets you hear each tone on the same syllable, it explains what your mouth is actually doing, and it gives you a way to check your own tones before habits set. Read it with the sound on.
The four Mandarin tones on one syllable
| Tone | Pinyin | Character | What the pitch does | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1st | mā | 妈 | high and flat, held steady | mom |
| 2nd | má | 麻 | rises, like asking "what?" | hemp; numb |
| 3rd | mǎ | 马 | low; dips, and only sometimes rises | horse |
| 4th | mà | 骂 | falls sharply from high to low | scold |
| neutral | ma | 吗 | short and light, takes its pitch from the syllable before | question particle |
Hear all five back to back on the mā má mǎ mà page, then say them yourself. Most learners can hear the difference within a day. Producing it reliably takes a few weeks of the right practice, which is what the rest of this page is about.
What each tone feels like in the mouth
First tone (ā): high and level. Pick a comfortable high note and hold it like a sung note, without letting it sag. The usual mistake is starting too low, which makes it sound like a flat, bored second tone.
Second tone (á): rising. Start in the middle of your range and rise, the way English rises on "what?". The usual mistake is rising too little; be more dramatic than feels natural.
Third tone (ǎ): low. This is the tone that fools everyone. Textbooks draw it as a V, a dip then a rise. In real speech the rise almost never happens. A third tone is a low, creaky tone: drop to the bottom of your range and stay there. The full dip-and-rise only appears when the syllable stands alone or ends a phrase. If you sing the V on every third tone, you will sound like a textbook recording played at half speed.
Fourth tone (à): falling. Start high and fall fast, like a firm "No." The usual mistake is starting mid-range, which makes it sound like a tired third tone.
Neutral tone: short. Cut it short and let it take its pitch from the syllable before it. The ma in māma is barely there.
Why beginners get stuck
Almost nobody fails at tones because they cannot hear pitch. They fail for one of four practical reasons:
- Practising with the eyes before the ears. Reading mǎ tells you the tone is third; it does not tell you what a third tone sounds like in your own voice. Listen first, always.
- The full V on every third tone. See above. It is the single most common thing that makes a learner sound foreign.
- Learning tones one syllable at a time. Real words are mostly two syllables, and the second tone changes how the first is said. Drill pairs, not singles (see below).
- Never checking. You cannot hear your own tones the way a listener does. Without feedback, you practise the mistake until it is automatic.
When tones change: sandhi in one minute
Some tones change in connected speech. The two rules that matter from day one:
- Third + third → second + third. nǐ hǎo is said ní hǎo. The written pinyin does not change; the sound does. Full rules and audio: third tone sandhi.
- 一 (yī) and 不 (bù) change before a fourth tone. bù shì becomes bú shì; yī gè becomes yí gè. Full rules: 一 and 不 tone changes.
Everything else can wait until these two are automatic.
The routine that works: ear, then mouth, then check
Step 1, listen to one contrast at a time. Play second against fourth, then third against first, on the same syllable. The pinyin chart with audio has every syllable in every tone. Five minutes a day of pure listening for the first week.
Step 2, shadow slowly. Play a word, say it back immediately, exaggerating the pitch. Slow is fine; accurate is the point.
Step 3, drill tone pairs. Mandarin has 20 two-syllable tone combinations (4 × 4, plus neutral endings). Pick the pairs that appear in words you already know: Zhōngguó (1-2), nǐ hǎo (3-3 → 2-3), xièxie (4-neutral). The tone trainer drills them in order.
Step 4, record and compare. Your phone's voice memo is enough to notice a flat fourth tone or a sung third tone. Compare against the audio, not against how it felt.
Step 5, get scored before bad habits harden. A tone you have said wrong five hundred times is hard to unlearn. The free 2-minute test scores every syllable's tone separately from its consonant and vowel and shows the pitch curve you produced against the target, so you know whether the problem is the tone at all.
A four-week beginner plan
- Week 1: single syllables. Hear and reproduce all four tones on ma, ba, ta, yi. Aim for 90% correct on a listening quiz before moving on.
- Week 2: tone pairs. Ten pairs a day from words you use. Record them.
- Week 3: sandhi. Third-third words and 一/不 words until ní hǎo comes out without thinking.
- Week 4: short sentences. Read three-to-five-word sentences aloud, then run them through the pronunciation tool to see which syllables slipped.
Repeat weeks 2 to 4 with new vocabulary. Tones stop being a separate subject once you treat them as part of the word.
Frequently asked questions
How many tones does Chinese have? Mandarin has four tones plus a neutral tone. Cantonese has six (some count nine). This page is about Mandarin.
Can I learn Chinese without tones? You can learn to read without them. You cannot be reliably understood when speaking without them; context rescues some mistakes, not most.
Do tone marks change when tones change? No. Pinyin writes the dictionary tone (nǐ hǎo), and the speaker applies the sandhi rule.
What is the hardest tone? For English speakers, the third, because the textbook shape is not what native speakers say. Treat it as a low tone and it becomes the easiest.
How long until my tones are good? With daily listening and feedback, most learners are consistent on single words in about a month and on sentences in three. Without feedback, it is common to plateau with a permanent accent.
Ready to find out where you stand? Take the free tone test: five words, two minutes, and a score for each tone you said.