Questions tagged [tones]
Questions about the tones used in Chinese.
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Why is 相 pronounced with a fourth tone in some cases?
I notice that 相 is pronounced xiang1 in most cases, but xiang4 in a few, mostly less-common words and phrases. The most commonly-used examples seem to be 照相 zhàoxiàng 'photo'; 照相机 zhàoxiàngjī 'camera';...
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Do acronyms borrowed from English use neutral tone (aka tone 0 or tone 5) for all syllables?
I was just reading a Q&A here about Chinese words for DVD and the discussion also included other acronyms from English.
It struck me that nobody wrote the pinyin for any of the terms which made ...
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What are the rules of writing a 对联 (chinese couplet)?
I have looked at the Wikipedia article "Couplet (Chinese Poetry)", but I think it poses more questions than answers.
So a 对联 (duì lián) is a "Chinese couplet":
it is composed of ...
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How to convert from hanyu pinyin to IPA?
Where can I find a table showing the relation between Hanyu pinyin spelling and IPA for all phonemes in Mandarin?
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When do the tones change?
Sometimes, in certain combinations of tones or words, the tones change. Where can I find a complete list of all tone changes that occur in Mandarin?
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What software can correct pronunciation?
What software is available which can record my voice and warn me about problems with my pronunciation and tones?
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我(也)很好 and tone sandhi
What are the (resultant) tones in those sentences, where all the words in isolation have 3rd tone?
我很好。
我也很好。
Reading tone shandhi rules on Wikipedia, there is no explanation about tree or four ...
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Can native Chinese speakers distinguish tones in songs?
I already have a hard time distinguishing tones in normal speech. This gets significantly worse when I listen to Chinese songs, since the melody masks tones even further.
Yes, I understand that ...
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What is a good technique for remembering tones?
I find it a great struggle to try and remember tones for all the new vocab I learn, and aside from gradually picking up tones by listening and talking with native speakers, I can't really remember ...
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Character Pronunciation Clues
Is there any way to know what a character's pronunciation or tone is, based on the strokes or radicals that make up the characters?
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