Tone Of Pinyin
If you want to speak Chinese the very first thing you should do is to spend at least a month just mastering the basic phonetics of the Chinese alphabet. However Chinese alphabets are not the same as English. We have other name to call it Pinyin. Chinese is a tonal language: say Pinyin seems like “Alphabets + Tones” like: “nǐhǎo !”—hello!
Learn the Tones
Mandarin is a tonal language, which means if you say a word with the wrong tone or inflection, you can be misunderstood. For example: “ma”There are four distinct tones. In Pinyin, the first tone: mā(mother) this tone is high and flat with no change in the pitch,using‘ˉ’as its tone mark.the second tone: má(numb)this tone rises from the middle to the top, using ‘ˊ’as its tone markthe third tone:
mǎ(horse)this tone curves mid-low to low and then rises to mid-high,using ‘ˇ’ as its tone markthe fourth tone: mà(scold)this tone falls sharply from the top to the bottom,using ‘ˋ’as its tone mark.the neutral tone: ma(sentence final interrogative particle) this tone is light and short with no tone mark
On the course's home page, use the arrows to tab through the ten lessons until you find the one you want to work on. Click on the lesson to go to its home page. Follow the instructions to either download or stream your lesson.Each lesson has two parts: the lesson itself and a practice conversation. Listen to the audio lesson, repeating the Chinese when you are prompted.
You can follow their online courses, but also participate in the online community. You can ask fellow members for help with Mandarin, and offer help to those who are learning English. These introductory lessons are also in Pinyin. It's helpful to take this as a supplemental course, or take copious notes as you go through the online lessons.
There are only about 60 in total and the entire language is based on those finite sounds. It may of course be very boring in the beginning just rhyming off sounds like a parrot and not actually learning any words, but these are the basic building blocks of Mandarin.keep listening to the practice conversation. You'll be amazed at how much you understand in very near future!
Learn the Tones
Mandarin is a tonal language, which means if you say a word with the wrong tone or inflection, you can be misunderstood. For example: “ma”There are four distinct tones. In Pinyin, the first tone: mā(mother) this tone is high and flat with no change in the pitch,using‘ˉ’as its tone mark.the second tone: má(numb)this tone rises from the middle to the top, using ‘ˊ’as its tone markthe third tone:
mǎ(horse)this tone curves mid-low to low and then rises to mid-high,using ‘ˇ’ as its tone markthe fourth tone: mà(scold)this tone falls sharply from the top to the bottom,using ‘ˋ’as its tone mark.the neutral tone: ma(sentence final interrogative particle) this tone is light and short with no tone mark
On the course's home page, use the arrows to tab through the ten lessons until you find the one you want to work on. Click on the lesson to go to its home page. Follow the instructions to either download or stream your lesson.Each lesson has two parts: the lesson itself and a practice conversation. Listen to the audio lesson, repeating the Chinese when you are prompted.
You can follow their online courses, but also participate in the online community. You can ask fellow members for help with Mandarin, and offer help to those who are learning English. These introductory lessons are also in Pinyin. It's helpful to take this as a supplemental course, or take copious notes as you go through the online lessons.
There are only about 60 in total and the entire language is based on those finite sounds. It may of course be very boring in the beginning just rhyming off sounds like a parrot and not actually learning any words, but these are the basic building blocks of Mandarin.keep listening to the practice conversation. You'll be amazed at how much you understand in very near future!