Mandarin One (Traditional)/Lesson One 第一課

Tones (音調)

Relative pitch changes of the four tones

Labeled with normal pitch levels used (1=Lowest - 5=Highest)

1. High flat (mā) - Pitch: 5-5. Similar to reciting the alphabet at a high even pitch.
2. High Rising (má) - Pitch: 3-5. Similar to the last syllable in a question ("What?") in English.
3. Low Droppping and Rising (mǎ) - Pitch: 2-1-4. Similar to expressing disbelief ("Huh?!") in English.
4. Sharply Dropping (mà) - Pitch: 5-1. Similar to the last syllable of a sharp, angry command ("Don't you dare!") in English.
5. Neutral (ma -Note that only the second syllable is of neutral tone, the first one is of high flat) (tone varies on the spreading out the preceding syllable) - See the table below for for the pitch range.

The previous examples are 1. mother（媽）, 2.hemp（麻）， 3. horse （馬）, 4. "admonish" or scold(罵）, and 5. a question particle 嗎.

Neutral tone range

Tone of the first syllabel	Pitch of the neutral tone	Example	Zhuyin	Pinyin	Meaning
1	2	玻璃	ㄅㄛ ㄌㄧ˙	bō li	glass
2	3	伯伯	ㄅㄛˊ ㄅㄛ˙	bó bo	uncle
3	4	喇叭	ㄌㄚˇ ㄅㄚ˙	lă ba	horn
4	1	兔子	ㄊㄨˋ ㄗ˙	tù zi	rabbit

Zhuyin (注音)

Zhuyin is system for type characters on keyboard and phonetick system for transcription.

Zhuyin consonants

Zhuyin	IPA	Pinyin	Example
ㄅ	p	b	包 ㄅㄠ
ㄆ	pʰ	p	撲 ㄆㄨ
ㄇ	m	m	冞 ㄇㄧˊ
ㄈ	f	f	匪 ㄈㄟˇ
ㄉ	t	d	地 ㄉㄧˋ
ㄊ	tʰ	t	提 ㄊㄧˊ
ㄋ	n	n	你 ㄋㄧˇ
ㄌ	l	l	利 ㄌㄧˋ
ㄍ	k	g	告 ㄍㄠˋ
ㄎ	kʰ	k	考 ㄎㄠˇ
ㄏ	x	h	好 ㄏㄠˇ
ㄐ	tɕ	j	叫 ㄐㄧㄠˋ
ㄑ	tɕʰ	q	巧 ㄑㄧㄠˇ
ㄒ	ɕ	x	小 ㄒㄧㄠˇ
ㄓ	ʈʂ	zhi, zh	主 ㄓㄨˇ
ㄔ	ʈʂʰ	chi, ch	出 ㄔㄨ
ㄕ	ʂ	shi, sh	是 ㄕˋ
ㄖ	ɻ~ʐ	ri, r	入 ㄖㄨˋ
ㄗ	ts	zi, z	字 ㄗˋ
ㄘ	tsʰ	ci, c	詞 ㄘˊ
ㄙ	s	si, s	四 ㄙˋ