Unit 1

Exploring China and Its Language

In this unit, we’ll discover the beauty of China, from its diverse landscapes, vibrant culture and
beautiful language. In which will help the students to broaden their knowledge and understanding
about China.
This unit is divided into three lessons: namely, discovering the beauty of China, immersing the
abundant Chinese culture and mastering the Chinese language.

Learning Objectives
By the end of the unit, students will:
1. Identified key cultural and geographical features of China;
2. Explained various aspects of Chinese culture;
3. Distinguished the pronunciation of initials, finals and tones;
4. Demonstrated the proper pronunciation of Mandarin word.

Lesson 3 Mastering the Chinese Language

In this lesson, students will focus on learning how to pronounce Mandarin Chinese accurately. They
will learn about the basic sounds of Mandarin, including initials and finals, as well as the four tones that
change the meaning of words. Additionally, students will understand the spelling rules and tone marks
used in Mandarin, which will help them read and pronounce Mandarin words correctly.
Chinese Language
The spoken Chinese language in China comprised of many regional variants which is called dialects.
The official dialect of China is Mandarin or the Pǔtōnghuà. The meaning of Pǔtōnghuà is common
speech. Mandarin is the standard pronunciation in Beijing.

Pinyin
Pinyin is a phonetic system of chinese language. It is a form of spelling used as a medium for
representing the Chinese Language. Pinyin is consists of one syllable, each syllable has initial, final and
tone.

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Initials (shēngmǔ)
It is a consonant at the beginning of a syllable. There are 21 initials (zero initials are not included,
the y,w)

b d g j zh z

p t k q ch c

m n h x sh s

f l r

The Pronunciation of the 21 initials

b,p,m,f To pronounce just add the simple final“o”.

b Sounds like p but unaspirated. Unaspirated initial which means it is voiceless

that the vocal chords do not vibrate.

p Make the p sound. Aspirated initials means that the air is puffed out strongly
when you make the sounds.

m Make the m sound.

f Use upper teeth and lower lip, make the f sound.

d,t,n,l To pronounce just add the simple final“e”.

d Sounds like t but unaspirated

t Sounds like t (aspirated).

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n Sounds like n sound.

l Sounds like l sound.

g,k,h To pronounce just add the simple final “e”

g Sounds [k] of sky.

k [kʰ] ; There will be air coming out from your mouth.

h You can feel there is a puff of air coming through your mouth.

j,q,x To pronounce just add the simple final “i”

j Put the tip of your tongue at the back of your lower teeth, let the back of your
tongue gently touches the front part of the hard palate, make the air come
out, sounds like jeep.

q Same way as j, but there's a puff of the air must be stronger, lower your
tongue and touch the back of your lower teeth, sounds like cheese.

x Let the tip of your tongue touches the bottom of your lower teeth.

zh,ch,sh, To pronounce just add the simple final “i”.

r

zh Slowly move your tongue forward to the back of your upper teeth, meanwhile
round your lips.

ch Sounds like the english word cheap.

sh Sounds like the english word sheep.

r Make the R sound, keep the tongue stilt, let the air comes out through the
sides of your tongue, like the R of heR.

z,c,s To pronounce just add the simple final “i”.

z Make the ds sound in the English word kids.

c Sounds like ts in English word cats.

s Make the s sound.

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 Final (yùnmǔ)
It is the vowel at the end of a syllable. There are 36 finals, divided into 3 parts, the simple finals,
compound Finals and the nasal finals.

a o e i u ü er
ai ei ao ou
ia ie ua uo üe
iao iou(iu) uai uei(ui)
an en in ian uan uen üan ün
ang eng ing iang uang ueng ong iong

Pronunciation of 36 Finals

a “ah” sound, sounds like the a in mama or papa. The sound is longer than the
usual American a, closer to the British “ah”, requiring the mouth to be widely
opened as if you were sticking out your tongue at the doctors – “ah!”. Tongue
neutral and relaxed.

o “oh” sound, sounds like the o in more. Similar to the English “o” in office but with
more rounded lips. Close to the English expression of surprise “oh!” Tongue
neutral and relaxed.

e “uh” sound, sounds like the e in earn. Wide mouth, perhaps wider than you are
used to when speaking English.

i “ee” sound, it is a smiling letter. Sounds like the ee in bee. Lips stretched out as if
in a smile but with the upper and lower rows of teeth touching

u “oo” sound, sounds like the u in flute. Shape your mouth into a tight circle, lips
tight, and make the spooky ghost noise “oooo”.

ü First make the “ee” (i) sound, then slowly pronounce the u sound. Your lips must
be round.

er Sounds like “ar”

ai Sounds like the English word “eye”. The pinyin final “ai” like “y”[ai] in English
word “my”. The vowel ”a” is sonorous and clear and the vowel “i” is light, short
and faint.

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ei Sounds like “ey” [ei] in English word “hey”. The vowel ”e” is sonorous and clear
and the vowel “i” is light, short and faint.

ao Sounds like “ow” [au] in English word “cow”. The vowel ”a” is sonorous and clear
and the vowel “u” is light, short and faint.

ou “ou” like “o” in English word “no”.

ia Sounds like “yeah” ; “ya”

ie Pronounced similar to the ye in “yes”; “ye”

ua Pronounced similar to the American “what” without “h” and “t”. Sounds like
“wah” ; “wa”

uo Sounds like “wo”

üe It pronounces from vowel “ü” to vowel “ê”. The vowel “ü” is less sonorous, short
and the vowel “ê” is sonorous, long and clear ; “yue”

iao Pronounced as the combination of “y” in “yes” and the “ow” in “how”; sounds
like “yao”.

iou “iou” or “iu”; It pronounces from vowel “i” to vowel “ou”. Like “yo” in English
word “yo-yo”.

uai Pronounced similar to the English word “why”

uei “uei” or “ui”; pronounces from vowel “u” to vowel “ei”. Like “wa” in English word
“wave”.

an Pronounced as the un in “fun”

en Pronounced as the en in “taken”

in Pronounced as the in in ‘pin‘

ian Pronounced as “yen”

uan Pronounced as “wan”

uen Pronounced as “wen”

üan Pronounced as “yuan” (ü + an).

ün Pronounced as “yun” (ü + n)

ang pronounce “a”, then add the nasal “ng” sound; “ang”

eng pronounce “e”, then add the nasal “ng” ; “eng”

ing pronounced as the ing in “sing”.

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 iang “yang”;pronounced similar to the English word “young”

uang Pronounced as “wang”. When it stands as an independent syllable, it should spell

out as “wang”, but when it go with initial, for example “h” + “uang” = “huang”.

ueng “w” + “eng” ,so it should be pronounced as “weng”

ong Pronounced as the ong in “song“

iong Pinyin “y” + “u” + “ng” , so pronounced as “yung”. The “o” is affected by “y” and
so sounds similar to the vowel in “too”.; “yong”

Tones (shēngdiào)
It is soul of Chinese language. Mandarin Chinese is a tonal language. In order to differentiate
meaning, the same syllable can be pronounced with different tones. Mandarin's tones give it a very
distinctive quality, but the tones can also be a source of miscommunication if not given due attention.
There four main tones and one neutral tone.

First tone (yīnpíng)

High and level tone. It is important to keep one's voice even (almost monotone) across the whole
syllable when pronouncing the first tone. It is represented by a straight horizontal line above a letter in
pinyin.
For example:
mā (ma1)

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Second tone (yángpíng)
Rises moderately, it is a rising tone. In English we sometimes associate this rise in pitch with a
question. The second tone is represented by a rising diagonal line above a letter in pinyin.
For example:
Má (ma2)
Third tone (shàngshēng)
The third tone falls and then rises again, falling-rising tone. When pronounced clearly, its tonal
"dipping" is very distinctive. It is represented by a curved "dipping" line above a letter in pinyin (or
sometimes by a number "3" written after the syllable).
For example:
(ma3)

Fourth tone (qùshēng)

Starts from high but drops sharply to the bottom of the tonal range; falling tone. English-speakers
often associate this tone with an angry command. It is represented by a dropping diagonal line above a
letter in pinyin.
For example:
mà (ma4)

Neutral tone (qīngshēng)

The neutral tone is not mapped on the tone chart because it differs from the other four tones in
that it does not have a defined pitch contour. The neutral tone is pronounced quickly and lightly
without regard to pitch. Syllables with a neutral tone have no tone mark.
It has no tone mark in writing and it`s pronounced very light and short. It`s usually used as the last
syllable of a word or a phrase, such as 谢谢 [xiè xie] (thanks), 妈妈[mā ma] (mom)

For example:
ma

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Spelling Rules
1. When the finals “i”, “in”, “ing”, and “u” form syllables by themselves without any other initials, “y”
and “w” should be put before these finals respectively to make it as “yi”, “yin”, “ying”, and “wu”.
For example:
一 yī[ī]
音 yīn [īn]
应 yīng [īng]
五 wǔ [ǔ]

2. The three compound finals, “uei”, “iou”, and“uen”, are composed of “u+ei”, “i+ou”, “u+en”, We
should omit “e” in “uei” , omit “o” in “iou”, and omit “e” in “uen”.
For example

对 duì [duèi ]
秋 qiū [qiōu]
春 chūn [chuēn]

3. The compound finals with “i”or “u”as the beginning and which form syllables by themselves, the
“i”and “u”should be changed as “y” and “w”in writing.
For example:
也 yé [ié]
我 wǒ [uǒ]

4. Rules about “ü”

- When a final that begins with “ü”meets “y” in one syllable, the two dots of “ü”should be omitted.
For example:
鱼 fish: yú [yǘ]
月 moon, month: yuè[yüè]

- The final “ü”cannot be spelled with the initial “j”“q” or“x”. Thus, when “ü”, or the finals that begin
with “ü”, meets one of the three initials, the two dots above “ü”should be omitted.
For example:
举 hold: jǔ [jǚ]
去 go：qù [qǜ]
学 study，learn：xué [xüé]

5. When the second syllable begins with “a”, “o”, or“e”in a word, the two syllables should be separated
by the mark (’).
For example:
先 [xiān] and 西安 [Xī’ān]

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RULES IN PUTTING TONE MARKS
1. If there is only one vowel in the final, write the tone mark on its vowel.
Example: mā hé jīn hónɡ pínɡ
2. If there are more than two vowels in the final, just follow its pitch order
a→ o→ e → i→ u→ ü

Example: hǎo zài xiě méi duō

3. i is sometimes followed by u, and the tone mark will be written on u.
Example: liù jiǔ
4. When writing tones above i, remove the dot above i.
Example: yī jīn jīn

TONE RULES
Tone sandhi: 3rd tone+ 3rd tone
When there are two third tones in a word, the first one becomes second tone.
nǐ hǎo → ní hǎo
(written) (oral)

不 (bù)

When the word 不 (bù) precedes a fourth tone, 不 changes to second tone (bú).

bù duì → bú duì

一 (yī)

The word 一(yī) means "one," is first tone when alone, second tone when followed by a fourth tone,
and also fourth tone when followed by any other tone.
yī gè → yí gè
yī bān → yì bān
yī máo → yì máo
yī bǎi → yì bǎi

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