The Sound System: all 10 lessons free
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This practice works best alongside a lesson: to get your sounds right, book one and your teacher listens and corrects you one-on-one.
Order Like a Local: Four Rules, One Milk Tea
点单达人：四条规则，一杯奶茶
The spelling tricks and tone changes nobody warns you about — hiding inside 去冰, 绿茶, 果汁 and 一杯.
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Sign up / sign inMemory hook
Rule 1: the two dots that disappear
Same sound, two spellings
Every word here has the ü sound in it. Watch where the dots survive — and where they quietly vanish.
Tap any line to hear it
Pronunciation clinic
Rule 2: where the buzz costs you a drink
You met this in lesson 2, on the seven troublemakers: after z c s zh ch sh r the letter i has no sound of its own — it is the consonant held on and buzzing. Here is where it stops being a drill and starts costing you. 果汁 guǒzhī ends in a buzz. Say the ending as 'jee' and a Chinese ear hears 鸡 jī — chicken. Juice and chicken, one vowel apart, at a counter where somebody is waiting for your order.
这条你在第 2 课学七个难点音的时候见过：在 z c s zh ch sh r 后面，字母 i 没有自己的声音，就是那个辅音继续嗡下去。这里是它从练习变成代价的地方。果汁 guǒzhī 的结尾是嗡的一声。念成「衣」，中国人听到的是 鸡 jī。果汁和鸡，只差一个元音，而柜台后面有人正等着你点单。
Words that end in a buzz
Four words you already know — each one ends in that buzzing i. Say them with a hum, never with an 'ee'.
Tap any line to hear it
拼写小考 · Spelling check随堂小练
No pressure — just making it stick.
我要一杯___茶。（green tea）
Wǒ yào yì bēi ___ chá.
I'd like a green tea.
___冰，谢谢。（no ice）
___ bīng, xièxie.
No ice, thank you.
果汁
juice — how does the second syllable really sound?
Memory hook
Rule 3: 一 dodges the fourth tone
Memory hook
Rule 4: 不 dodges it too
Memory hook
And one you have been doing all along: 你好
Hear them change
Same word, different neighbour, different tone. Listen for the rise.
Tap any line to hear it
变调小考 · Sandhi check随堂小练
No pressure — just making it stick.
一共
in total — 共 gòng is fourth tone, so what happens to 一?
一杯
one cup — 杯 bēi is first tone, so what happens to 一?
我___要糖。
Wǒ ___ yào táng.
I don't want sugar.
The menu
Five drinks, each hiding a rule you just learned. Tap and listen.
Tap any line to hear it
How you want it
Four customizations that cover almost every order — and 去冰 and 不要 are both rules in disguise.
Tap any line to hear it
The whole order, start to finish
Fifteen seconds, four lines. Read it out loud as the customer, then again as the staff.
Tap any line to hear it
点单实战 · Place your order随堂小练
No pressure — just making it stick.
你好，我要___杯咖啡。
Nǐ hǎo, wǒ yào ___ bēi kāfēi.
Hi, I'd like a coffee.
___冰，谢谢。
___ bīng, xièxie.
No ice, thank you.
You asked the price. What did the staff say?
我___要糖，我要热的。
Wǒ ___ yào táng, wǒ yào rè de.
I don't want sugar, I want it hot.
After class: the arena
Level: Café Conversations
Six listening rounds inside a café — exactly the room you just learned to survive. Earn XP and find out whether your ear keeps up when a real conversation moves.
Say it out loud — the microphone is listening随堂小练
No pressure — just making it stick.
Your turn — say it
你好，我要一杯奶茶。
Hello, I'd like a milk tea.
Your turn — say it
去冰，少糖。
No ice, less sugar.
Before you go课后回顾
- Real mission: order one drink out loud today, even at home to nobody. 我要一杯…… — the sentence only becomes yours once your mouth has said it.
- Say 一杯 and 一共 back to back three times. Can you feel 一 flip between falling and rising?
- Which rule still feels slippery — the disappearing dots, the buzzing i, or the two shape-shifters? Tell Teacher Jane next class and we'll drill exactly that.