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.
Sixteen Shapes: Every Two-Syllable Word You Own
十六种声调组合
Nearly every Chinese word is two characters, and their tones fit together in only sixteen ways. Learn the shapes, stop guessing.
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You are learning shapes, not words
All sixteen at once
Opening tone down the side, landing tone across the top. Tap any word to hear it — walk a row and only one thing changes.
| + 1 | + 2 | + 3 | + 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 + | 1+1 | 1+2 | 1+3 | 1+4 |
| 2 + | 2+1 | 2+2 | 2+3 | 2+4 |
| 3 + | 3+1 | 3+2 | 3+3Written 3+3, said 2+3 — the one shape that lies. | 3+4 |
| 4 + | 4+1 | 4+2 | 4+3 | 4+4 |
Which shape is it?随堂小练
No pressure — just making it stick.
咖啡
coffee
银行
bank
Pronunciation clinic
The one shape that lies: 3+3
Fifteen of the sixteen shapes are written the way they are said. 3+3 is the exception. Two third tones in a row are physically awkward — dip down, climb up, dip down again — so the first one gives up and becomes a second tone. 你好 is written nǐ hǎo and said ní hǎo. Same for 水果 and 手表. You learned this in lesson 1 with 你好; now you can see it is not a quirk of one word, it is one sixteenth of the whole system.
十六个形状里，十五个都是写什么念什么。3+3 是唯一的例外。两个三声连着念在生理上很别扭——降上去、再降下来、再上去——所以第一个字干脆放弃，变成二声。你好写作 nǐ hǎo，念作 ní hǎo。水果、手表也一样。这条规则你在第 1 课学你好的时候就见过了，现在你能看清：它不是某一个词的怪癖，它是整个系统的十六分之一。
The four shapes a single syllable can make
Every one of the sixteen pairs is just two of these, back to back.
Same shape — listen, do not read随堂小练
No pressure — just making it stick.
Which of these has the SAME tone shape as the word you just heard?
Which of these has the same tone shape?
Which of these has the same tone shape?
Which of these has the same tone shape?
One sentence, six of the shapes
This is an ordinary sentence, not a tongue twister. Six of the sixteen shapes are in it.
Tap any line to hear it
Say it out loud — the microphone is listening随堂小练
No pressure — just making it stick.
Your turn — say it
咖啡
coffee — shape 1+1
Your turn — say it
苹果
apple — shape 2+3
Your turn — say it
今天天气很好，明天我去大学学汉语。
The weather is nice today; tomorrow I'm going to university to study Chinese.
Before you go课后回顾
- Pick any three words from today and say which shape each one is, out loud, before you say the word. 3+1. 老师. Do it until the shape comes first.
- Which of the sixteen felt hardest? Almost everyone says 3+3 or 2+3. Tell me yours next class and we will drill only that one.
- Find one new two-syllable word this week — anywhere — and work out its shape before you look it up.