Pinyin Rules of Placing Tone Marks
Like any other spoken languages, Chinese is tonal. As part of Chinese pinyin, tones are changes of pitch of syllables. In mandarin (standard Chinese), there are 4 basic tones. With different tones, a syllable can have different meanings.
Pinyin pronunciation is one of the biggest challenges in learning Chinese and a misuse of pinyin tone marks may make your Chinese hard to understand. Now, let's get to know about the four tones of Pinyin and rules of placing the tone marks.
Four Tones of Pinyin
There are 4 tones as well as a neutral one in pinyin pronunciation.
The 1st tone is high and flat, as in these cases:
| m¨¡ | Âè |
| d¨¡ | ´î |
The 2nd tone rises from the middle to high, as in these cases:
| m¨¢ | Âé |
| d¨¢ | ´ï |
The 3rd tone curves from low to lower and then rises, as in these cases:
| m¨£ | Âí |
| d¨£ | ´ò |
The 4th tone falls from the top to the bottom, as in these cases:
| m¨¤ | Âî |
| d¨¤ | ´ó |
In pinyin pronunciation, there are a number of syllables that lose their original tones and are pronounced soft and short. This is known as the neutral tone which is identified by the absence of a tone mark. Example: xi¨¨xie£¬b¨² k¨¨qi£¬m¨¡m¨» ¨À¨¥¨Àe
Rules for Placing Pinyin Tone Marks
| No. | Rules | Example |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | When a syllable contains a single vowel only, the tone mark is placed above the vowel sound. | n¨«£¬m¨££¬k¨¨ |
| 2 | When a syllable contains two or more vowels, the tone mark is usually placed above vowels in the order of a£¬o£¬e£¬i£¬u£¬¨¹ | h¨£o£¬xi¨¨£¬¨Àu¨¡n |
| 3 | When a tone mark is placed above the vowel ¡°i¡±£¬the dot over it should be omitted. | n¨ªn£¬j¨¬n£¬sh¨© |
| 4 | When ¡°iu¡± or ¡°ui¡± comes, the tone mark should be placed above the terminal vowel. | li¨²£¬¨Àu¨« |
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