Chinese Pronunciation
汉字中文的发音

The Chinese language is the only pictograph language survived in the world, a pictograph language normally is original created, evolved, maintained and used by native people.

Chinese is different from western languages in writing and pronunciation, for pronunciation, there are 3 main differences:

1. Chinese words all are mono-syllable, western language words are multiple-syllable.

For example: 国，家，今，明，yesterday, country, international, localization.

2. Chinese word sound never changes; western language word sound needs to join and bind with others.

For example: 有时候，我爱你。Once up a time. Would you like a cup of tea?

3. Chinese written language doesn’t have question tone, Western languages all have question tone.

For example: 你好吗？我是谁？你怎样？他在做什么？（no sound changes）

Are you ok? (ok's sound changed)
Do you like? (like’s sound changed)
Are your right? (right’s sound changed)

The Chinese language is different from western languages in writing, typing and pronunciation, you should not use your mother language’s knowledge and habit to learn Chinese.

When learning Chinese, you need cross the language border, need to learn from scratch, separately build up full set of skills for the Chinese language.

一、PinYin or Rainbow
拼音与彩虹模式

Use Pinyin to learn Chinese pronunciation is a widely used method, but it is not an effective way, actually it is a wrong way.

PinYin letters are the same as English letters, so foreigners read PinYin with English sounds and tones, it is difficult to change.

And PinYin study requires to remember each word’s tone. A tone is an index of PinYin standard 4-tone sequence, if learners can’t pronounce the standard 4-tone sequence, they can’t tell/read the index (tone).

Native Chinese never use PinYin to learn Chinese speaking, infants learn pronunciation from parents directly, PinYin never involved.

Kids learn PinYin at primary school, at that time, they speak Chinese fluently, they are use Chinese sounds to learn PinYin, not in the opposite way.

In HeChinese, we learn Chinese pronunciation in rainbow pattern, pronounce each sound directly, like native Chinese, without PinYin and tones.

We start to learn pronunciation from 12345 five numbers.

If you can pronounce 12345 and their combinations accurately, and mater Rainbow pronunciation pattern, then you get the skills to speak every Chinese word accurately.

二、Key Points of Rainbow Pattern
彩虹发音的几个要点

Sounds of Chinese words all are mono-syllable, voice on and off, up and down, without trembling or turning in between, just likes a pulse, or hitting sound, or piano key’s sound, which can be described as rainbow pattern (∩).

1. Sounds of Chinese words all are mono-syllable, they are pronounced with the same pattern, like a rainbow ‘∩’

Voice dashes out at the beginning, and then dies off, same for every Chinese sounds.

2. Each word sound never changes, its volume can high and low, its length can be long and short.

Each word sound likes a piano key’s sound, always the same, never change, no matter it is in single word, or in phrase or sentences, no matter it is in statement or in question.

Each word sound can be louder or soft, voice length can be long and short. slowly and complete circle can help to pronounce it accurately. We should learn to pronounce each sound in different volume and length, slowly and full circle at first can help to learn better.

3. Each word sound need to pronounce separately and completely, word by word, one follow another.

Each word sound even in phrase or sentence is independent, separated, should not join or merge with other word sound.

A Chinese word likes a single stand of pearl, a sentence is a rope of pearls.

4. In Chinese question sentence, all words' sounds don't need to change, written Chinese does not have a question tone.

Chinese has question words, such as: 吗？呢？谁？哪？怎？几？什（什么）? or question formats: 好不好？要不要？是不是？ and more。but words' sounds are the same.

你好吗？她是谁？你怎么样？
在做什么？几点钟了？天气好不好？
你有没有钱？我是不是错了？她明天来不来？

Word's sound like a single stand of pearl, no matter in statement or question sentences, never changes. Sentences are like strings of pearls.

5. 2-Word phrase, we can emphasize the first word, 3-word phrases we can emphasize the middle word.

Foreign language normally has question tone, when in doubt or not sure, foreigners always use question tone to speak Chinese, this habit causes lots of errors, since Chinese has not question tone. If you speak Chinese with question tone, you make mistake for sure.

Question tone always emphasizes the last words.

Now we emphasize the first word of 2-word phrases, and emphasize middle word of 3-word phrase, in order to change foreigners question tone habit. It is very effective way for foreigners to adapt to Chinese native pronunciation.

6. Word sound is difficult to describe in text, but it is suitable for direct listening and practice

Chinese sound has 4 tones, and each toned sound is a mono-syllable, all are need to pronounce in the Rainbow pattern.

When you pronounce 4 tones of one Chinese sound, the mouth and tongue movement is almost same, it is difficult to compare, to describe, to remember, and to imitate through written descriptions.

However, humans are born with a strong ability to learn speaking. directly listen and imitate can learn pronunciation correctly and quickly. Repeating practice can form muscle memory.

The pronunciation process of the four tones of all sounds is the same, and all are in the Rainbow pronunciation pattern