The Four Tones of Mandarin(1st edition, 2006)

[namiexamuroxnobody]

Amazing!! Thank you so much!

[BabyBeeHive]

Lots of people seem to be having trouble with the 3rd tone, but I still can't get the 4th right.

[emitremmus]

@BabyBeeHive The fourth (i.e. falling) tone sounds "regular" or "natural" to me. I would have to think about it more and play with examples, but perhaps my accent and other manner of speech produce many falling tones?

[TheRealFallenDemon]

Thanks so much! I'm trying to learn some basic Chinese so I can understand my Sifu at wushu without needing to go through someone to translate for me

[beusin]

YES!!!!! finally a way o keep the tones inside my mind!!! is this the kind of language that is easy at the beginning and gets more and more complicated the more you study it? or is it hard at the start, but gets somewhat redictable on time? thanksss

[berglendurch]

Thanks fr your helps , the examples you gave really helped

[Chirigami]

Really good! Thank you very much!

[MandarinMontreal]

I haven't yet but will do more when I have time

[kajcreations]

thanks mandarinMontreal!finally i understand the tones! have you posted more videos?with the same teching style?

[LearnChineseWithEase]

Superb! Your excellence in English really helps native English speakers learn the language! Keep up the good work!

[MandarinMontreal]

I will ! Thanks for your encouragement : )

[MandarinMontreal]

In fact, when we sing, the words are not of the same tones as we speak!

[crabbit87]

So in chinese music do you sing tones with in tones? Because chinese is already melodic, is it double melodic when singing in chinese?

[MandarinMontreal]

It will certainly help if one is good at music but it is not a must. You do need a teacher to guide you though; otherwise it might be difficult for you to achieve the right tones

[MattRodrig]

You need to have a musician ear to learn it if you aren't a native speaker. I can't even tune my guitar, my ear is not helping me. Maybe I should get music lessons before starting to learn chinese seriously.

[lamrof]

I don't get what the diff is b/n / and V in the singing demotion. I am a native Semitic speakers. Hard for me to get this. Tonality is used to denote emotion not meaning.

[MandarinMontreal]

What does b/n and V stand for?

[username4Y]

not for sore vocal chords!

[4gregorysf]

I wish I had seen this video before I tried to learn a little Mandarin from books. Never was the idea of a half-tone addressed. Excellent lesson!

[MATTBOBVV]

Now I understand!Thanks for the video!

[g1981c]

the zig zag tone pisses me off ...

[foldini]

i think you have an excellent lesson here

[MaShisushi7]

thank u so much , this teaching clip is excellent and easy to understand

[C7B27D7B4]

this is excellent! thank you very much :-)

[vlog1234567]

this is perfect for me cause my life is music

[RickJacq47]

How does the tones work when singing? When in a song many other tones occure, don't they change the meaning of the words?

[LearnMandarinMonteal]

You are right. You don't hear the correct tones of the words in a song.

[CockslamUrBhole]

@RickJacq47

I've always wondered that myself.

[qaaqaaww]

@RickJacq47 Yes the tones will differs when in songs, so when I listen to Chinese songs I sometimes have to find the lyrics of the songs for the correct meanings of them, and I'm even a native Chinese speaker!! But when you speak, you must speak the tones correctly or other people may misunderstand you.

[dudeokdude]

@RickJacq47 Maybe they "talk-sing" like Bob Dylan?

[VitaNuovaRevolution]

.....I need a course that teaches exactly like this. Chinese is like music. That's what I need.

[u2bealot]

I just saw your video on youtube, where a you demonstrated that the first tone in mandarin should be voiced in the musical key of G, which to me is a very high pitch. I have a guitar tuner at home and I used it to discover that the first tone in the pronunciation guide on another web-site is not the musical key of G but something like the key of D.

This makes me wonder which musical tone I should be using in mandarin.

I would appreciate if you could help me clarify this. Thanks.

[diider]

This helped me so much! I was struggling with the fourth tone and you explained it perfectly.

Xie Xie!

[Trixter003]

goooood

[yoohik]

Her accent sounds so cute

[iBakuDAMN]

your explanation is very clear! and i understand it perfectly...tnx for uploading!

[yammerz]

Interesting. I'm not learning Mandarin but this is very clear.

[Deadratsaresexy]

Thanks very much for this! The way it explains tone is very accessible to beginners. I'd seen other explanations and had difficulty understanding, but this is very clear and helpful.

[peppersax]

Relating this to music is excellent!  Xie Xie

[robertgenito]

謝謝！

this helped so much in my understanding of the 4 tones :) i thought i had the 4th tone down until I ran into this (and re-watched it!) ... thank you again! xie xie!

[JinZin1986]

when you pronounce the 2nd and 3rd tone you pronounce them too similar, it's hard to hear the difference.

[Dudongo86]

Very good teaching, I liked a lot.

[darkstar941]

Yay, someone finally described why 3rd tone sounds so different to me in spoken language! Thanks for the really good explanation of the 3rd then 4th tone

[LearnMandarinMonteal]

When you look at the 3rd tone closely, the ending part which goes up is exactly the same pitch as the second tone. That is why the second tone and the third tone sound alike. However, the 2nd tone does not have the part that goes down like the 3rd tone does. After practising a while, most learner can tell the difference.

[arvindpradhan]

Your second and third tones sound very alike.

[WantonWilderness]

Thanks. This is the most helpful explanation I've ever encountered.

[rishtar145]

i want to learn mandarin i know french, english, and spanish

[LearnMandarinMonteal]

Good idea! 加油！

[ga1ax]

si se puede.

[mistermjones2000]

thank you!

[aidacarolina]

Soy latina , y me gustaria poder aprender a hablar mandarin, hoy pude entender los cautro tono que tanto cuestan y que otra persona no lo sabe n enseñaar como esta profesora lo iso muy facilpara todos aqui i love mandarin and cantonese. xie xie .

[shecutess]

I tell you know lie when i say thi. I learned the four tones today! And I've watched so many people try to explain it. But I got it. Thanks to you! Xie xie nin!

[8394147]

Hm, I want to learn Mandarin now. But I have to wonder, how do you express your emotions or the intentions of what you are saying with Mandarin? For bilingual speakers, do they prefer the ability to communicate emotions through inflection, or is there real disadvantage?

[LearnMandarinMonteal]

To express emotion in Chinese, one may add words of exclamation at the beginning or at the end of a sentence as well as by adjusting the duration of words on which we emphasis.

[godsrightarm]

ayaaaaaaaa

[roxterat]

@LearnMandarinMonteal

thank you

[roxterat]

@LearnMandarinMonteal

thank you

[roxterat]

@LearnMandarinMonteal

thank you!

[ncrunch]

thank you so much. the musical staff and the solfege helps.

[twominutepenalty]

谢谢

[ownagelink11]

thank you. mandarin so different from japanese, lol! so much more difficult. will be good challenge.

[nuttygirl2001]

Very clear and an excellent teaching style! The simplest and easiest way to learn the 4 tones!

[manekinava]

Wow, this was very helpful! The music helped a lot, very easy to understand.

[gary198712]

it is traditional chinese chracter

[alifshinobi]

I really like how you use the musical tone. It's very helpful.

[sammy091785]

kamsahamnida!!:]

[fiordi69]

I'm a french musician, and some of my student told me it would be easier for me to learn chinese pronounciation. I can confirm it, and I thank my ears! Very usefull lesson, xie xie.

[elmo23the1]

very very helpful thanks alot for taking your time out to help us learning

[morci1831]

Excelente video, muy pedagogico! Gracias.

Siga con las lecciones please!

[patrisius]

xie xie, lao shi. Excellently clear explanation!

[merigo76]

I have studied Mandarin for several years and sometimes get discouraged because the pronunciation is so difficult. I will never speak perfectly but this lesson has helped me very much!! Great teacher!! Thank you!

[Columbianbacon]

Thanks! I have a book, but you really need the sounds to help you get started.

[RainPuss]

Wow. Awesome teaching. I understood that perfectly.