Chinese For Dummies (7 page)

Third tone:
Falling and then rising. The third tone starts in the middle level of your voice range and then falls deeply before slightly rising at the end. It looks like this above the letter
a:
ǎ.

Fourth tone:
Falling. The fourth tone sounds like you're giving someone an order (unlike the more plaintive-sounding second tone). It falls from the high pitch level it starts at. Here's how it looks above the letter
a:
à.

I know this tone business (especially the nuances in the following sections) all sounds very complicated, but when you get the hang of tones, pronunciation becomes second nature. Just keep listening to the audio tracks throughout the book. These concepts will sink in quicker than you expect.

One third tone after another

Here's something interesting about tones: When you have to say one third tone followed by another third tone out loud in consecutive fashion, the first one actually becomes a second tone. If you hear someone say
Tā hěn hǎo.
她很好
. (tah hun how.) (
She's very well.
), you may not realize that both
hěn
很
and
hǎo
好
individually are third tone syllables. It sounds like
hén
is a second tone and
hǎo
is a full third tone.

Half-third tones

Whenever a third tone is followed by any of the other tones — first, second, fourth, or even a neutral tone — it becomes a half-third tone. You pronounce only the first half of the tone — the falling half — before you pronounce the other syllables with the other tones. In fact, a half-third tone barely falls at all. It sounds more like a level, low tone (kind of the opposite of the high-level first tone). Get it?

Neutral tones

A fifth tone exists that you can't exactly count among the four basic tones because it's actually toneless, or
neutral.
You never see a tone mark over a fifth tone, and you say it only when you attach it to grammatical particles or the second character of repetitive syllables, such as
bàba
爸爸
(bah-bah) (
father
) or
māma
妈妈
(
媽媽
) (mah-mah) (
mother
).

Tonal changes in yī and bù

Just when you think you're getting a handle on all the possible tones and tone changes in Chinese, I have one more aspect to report: The words
yī
一
(ee) (
one
) and
bù
不
(boo) (
not
or
no
) are truly unusual in Chinese, in that their tones may change automatically depending on what comes after them. You pronounce
yī
by itself with the first tone. However, when a first, second, or third tone follows it,
yī
instantly turns into a fourth tone, such as in
yìzhāng zhǐ
一张纸
(
一張紙
) (ee-jahng jir) (
a piece of paper
). If a fourth tone follows
yī,
however, it automatically becomes a second tone, such as in the word
yíyàng
一样
(
一樣
) (ee-yahng) (
the same
).

Adding Idioms and Popular Expressions to Your Repertoire

The Chinese language has thousands of idiomatic expressions known as
chéngyǔ
成语
(
成語
) (chung-yew). Most of these
chéngyǔ
originated in anecdotes, fables, fairy tales, or ancient literary works, and some of the expressions are thousands of years old. The vast majority consist of four characters, succinctly expressing morals behind very long, ancient stories. Others are more than four characters. Either way, the Chinese pepper these pithy expressions throughout any given conversation.

Here are a few
chéngyǔ
you frequently hear in Chinese:

àn bù jiù bān
按部就班
(ahn boo jyoe bahn) (
to take one step at a time
)

hú shuō bā dào
胡说八道
(
胡說八道
) (hoo shwaw bah daow) (
to talk nonsense
[Literally:
to talk nonsense in eight directions
])

huǒ shàng jiā yóu
火上加油
(hwaw shahng jyah yo) (
to add fuel to the fire/to aggravate the problem
)

Mò míng qí miào.
莫名其妙
. (maw meeng chee meow.) (Literally:
No one can explain the wonder and mystery of it all.
) This saying describes anything that's tough to figure out, including unusual behavior.

quán xīn quán yì
全心全意
(chwan sheen chwan ee) (
wholeheartedly
[Literally:
entire heart, entire mind
])

Rù xiāng suí sú.
入乡随俗
. (
入鄉隨俗
.) (roo shyahng sway soo.) (
When in Rome, do as the Romans do.
)

yì jǔ liǎng dé
一举两得
(
一舉兩得
) (ee jyew lyahng duh) (
to kill two birds with one stone
)