The Tone Change Challenge

Chinese is a tonal language, and by now you are probably already familiar with the four tones and neutral tone. Chinese characters all have their own “original” tones. However, there are some instances where the tones change when placed next to other characters. What makes these changes tricky is that they are not typically denoted in pinyin, so if you look up the word in a textbook or dictionary, it will retain its original tones. The good news is that there are rules for when the most common tone changes occur. In this article, I will write the pinyin to demonstrate the tone change.

Tone Changes of 一

The Chinese character 一 (yī) means one. When used as a numeral or ordinal number, it is pronounced in the first tone. However, when used in more abstract situations, it changes its tone depending on the tone of the character that follows it.

As a numeral or ordinal:

一	yī	one
十一	shí yī	eleven
一百	yī bǎi	one hundred
第一	dì yī	first

Examples:

一定	yí dìng	certainly
一半	yí bàn	half
一样	yí yàng	the same
一共	yí gòng	altogether
一下儿	yí xià er	a little bit
一会儿	yí huì er	a while

Examples:

一般	yì bān	just so so
一起	yì qǐ	together
一些	yì xiē	some
一直	yì zhí	always; all along
一点儿	yì diǎn er	a little

The tone changes of the Chinese character “一” serve a dual purpose of not only distinguishing its use as a numeral from its abstract meanings but also to enhance the way the language sounds and make pronunciation easier.

Tone Changes of 不

The Chinese character 不 (bù) is a frequently used negator. You can think of it as being similar to “not”. There are two other negating word, namely 没 (méi) or 非 (fēi). It’s important to note that the tone changes for 不 do not apply to them. If you’re interested in learning more about negation, there will be an article about this coming soon.

The basic pronunciation of 不 is the fourth tone (bù).

Examples:

不吃	bù chī	not eat – as in “I will not eat.”
不听	bù tīng	not listen – as in “I’m not listening.”
不玩儿	bù wán er	not play – as in “I will not play today.”

Examples:

不要	bú yào	don’t want – as in “I don’t want it.”
不去	bú qù	not go – as in “I’m not going.”
不会	bú huì	not able to (cannot) – as in “I can’t.”
不做	bú zuò	not do – as in “I’m not doing my homework.”
不对	bú duì	Incorrect – as in “That’s incorrect.”
不错	bú cuò	not bad (pretty good) as in – “Not bad at all.”

Conclusion

Tone changes are a beautiful example of how the Chinese language is intricate and nuanced, where tones can be changed to make pronunciation easier and sometimes even help us distinguish meaning. You now know two of the most common tone changes in Chinese. Excellent work!

If you want your Chinese to sound more like a native, remember these rules and practice saying the words and phrases they apply to. Apart from these two, there is also a very popular one that does not apply to specific words like these but to the third tone in general. I discuss it in an article called “Inspecting Third Tones”, if you haven’t already, why not check it out now?