#Duolingo chinese how to

Take a look at how each tone completely changes the meaning of the word! Tone In the table below, you’ll see each of these tones, how your voice and pitch move, and examples ( mā, má, mǎ, and mà). These four Chinese tones are numbered, but the numbers don’t refer to any inherent order, they’re just a way to know which tone people are referring to. Tones are powerful building blocks of words, as much as vowels and consonants-they totally change the meaning of words! Switching the tone from mā to má changes the meaning of the word as much as switching the 'w' in witch to something else ( pitch, ditch, you get the idea!). You wouldn’t want to accidentally call your mother a horse (I presume). You can see them in the words mā, má, mǎ, and mà and they sort of mimic what your voice has to do when you say them! Those four different tones create four totally different words with four totally different meanings: mother, hemp, horse, and scold, to be exact! So you can see why getting these tones right matters. Falling-rising: Make your voice start low, go lower and then upīeginner Chinese learners will find Pinyin (a Romanized way of writing Chinese) really helpful in learning tones, because this writing system has a distinct symbol for each tone.Steady: Keep your voice high and steady, without raising or lowering it.Those names tell you a lot about how each is pronounced! To say that the tones are extremely important would be an understatement! Every Chinese word has tone! The four tones of Chinese are steady, rising, falling-rising, and falling. So for English speakers learning a tonal language like Chinese, we just have to work a little harder to learn to use the pitch of our voice in a new way: changing our voice for each syllable! Learning tones in Chinese The difference is that in English, making our voice go up or down, higher or lower, doesn't change the meaning of a word: cats always means the same thing no matter if our voice goes up ('.Cats?'), stays flat ('Cats.'), or does anything else ('CATS!!!'). The good news is that as English speakers, we often hear and pronounce those voice movements, even if we’ve never used the words “pitch” or “tone.” For example, we often make our voice go up at the end of questions, to show that we're asking something.

#Duolingo chinese how to

They are just as important as individual sounds, like 'm' or 'a,' and using a different tone can totally change the meaning of words! In a tonal language, each tone has a unique pattern of how to change your voice when you pronounce the sounds. Tones may make learners of Chinese shake in their boots, but they serve a really important function! In languages that have them, tones help you know what word and meaning is meant. Tones are patterns of your voice going up and down (called 'pitch'), so a tone (and your voice!) can be high (think violin) or low (think tuba). Let's dig into what tones really are and strategies for learning them. Any aspect of a language that’s different from your first language can take some getting used to! Tone is absolutely within your grasp-check out the success stories of Xiaomanyc and OMG! Meiyu for inspiration! There are lots of strategies for practicing (and one day mastering!) Chinese tones. How can it be that one word has several different meanings just by changing the tone? It all sounds the same to me! Do you have any tips for hearing and pronouncing the tones correctly?ĭon’t worry, Toned Out, it makes complete sense that you are feeling challenged by Chinese tones. I am learning Chinese but struggling with the different tones. They both have backgrounds in teaching English and Chinese-and that's why we're taking over Dear Duolingo this week! We're pulling together our powers as language teachers, learners, and researchers to bring you an all-star guide to learning Chinese tones! Here's this week's question: Tina and Adele create new courses and content in the app right now, Tina is working on the English course for Vietnamese speakers, and Adele is focused on the English course for Russian speakers. My background is in second language acquisition and speech sound learning, and at Duolingo I apply language-learning research to new products and features in the app. Farrah Neumann, a Duolingo Learning Scientist, and I'm leading Dear Duolingo this week! To answer today's question, I'm joined by Curriculum Designers Tina Tan and Dr. Welcome to another week of Dear Duolingo, an advice column just for language learners.