Mandarin Chinese---Lesson 4 (Chinese alphabet--Compound finals)

Lesson 4 – Chinese Language 

(Compound Vowels)

Hello, everyone. Welcome back to Baixue’s Chinese Language Learning Program. Last time, we learned 6 simple finals of Chinese language pinyin (Chinese mandarin pinyin). I hope you have already remembered how to pronounce them. Today, we are going to learn Compound vowels. From last class, we already know that there are 9 compound finals (ai, ei, ui, ao, ou, iu, ie, üe, er) . Please listen to me to pronounce them with 4 types of tone.

        

        

I will give you some examples for these compound finals.

Chinese pinyin finals	Pronunciation of finals compare to that of in English	examples
ai	The pinyin final “ai” like “y”[ai] in English word “my”. The vowel ”a” is sonorous and clear and the vowel “i” is light, short and faint.	bái   mài         白    卖
ei	The pinyin final “ei” like “ey” [ei]  in English word “hey”. The vowel ”e” is sonorous and clear and the vowel “i” is light, short and faint.	fēi    hēi          飞    黑
ui	It pronounces from vowel “u” to vowel “ei”. Like “wa” in English word “wave”.	duì    tuī          对   推
ao	The pinyin final “ao” like “ow” [au]   in English word “cow”. The vowel ”a” is sonorous and clear and the vowel “u” is light, short and faint.	hǎo   táo 好    逃
ou	The pinyin final “ou” like “o” in English word “no”.	hòu   gòu 后    够
iu	It pronounces from vowel “i” to vowel “ou”. Like “yo” in English word “yo-yo”.	qīu   dīu 秋    丢
ie	It pronounces from vowel “i” to vowel “ê”. The vowel “i” is less sonorous, short and the vowel “ê” is sonorous, long and clear	diē    tiē 跌    贴
üe	It pronounces from vowel “ü” to vowel “ê”. The vowel “ü” is less sonorous, short and the vowel “ê” is sonorous, long and clear	qüē   lüè 缺    略
*er	The pinyin final “er” like “er” in English word “teacher”.	ér    ēr 儿   耳

Note: *er is a special compound final. You might already notice that other 8 compound can be with consonants to make a syllable, but “er” cannot be with any consonant to make a syllable. er-itself is a syllable.  Please remember this special vowel.

Ok, please read after me.

 

        

        

        

        

       

Now, we are done with the compound vowels of Chinese mandarin (language) pinyin. Today’s homework is to practice the pronunciation of these 9 finals, to compare them between Chinese and English and to find what the difference is. The more you practice, the better your pronunciation becomes.

 Ok, that is all for today. We will learn nasal vowels in our next class.

xìe   xìe  (Thanks!)

谢    谢

 zài  jiàn  (Bye! Or See you next time!)

再   见