What you will be able to do
- Apply third-tone sandhi to strings of three and four syllables by grouping them into meaningful chunks.
- Produce the half third tone in 米饭, 老师 and 请问 instead of the full dip and rise.
- Give 不 and 一 the tone their neighbour demands, including the light 不 of 好不好.
- Recognise the four places a neutral tone turns up, and hear 东西 both ways.
Chinese words in this text can be activated to show a dictionary gloss.
What the page does not tell you
Pinyin prints the tone a syllable has when it stands alone. Put syllables together and some of those tones move. HSK Guide writes out the changes for and and leaves the third-tone change unwritten, which is the commonest convention — so nǐ hǎo on the page is ní hǎo in the mouth. This lesson is about the strings where that starts to matter.
Third tones in longer strings
The rule from the first module — third plus third is said second plus third — still applies, but longer strings are grouped before they are changed. Do not simply turn every tone before the last into a rise.
- hěn hǎo → hén hǎo: one pair, 2+3.
- wǒ hěn hǎo normally groups as | , so careful speech is wǒ hén hǎo (half-third + 2+3). Faster speech may smooth it to wó hén hǎo.
- wǒ xiǎng mǎi groups as | and is wǒ xiáng mǎi in careful speech.
- qǐng nǐ gěi wǒ can group as | , giving qíng nǐ | géi wǒ.
- A tight three-syllable lexical unit such as zhǎnlǎnguǎn is commonly zhán láng guǎn (2+2+3).
Speakers vary with rate and emphasis, especially across a chunk boundary. The stable rule is local: identify the meaningful groups, apply 3+3 → 2+3 inside each group, then imitate the model you hear.
The half third tone
Before a first, second or fourth tone, and before a neutral tone, a third tone does not rise at all. The voice falls to the bottom and stays there. This is the shape you will use far more often than the full dip.
- mǐfàn, lǎoshī, qǐngwèn, hǎochī, nǐmen, wǒ de
A learner who insists on the complete dip-and-rise in these words sounds as though they are reading from a list. Save the full third tone for a syllable standing alone or at the end of a phrase: hǎo, wǒ.
is fourth tone, and becomes bú directly before another fourth tone.
- bú qù, bú shì, bú cuò, bú kèqi
- bù chī, bù lái, bù hǎo, bù lěng
Two extra places where it goes light and neutral. Inside a verb-not-verb question: hǎo bu hǎo, shì bu shì, qù bu qù. And in the potential form between a verb and its result: tīng bu dǒng, kàn bu jiàn.
- yī when counting, at the end of a number, in ordinals and in dates: yī, shíyī, dì-yī, yīyuè yī hào.
- yí before a fourth tone: yí ge, yí bàn, yíyàng, yídìng, yí jiàn.
- yì before a first, second or third tone: yì tiān, yì nián, yìqǐ, yìdiǎnr, yì wǎn.
The neutral tone
A neutral syllable has no contour of its own. It is short, light and unstressed, and its pitch is handed to it by the syllable in front. It is not an option — the tone is a fact about the word, and giving two full fourth tones is as wrong as giving the wrong tone.
Four places it turns up:
- Reduplicated kinship terms: bàba, māma, gēge, jiějie, dìdi, mèimei.
- Suffixes: in érzi, zhuōzi and qīzi; in wǒmen; in mùtou.
- Particles: , , , , , and the of experience.
- The second syllable of many two-syllable words: xièxie, péngyou, shíhou, míngzi, xuésheng, rènshi, piányi, yīfu, dōngxi.
is worth saying twice. With a neutral second syllable, dōngxi, it means thing. With a full first tone on both, dōngxī, it means east and west. Nothing but the weight of the second syllable separates them.
How to work through it
Written tone against spoken toneread
Read the opening and the third-tone section, then write out 我也很好 and 请你给我 twice each: once as printed, once as spoken. Seeing the two lines under each other is what makes the rule stick.
Full third against half thirdaudio
Eight pairs. Each word is played alone and then inside a phrase: 好 / 好吃, 我 / 我们, 请 / 请问, 米 / 米饭. Listen for the moment the rise disappears — that is the half third tone, and it is the version you will need most.
Sandhi in a real sentencesentence
Say each sentence at speaking pace, not syllable by syllable: 我也很好，谢谢。 / 请你给我两碗米饭。 / 我想买一点儿水果。 Mark the third tones that rise and the ones that stay low before you speak.
bù, bú, or light buquiz
Twelve items. Eight give you 不 in front of a verb and ask for its tone; four place it inside 好不好 or 听不懂, where it is neither bù nor bú but a light unstressed syllable.
Record the light syllablesspeaking
Record yourself saying 我朋友的名字 / 我们买东西 / 谢谢你，不客气. Play it back listening only to the second syllable of each word. If any of them is as long and as heavy as the first, say the line again and cut it in half.