Town School

Fun with Chinese

What is the hardest part to learn to speak Chinese?  Almost everyone yells in unison: "The Tones!".   Not to worry, they aren't as impossible as everyone thinks.  We know you can handle it.

In Chinese, the pitch of your voice affects the word you are speaking, changes in pitch are called tones.  The same pronunciation with different tones may have different meanings.  There are five tones in total:

Tones play an important role in Chinese.    You have to be very careful with the tones. For example, "ma" (-) means "mother", "ma" (\/) means "horse".  I am sure even small Children in China are smart enough to tell who are their mothers and who are horses. 

Want to learn more Chinese and hear how the words are pronounced?  please go to  Learn Chinese with Tracey.