Tone Lesson 3 – The Second Tone with Tone Pair Drills

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CHINESE SECOND TONE

The Chinese Second Tone is also known as “The Rising Tone”. In Chinese, it is called 二声(èr shēng), literally meaning “the second sound”. In this lesson, we will be practicing the Mandarin Pinyin Second Tone with Tone Pairs and sentences.

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How to Pronounce Mandarin Pinyin Second Tone

 It starts semi-high and goes up. And because of this, it is also called "The Middle Rising Tone".

+Video Mandarin Second Tone is also known as "The Rising Tone". In this lesson, we will be practicing the Pinyin Second Tone with Tone Pairs and sentences.
Mandarin Pinyin Second Tone: The Rising Tone

Practice Mandarin Pinyin Second Tone

SECOND TONE + FIRST TONE

TONE PAIRS
PĪNYĪN 汉字 ENGLISH
zuó tiān 昨天 yesterday
fáng jiān 房间 room
shí jiān 时间 time
lí kāi 离开 to leave
xióng māo 熊猫 panda
SENTENCE
zuó tiān lí kāi fáng jiān
昨天离开房间。
(Someone) left the room yesterday.

SECOND TONE + THIRD TONE

TONE PAIRS
PĪNYĪN 汉字 ENGLISH
píng guǒ 苹果 apple
méi yǒu 没有 not; not have; without
niú nǎi 牛奶 milk
yóu yǒng 游泳 to swim
yá chǐ 牙齿 tooth
SENTENCE
méi yǒu ná píng guǒ hé niú nǎi
没有拿苹果和牛奶。
(Someone) hasn’t take the apple or the milk.

SECOND TONE + FOURTH TONE

TONE PAIRS
PĪNYĪN 汉字 ENGLISH
qián miàn 前面 front
yán sè 颜色 color
yí yàng 一样 the same
wén huà 文化 culture
xí guàn 习惯 customes
SENTENCE
wén huà hé xí guàn yí yàng
文化和习惯一样。
(Their) cultures and customes are the same.
9 Comments
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Tammy Premium Student September 28, 2022 at 2:02 am

It helps me to think of the 2nd tone as a question, such as “What?” The 4th tone sounds angry.

Erdogan Seref Premium Student December 22, 2021 at 5:47 am

I have problems reading the sentences because it’s too much at once for me. I have to think about how to pronounce each word carefully.

deemomo Premium Student March 31, 2020 at 2:16 pm

1st and 3rd tone are easy. Going to have to do a ton of practice to be able to differentiate between 2nd and 4th. Some is more obvious and other times it’s super hard to tell. Does it get easier with time to tell the difference?

Oktay_Tuna Premium Student August 10, 2020 at 11:36 am

I have the same problem, especially with the 2nd tone. I think it is easier to differentiate 4th tone because it is shorter to pronounce

Fonzie! Premium Student November 16, 2020 at 3:44 pm

Same here; they sound a lot alike to me but listening to the length of the tone helps! The 4th tone is supposed to be shorter, after all!

Omid Burgin Premium Student August 7, 2021 at 3:39 am

When I first did an exercise like this one, I was not getting them all correctly and had the same issues. I’ve been in China now 9 months, listening daily to conversations, which I don’t understand. But: I did develop an ear for it, as I’m not getting them all correctly. So yes, it gets easier with time.

thatc0der Premium Student December 3, 2019 at 12:06 pm

These are hard to pick up. Especially in the quizzes. Some are more obvious than others.

mtrpop3 Premium Student December 26, 2017 at 9:55 am

Here I missed 2 2, though in the sentence méi yǒu ná píng guǒ hé niú nǎi it did occur by accident in the hé niú. Is there a special reason for not covering repeated same tones (other than 3 3 later)?

3rd Tone + 3rd Tone is one of the most important Tone Changes in Chinese pronunciation, if not the most important. If we speak without the Tone Change for 3rd Tone + 3rd Tone, then it’s incorrect, but with 2nd Tone + 2nd Tone, if we speak with the exact same pitch range for both syllables, it would not be considered incorrect. That is why for repetition of same Tones, we only cover the ones where Tone Change has to be involved.

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