Pinyin Lesson 4 – Initials: g k h
Chinese Pinyin Initials: g k h
In this Pinyin video lesson we only have three Chinese Pinyin Initials g k h. Initials in this group are called “Velars”, which means you need to involve your “soft palate” in order to pronounce them. Watch this video lesson and find out all the tricks to get the pronunciation right!
LESSON INFO
KEYWORDS
- Chinese Pinyin Initials
- g
- k
- h
LESSON NOTES
Chinese Pinyin Initials
Initials g h k are called “Velars”, which means you need to involve your “soft palate” in order to pronounce them. Just in case you’re wondering, when comparing the “hard palate” with the “soft palate” is that the soft palate is closer to the back of your throat where your tonsils are.
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k
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h
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I’m finding it hard to remember the tongue positions for the finals and initials
Don’t worry, the tongue position tips are here for guidance when a student is first introduced to these sounds. Once a student knows how to correctly pronounce the sound, and practice it and get used to it, it should become a natural instinct without thinking about where to position the tongue.
i am having a very hard time pronouncing these with my tongue touching my soft palate — i keep finding that my tongue ends up at medium height (as if i was pronouncing the finals o and e). maybe part of it is that im not clear how far towards the back in my mouth the soft palate actually is. i tried looking it up in an anatomy book and also watching Lili’s mouth extra carefully when she says them, but neither of those strategies seemed to help me at all
Also, the instruction to keep the tip of my tongue relaxed while it is touching my soft palate is even harder for me to follow.
Any advice, explanations or suggestions would be very much appreciated.
Thank you for these courses, they are rally great.
I am coming from the “
CROSSED OUT BRAND NAME” app which was great for learning vocabulary but was lacking in building up good pronunciation fundamentals. My Chinese girlfriend always told me my pronunciation is off. After only a few of these pinyin drill and learning how to position the mouth and tongue she said my pronunciation is so much better. Can’t wait to make my way to the HSK 2 lessons. 🙂谢谢,
小丹