Tone Lesson 9 – Chinese Tone Change Rule: Half 3rd Tone (2)
CHINESE THIRD TONE: PRONUNCIATION 3 - HALF THIRD TONE
There are three ways to pronounce the Chinese Pinyin Third Tone:
- Original Full Third Tone Lesson 5
- Third Tone becomes Second Tone Lesson 6 Lesson 7
- Half Third Tone Lesson 8 Lesson 9
Today we will practice more about the Half Third Tone, so we can speak more comfortably and naturally with this Mandarin Tones change rule.
Original Full Third Tone VS. Half Third Tone
We already know that for 2-syllable words, when the Third Tone is the last syllable, we pronounce it as the Full Third Tone. And when it's the first syllable, there are two situations: (1) if syllable 2 is the Third Tone, the first Third Tone changes into the Second Tone; (2) if syllable 2 is the First, the Second or the Fourth Tone, the first Third Tones is pronounced as a Half Third Tone.
So when we have a 3-syllable word. With the Tones like below, the syllable marked in red and underlined is pronounced as Half Third Tone.
| TONE COMBINATION | 3rd + 1st +3rd | 3rd + 2nd +3rd | 3rd + 4th +3rd |
|---|---|---|---|
| EXAMPLE | nǎ gēn nǎ | zǒu méi zǒu | hǎo bù hǎo |
| TONE CHANGE | Half 3rd + 1st + Full 3rd | Half 3rd + 2nd + Full 3rd | Half 3rd + 4th + Full 3rd |
Mandarin Pinyin Third Tone Pronunciation Drills
The Half Third Tone syllable will be marked in red and underlined as shown in the "TONE CHANGE" column. All other Tones do not change and are pronounced in the original way.
HALF THIRD TONE + FIRST TONE + FULL THIRD TONE
| TONE GROUPS | ||
|---|---|---|
| PĪNYĪN | 汉字 | TONE CHANGE (ǎ) |
| lǎo shī zǎo | 老师早 | lǎo shī zǎo |
| shǒu jī lǐ | 手机里 | shǒu jī lǐ |
| zǔ zhī hǎo | 组织好 | zǔ zhī hǎo |
HALF THIRD TONE + SECOND TONE + FULL THIRD TONE
| TONE GROUPS | ||
|---|---|---|
| PĪNYĪN | 汉字 | TONE CHANGE (ǎ) |
| kě néng yǒu | 可能有 | kě néng yǒu |
| nǐ bié xiě | 你别写 | nǐ bié xiě |
| jiǎn chá zǔ | 检查组 | jiǎn chá zǔ |
HALF THIRD TONE + FOURTH TONE + FULL THIRD TONE
| TONE GROUPS | ||
|---|---|---|
| PINYIN | 汉字 | TONE CHANGE (ǎ) |
| pǎo bù liǎo | 跑不了 | pǎo bù liǎo |
| tǐ yù guǎn | 体育馆 | tǐ yù guǎn |
| zuǒ yòu shǒu | 左右手 | zuǒ yòu shǒu |
I don’t know if you still read these but you guys make me feel like Chinese is accessible to learn when it felt so daunting to start. I hope to become at least partially able to converse in Chinese and I appreciate how well done these feel.
Thank you so much for your comment and words of encouragement. We’re so glad you enjoy the lessons! As long as you keep up the good work we know you’ll be conversing in Chinese in no time!
Greetings from a singing teacher from Germany! For me there’re two ways of identifying the half third tone:
Maybe that helps 😉
this is so hard for me, I cannot tell which is the half third tone , and I also can’t recognise the 2nd and 4th tone. this is a lesson I have to practice a lot more
I was doing good up until this point. It’s like I cant recognize the half third tone much at all. I read it helps thinking of it as low and flat even though it does fall. Is that true?
This lesson is very useful thanks alot
I can’t seem to recognise 1/2 third tone at all. I did OK on the other quiz’s but I can’t pass this one. Should I do the pinyin drills before this course?
Thanks
What helped me:
When I repeated it as close as possible, I could feel my voice physically dipping. Hope that helps. 🙂
Thanks Omid. I scored well on my first attempt by following your advice.