Tone Lesson 14 – Chinese Tone Change Rule: Character 一 (yī)

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MANDARIN CHINESE CHARACTER Yi 一 TONE CHANGE

In today's video lesson we will learn and practice Mandarin Chines Character Yi 一 Tone Change. It is not a complicated Tone change. There are only three ways of pronunciation for character Yi 一, the First Tone, the Second Tone, or the Fourth Tone. Watch and practice along with this video and you'll be comfortable pronouncing Yi 一 in no time!

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Mandarin Chinese Character Yi 一 Tone Change

There are three ways to pronounce Chinese character Yi 一.

(1) When 一 is by itself, meaning "the mathematical number one", it is pronounced in the First Tone "".

In this video lesson we'll learn and practice the Mandarin Chinese Character Yi 一 Tone Change. There are three ways of pronunciations for the character Yi.
Character Yi 一 By Itself

(2) When Character Yi 一 goes before the First, the Second and the Third Tone, it is pronounced in the Fourth Tone ""; (3) When Character Yi 一 goes before the Fourth Tone, it is pronounced in the Second Tone "".

In this video lesson we'll learn and practice the Mandarin Chinese Character Yi 一 Tone Change. There are three ways of pronunciations for the character Yi.
Character Yi 一 in the Fourth Tone before the First Tone

In this video lesson we'll learn and practice the Mandarin Chinese Character Yi 一 Tone Change. There are three ways of pronunciations for the character Yi.
Character Yi 一 in the Fourth Tone before the Second Tone

In this video lesson we'll learn and practice the Mandarin Chinese Character Yi 一 Tone Change. There are three ways of pronunciations for the character Yi.
Character Yi 一 in the Fourth Tone before the Third Tone

In this video lesson we'll learn and practice the Mandarin Chinese Character Yi 一 Tone Change. There are three ways of pronunciations for the character Yi.
Character Yi 一 in the Second Tone before the Fourth Tone

Mandarin Chinese Character Yi 一 Tone Change

Please watch the video and practice the following Tone change exercises.

NO.1 2-syllable Words

 

Practice Chinese Character Yi 一 Tone Change with Tone Pairs

PINYIN 汉字
yì xīn 一心
yì héng 一横
yì yǔ 一语
yí wàn 一万

 

NO.2 4-syllable Words

 

In the following Tone Groups, Character Yi 一 are pronounced in two ways:  and .

GROUP 1

PINYIN 汉字
yì xīn yí yì 一心一意
yì jiā yí jì 一家一计
yì zhōu yí fàn 一粥一饭
yì bān yí bèi 一班一辈

 

GROUP 2

PINYIN 汉字
yì nián yí miàn 一年一面
yì mú yí yàng 一模一样
yì dá yí wèn 一答一问
yì lái yí qù 一来一去

 

>GROUP 3

Be careful that the Third Tone in Group 3 are all pronounced in the Half Third Tone.

PINYIN 汉字
yì shǒu yí gè 一手一个
yì zǎo yí cì 一早一次
yì cǎo yí mù 一草一木
yì bǎi yí wàn 一百一万

 

GROUP 4

PINYIN 汉字
yí gòng yí cì 一共一次
yí chàng yí tiào 一唱一跳
yí dòng yí jìng 一动一静
yí rì yí yè 一日一夜

 

7 Comments
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RC13 Premium Student August 31, 2022 at 2:43 pm

Can someone tell me why in the quiz, on questions 1 and 3, why didn’t the “yi” change tones?
My theory is that yi here is a stand-alone word and not combined with other syllables to form a word

please someone answer

Antony Lao Premium Student February 26, 2021 at 4:31 pm

About the quiz, why is sometimes yi in the first tone even though it’s followed by another character? Is it because the meaning is ‘one’ in those cases?

Mahdi kadiri Premium Student June 26, 2021 at 6:50 am

Yes true

DeZean Premium Student December 15, 2021 at 4:00 am

I have the same question

RC13 Premium Student August 31, 2022 at 2:44 pm

thats what im guessing is the answer, is that yi is one word there

ChineseFor.Us Academic Team June 20, 2020 at 10:41 pm

Sorry for the confusion of the pronunciation of 一(yī). These four-character words are 成语(chéngyǔ, idioms). They function as words in modern Chinese, but the characters in a idioms can be treated independently. 成语 will be explained in our future courses.

ValerieTong23 Premium Student June 23, 2020 at 1:40 pm

ok thanks very much

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