Tone Lesson 5 – The Third Tone – Original Full Third Tone

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CHINESE THIRD TONE: PRONUNCIATION 1 - ORIGINAL FULL THIRD TONE

The Chinese Third Tone is called 三声(sān shēng) in Chinese, literally meaning "the third sound". The Mandarin Pinyin Third Tone might need some extra practice than the other Tones, because it sometimes gets modified or changed in real life speaking. There are 3 ways in total to pronounce it:

In today's lesson we will be focusing on No.1 - the Original Full Third Tone.

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How to Pronounce Chinese Third Tone - Original Full Third Tone

As shown in the picture below, you start semi-high pitch, dips down, and then go up again. When speaking, if you finish the whole process of going down and then up again, you are pronouncing an Original Full Third Tone.

+Video Chinese Third Tone is also known as "the low dipping tone". In this lesson we'll practice Mandarin Pinyin Third Tone with tone pairs and sentences.
Chinese Third Tone: Pronunciation 1 - The Original Full Third Tone

Mandarin Pinyin Third Tone Pronunciation Drills

FIRST TONE + THIRD TONE

TONE PAIRS
PINYIN CHINESE ENGLISH
jī chǎng 机场 airport
kāi shǐ 开始 to start; to begin 
dōng běi  东北 northeast
gōng lǐ  公里 kilometer 
xīn kǔ  辛苦  hardworking 
SENTENCE
jī chǎng zài dōng běi sān gōng lǐ
机场在东北三公里。
The airport is 3 kilometers to the northeast.

SECOND TONE + THIRD TONE

TONE PAIRS
PINYIN CHINESE ENGLISH
rú guǒ  如果 if
hái yǒu  还有 still have 
cí diǎn  词典  dictionary 
pí jiǔ  啤酒  beer 
chéng yǔ  成语  Chinese idiom 
SENTENCE
rú guǒ hái yǒu chéng yǔ cí diǎn
如果还有成语词典。
If (I) still have a Chinese idiom dictionary.

FOURTH TONE + THIRD TONE

TONE PAIRS
PINYIN CHINESE ENGLISH
bào zhǐ 报纸 newspaper
dì tiě  地铁 subway 
lì shǐ  历史  history
shàng wǎng  上网 to go on the Internet
hàn yǔ  汉语  the Chinese language
SENTENCE
 wǒ shàng wǎng kàn hàn yǔ bào zhǐ
我上网看汉语报纸。
I read Chinese newspaper on the internet.
5 Comments
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lionsteve Premium Student September 1, 2020 at 3:58 am

a lot of words are hard to comprehend as they are spoken so slowly compared to when the word is spoken in daily Chinese.
I listen to yours and then I go to online dictionary to listen to normal speed version.
It is good to have it slow to begin, but also a version at normal spoken speed could be useful ? just a suggestion.
thanks for great and inspiring lessons 🙂

ChineseFor.Us Academic Team September 2, 2020 at 2:03 pm

Thanks for the suggestion. Normal speed is not provided because this course is for the purpose of pronunciation training where the only goal is for students to get acquainted with or improve pronunciation techniques like tongue and lips positions.

Each word is treated as syllables, as pronunciation units rather than vocabulary in conversation.

But we do provide normal speed in our structured courses where conversational skill is expected to be developed.

Sosena Bogale Premium Student August 21, 2020 at 6:11 pm

I’m not sure why, but I find the Third Tone much easier to distinguish than the rest. I’m struggling with the 4th Tone however. My ears cannot always tell the difference between the 4th and the 2nd tone. What can I do to improve on this?

  • Have you tried listen to 2nd tones and 4th tones, and seeing if you can at least match 2nd-with-2nd, and 4th-with-4th. I also have trouble assigning the label to rising and falling, but I think you might at least be able to distinguish the two, if not determine which is which.
Sosena Bogale Premium Student August 27, 2020 at 6:49 pm

I can tell them apart if I listen to a single word or so individually but when there are more than one word’s involved and both tones are used then I can’t tell them apart sometimes. I guess I’ll get better at it eventually.

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