Layer 3 · Tones (声调)

Four tones + the neutral on a five-level pitch scale

Mandarin is tonal: the same "ma" with four different pitch contours is four different words. The chart below draws each tone's pitch path on a 1 (low) → 5 (high) scale. Use the slow audio to feel the glide before you read along.

Five pitch contours

Hear each tone, then hear it again slowly

Do not memorize tone numbers. Memorize the shape of the movement: tone 1 sits flat and high, tone 2 climbs, tone 3 dips and flicks back up, tone 4 drops hard.

Five-level pitch scale: tone 1 flat at 5; tone 2 climbs 3→5; tone 3 dips 2→1→4; tone 4 falls 5→1; the neutral tone is short with no contour of its own.

Tone sandhi (变调)

Three sandhi rules worth memorizing

In flowing speech some tones change so the mouth does not stumble. Hear each pair first — let your ear catch the pattern before reading the rule.

Illustration of the pitch contours of the Mandarin tones

Do not drill tones on a single syllable

Repeating "mā, má, mǎ, mà" back to back makes your pitch drift, because your mouth never changes shape. Swap the initial between rounds (mā → bā → dā) so your ear locks onto the movement of the pitch rather than the specific sound. Then put tones back onto real syllables in the matrix, and read them aloud on the practice page so the score can tell you the truth.