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How to pronounce 少年

Its characters sit above it. Words that use it sit below. Select one to go there.

shào少nián年early youth; youngster

How to pronounce

in Mandarin Chinese

shào少nián年

early youth; youngster

HSK 4

Synthesized Mandarin audio · Vivian voice

shàoFourth toneniánSecond tone

Hear the difference

A syllable has a shape.

Tone marks show how pitch changes. Colors help you follow each syllable in the app.

ā First toneHigh and level
á Second toneRising
ǎ Third toneLow, then rising in isolation
à Fourth toneFalling
a Neutral toneShort and light

These are dictionary tones. In natural speech, tones can change with context. A third tone often stays low before another syllable.

Dictionary and example sources

Definitions adapt CC-CEDICT through HSK 3.0, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Definitions are shortened for study.

Examples include Lock In original sentences and the Tatoeba Project, under CC BY 2.0 France. Chinese text is normalized to simplified characters. Pinyin follows the study dictionary.