How to pronounce
in Mandarin Chinese
sīFirst tonekǎoThird tone
Hear it in conversation
shì是wǒ我men们zuì最shú熟xī悉de的sī思kǎo考fāng方shì式
It is the way of thinking we are most familiar with
nà那這邊yǒu有rén人jiù就tí提chū出le了lìng另yī一gè個sī思kǎo考de的fāng方xiàng向
Select a word for its meaning.
See it in a sentence.
,。
The woman observes and the man thinks.
Let me think for a while.
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.