Chinese Tones: The Four Tones of Mandarin
Mandarin Chinese has four tones plus a neutral tone, and the tone changes what a syllable means. mā (妈) is mother, má (麻) is hemp, mǎ (马) is horse and mà (骂) is to scold.
Tap a tone to hear it.
By Haoshan HongNative Mandarin speakerUpdated October 2026
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Tone pairs: all 20 combinations in real words
Tones are easier to hear in pairs than alone. Each word below is HSK 1 or 2, so you will meet it early. Rows are the first syllable's tone, columns the second. Tap any word.
Starts with the 1st tone
Starts with the 2nd tone
Starts with the 3rd tone
Starts with the 4th tone
Which tone is it? Train your ear
40 syllables in all four tones, or the 20 words from the grid. Your score stays on this device. On a keyboard, press 1 to 4 to answer and Enter for the next sound.
- Streak
- 0
- Best
- 0
- Right
- –
You hear one syllable. Pick its tone: 1, 2, 3 or 4.
Tone change rules (tone sandhi)
Three syllables change tone depending on what follows: the third tone, 不 and 一. Pinyin is written with the original tone, so you have to know the rule.
3 + 3 → 2 + 3
Two third tones in a row: the first one rises like a second tone.
Half third before 1, 2, 4
Before any other tone, the third tone stays low and never comes back up.
不 bù → bú before a 4th tone
不 is 4th tone, except before another 4th tone, where it rises.
一 yī → yí or yì
一 rises (yí) before a 4th tone and falls (yì) before 1st, 2nd and 3rd. Alone, in numbers and dates it stays yī.
Why you can't hear tones yet, and how to practise
English uses pitch for mood and questions, never to change a word, so your ear files tone away as noise. It takes focused listening before the 2nd and 3rd tones stop sounding alike, and that pair is the most common mix-up.
- Minimal pairs. Contrast one syllable in four tones until the trainer above stops catching you. A few minutes every day is enough.
- Shadowing. Play a word from the grid, then say it straight back. Copy the melody first and the sounds second.
- Listen in context. In sentences, tones get shorter and flatter, and the third tone is nearly always the low half. You only learn that by listening to real speech.
Hear the tones in real Chinese stories
Fluentide's HSK 1 stories are slow, short and use only beginner words, so you can follow the tones inside whole sentences. Each has a transcript with pinyin and English.
