怎么不一样呢? (or: on 变调, aka tone shifts)

[presumenothing]

(Or whatever the proper English term for this phenomenon is. Because sometimes you're just minding your own business and then suddenly it turns out that Pronunciation Is A Lie.)

Information as primarily sourced from this article with supplementary info from Baidu, because I 100% could not articulate these rules in any formal way even if you made me.

Very Important Note: While I'm writing out the tones-as-pronounced here for clarity, note that these changes are typically NOT reflected in written pinyin! Only change them aloud! Use their original pinyin in writing! 重要的事情说三遍

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#1: why 你好 is not, in fact, nǐ hǎo

Because it'd be a right [bleep] to pronounce, if you ask me.

General rule of thumb: third tone + third tone = second tone + third tone, i.e. 你好 = ní hǎo and not nǐ hǎo. Similarly, 语法 is read yú instead of yǔ, despite what dictionary might try to convince you of. And in the name of providing a soundtrack, the 给 in 借给我一盒火柴 is géi and not gěi due to the 我 following it. (As for 一盒 and 火柴…… well, keep reading…)

This also extends to longer words (just try pronouncing 小老虎 without changing it to láo, it's Literally Impossible).

…however! If third tone #2 has been changed to 轻声/neutral(/fifth??) tone, an exception applies in some cases, aka "do not 姐姐 as jié jiě". Third tone #1 here goes down without ever coming back up, stock market crash style. (Baidu also notes 椅子 as an instance of this, which is totally correct except that I never do remember to 轻声 the 子 when speaking, sooooooo)

This 📉 tone also generally applies for third tone + first/second/fourth/neutral tone; the first word in 北京, 海洋, 土地, and 宝贝 are all read with down-only instead of the "full" third tone.

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#2: the myriad pronunciations of 一

So we all know how 一 is yī and all?

…yeah, haha. Nope! At least for most use cases in actual speech.

• Used in isolation, or at the end of a word: yī (唯一)
• As an ordinal number: yī (一号, 第一, 初一)
• In numbers, including phones/dates etc: still yī
• 一 + first/second/third tone: yì (一般, 一年, 一起)
• 一 + fourth tone: yí (一样, 一位, 一次, 一下子, 一块儿)
• Sandwiched between two repeating verbs: neutral tone (试一试, 想一想, 看一看)
• Sandwiched between non-repeating nouns/verbs: typically also neutral tone (去一趟, 好一点儿, 贵一些)

(Side note that the 儿s above are all 儿化音, and should be read kuair/dianr etc and not as its own syllable.)

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#3: to quote hamlet act III, scene iii, line 92: 不

Alternative heading: why 毛不易 is not read bù but bú. (Further alternative heading: 👻 bù!)

This is the simplest of the lot, promise.

• Used in isolation, or at the end of a word: bù (at last, a recognisable pattern!)
• 不 + first/second/third tone: still bù, yay (不高, 不同, 不少)
• 不 + fourth tone: bú (不要, 不错, 不认识)
• Sandwich mode: neutral tone (起不来, 说不定, 差不多, and also repeating ones like 能不能, 会不会, 认识不认识)

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Aaaaand this is already long enough as it is – I can probably drop some instances of Zhou Shen being Very Accurate at pronunciation examples in context if anyone needs 'em (freebie: 借给我一盒火柴 is pronounced "jiè géi wǒ yì hé huo(down) chái", for starters).

ETA: See comments for more clarifications! And as also noted below, regional differences do still apply here (when don't they?) so don't be surprised if you hear differences in actual usage, this is basically BBC-English-but-Chinese standard rules as laid out here.

Comments

[sasamelons]

Ooh thanks for putting this together, this is super interesting! I totally did not even consciously realize that 变调 was a thing, I just did it. This also explains why the few times I've run across names/came up with names for OCs that are third tone-third tone, I always found them to be very awkward.

Also, not to confuse things for people who are learning with non-standard Mandarin, but this reminded me of regional differences as well. In my accent (for Mandarin, not my dialect but which I'm sure is heavily influenced by my dialect), we generally do #1 as you've noted here, but we use a lot of first tones for #2 and #3. Actually we basically never use neutral tone lol — for example, 姐姐 is pronounced jiějiē and 爸爸 is pronounced bàbǎ.

[trobadora]

THANK YOU for this overview! This is much clearer than most summaries I've seen. ♥

I think the linguistic term in English is tone sandhi. and so far every time I've looked at the parts about 一 and 不 I felt my brain start turning itself into knots. At least the third tone thing is reasonably straightforward!

[laireshi]

I never quite know what to do with multiple third tones together, like, if it's more than two...
This also extends to longer words (just try pronouncing 小老虎 without changing it to láo, it's Literally Impossible).
So does it mean we go second tone until the last third tone which remains as third?

Also, what about sentences? Like... 我想买手机, also all second tone until 手?

[elenothar]

So. Helpful. Thank you!

Follow up question, this bit:

This 📉 tone also generally applies for third tone + first/second/fourth/neutral tone; the first word in 北京, 海洋, 土地, and 宝贝 are all read with down-only instead of the "full" third tone.

So basically, what's happening is that any word that starts with third tone, you either tone sandhi or neutral tone it?

[presumenothing]

I think third-third was only 变调 I was specifically taught? Or at least it was the only one I was consciously aware of before this.

And you raise a good point about names – wonder if you'd see a trend on which tone combinations are preferred/more common if you did an IRL survey? Third-second for two-character first names is definitely used, but I can't think of any third-third examples off the top of my head…

Also, not to confuse things for people who are learning with non-standard Mandarin,

LOL same thoughts exactly, and also 100% mood on the "what is neutral tone?? don't know her" local variations – we do jiějiē and bàbǎ also (and sometimes even jiějié / bǎbá, which I'm pretty sure is Hokkien influence). For #2 and #3 we tend to go wild on making everything fourth tone instead, and tbh also for first tones in general. Possibly makes us sound very 激动 24/7 😂

On reflection it's probably all these small differences added up that make any Mainland speaker, regardless of their specific region, immediately stand out from a mile away (along with the communication difficulties for locals not used to their accents…)

[presumenothing]

Oh hey, Sanskrit word, explains why my kneejerk reaction was "that sounds Buddhist ??" LOL

Honestly I think the third tone changes are probably the most important/dare-I-say-universal ones of the lot – as I observed to sasa above, our local usage doesn't even follow the 一 and 不 rules, unless (probably) if you dropped me under formal/exam conditions…

[presumenothing]

In cases where 3 breaks down neatly into 1+2 or 2+1, and cribbing examples off Wikipedia:

• 小老虎 (小+老虎) = xiǎo láo hǔ
• 老保管 (老+保管) = lǎo báo guǎn
• 保管好 (保管+好) = báo guán hǎo

(important ETA: the third tones marked here and below are actually the down-only tones, NOT full third tones, unless they're at the end)

Anything longer than that and there isn't always one clear "correct" answer, imo, and tbh it's also easy to end up tripping over too many third tones in a row! Goodness knows I do it often enough. Probably the main rule of thumb would still be to break it up into components and change tones accordingly + secondary note that when speaking quickly, third tone tends to get dropped in favour of second.

(By which I mean I'd answer 我想买手机 as wǒ xiáng mǎi shǒu jī on a test, but in practice I'd probably say wǒ xiáng mái shǒu jī? Which sounds weird when slowed down, but I only ever speak at bullet train speeds, so…)

[presumenothing]

So basically, what's happening is that any word that starts with third tone, you either tone sandhi or neutral tone it?

I'm sure there ARE exceptions, because when are there not, but generally yes to "you basically never end up starting a word on the third tone, at least playing by Mainland Standard™️ rules". Third tone starter = either second tone or half-third-down-only, depending on what's next (not neutral tone though, that only occurs on second or subsequent characters, if it applies)

[laireshi]

Oh, thank you!

By which I mean I'd answer 我想买手机 as wǒ xiáng mǎi shǒu jī on a test, but in practice I'd probably say wǒ xiáng mái shǒu jī
Oh, so, just to clarify--you can have two third tones together? Well, half-tones here...

[elenothar]

Oh yeah, I phrased that badly - I thought you get third tone + neutral on the subsequent character. Honestly, I'm not at all sure about my ability to distinguish something like 'half-third-down', but hey, still good to know.

[presumenothing]

Yup, two consecutive third tones can end up happening across different words, depending on the overall sentence (and how it breaks down semantically?) – though I suspect most native speakers would unconsciously try to avoid it where possible? Simply because it's a pain to say at speed.

[presumenothing]

• Half third: the first 姐 on this audio and here
• Actual third: audio for 姐 by itself, and a less exaggerated version on Pleco's entry for 姐

I thiiink it's relatively audible how the second one has the tone come back up while the first doesn't? Also contrast this with the entry for 姐姐 on Pleco, which doesn't reflect the tone sandhi and therefore sounds Weird As Heck.

Anyway unlike z/zh or n/ng differences it's not really a case where you need to distinguish it for correct meaning, at least, so more a speaking than listening thing.

[elenothar]

All right, yes, I can hear the difference when it's presented on its own like that (doesn't, alas, mean that I would be able to distinguish in a sentence said at normal speed). I suspect in my own speaking I don't properly do the actual third tone anyway, which I should... work on...

[laireshi]

I can hear the difference when it's presented on its own like that (doesn't, alas, mean that I would be able to distinguish in a sentence said at normal speed)
The biggest mood.

[laireshi]

Gotcha -- thank you for explaining!

[elenothar]

It's always so disappointing when you think you've had a break through in language class/study and then it turns out that in the real world you still know squat (sigh). All part of the learning process, I know, but still... frustrating.