Chinese tone analyzer

How to read it

The line is the voice’s pitch over time, drawn from the speaker’s own middle (the dashed line in the centre), each dashed line five semitones apart: up is higher, down is lower, gaps are silence or sounds with no pitch (like s or sh). A first tone is a high level line, a second rises, a third dips low, a fourth falls. Tap anywhere on the line to hear that moment.

Compare with a native speaker

Open a clip in the top box (a line from a show, a teacher’s voice note, a podcast) and record yourself saying it in the bottom one. The two lines are drawn on the same scale, so a fourth tone that doesn’t fall far enough or a third tone that never gets low shows at a glance.

Files and privacy

Open an audio or video file (MP3, M4A, WAV, MP4 and most others your browser plays); the first 30 seconds are drawn. Recordings and files are read on your device and never uploaded.

Questions

Is this like Praat?

It draws the same thing Praat shows for tones, the pitch of the voice over time, in your browser with nothing to install, scaled to the speaker’s own range so a deep and a high voice can be compared.

Why does my line have gaps?

Pitch only exists while the voice is buzzing. Consonants like s, sh, x and f, pauses and whispers have none, so the line stops there. A very low, creaky third tone can drop out too.

More free tools

• Tone practice: say a real word and get each tone judged
• Shadowing: say real sentences along with native narrators
• Tone pair chart
• Minimal pairs