How to say duan

duan in its 3 tones, said in a female or a male voice. Tap a tone to hear it.

duan

Tap a tone to hear it; tap it again to hear it slower.

Voice

How to say it

d: Like the t in “stop”: no puff of air. To an English ear it sounds close to d.

Its tones

duān 端 end · duǎn 短 short · duàn 段 classifier for sections. duán isn’t used in standard Mandarin. The pinyin trainer practices telling them apart in real words.

Sounds near it

Learners often mix duan up with these. Listen to them one after the other.

tuan

Words with duan

段duànsection
短duǎnshort
短裤duǎnkùshorts
锻炼duànliànto exercise
不断búduàncontinuously
短信duǎnxìntext message
判断pànduànto judge
断duànto break
打断dǎduànto interrupt
短处duǎnchùshortcoming
短期duǎnqīshort-term
阶段jiēduànstage

The voices are generated speech (ElevenLabs), the same two the app’s word cards use, each tone said as one real word. The words are from the official HSK list (the exam’s 2025 syllabus), easiest first. Every syllable is on the pinyin chart.