Tone pair chart · 3–2
Third + second tone words
All 49 HSK 1–4 words with a third tone then a second tone, each to hear in a female or male voice. Tap a word to hear it, again for slower.
The 49 words
How 3–2 is said
Before a second tone, the third tone stays low and doesn’t come back up; then the second tone rises from mid to high: 起床 qǐ chuáng.
Questions
What are some third + second tone words?
起床 (qǐ chuáng, to get up), 好玩 (hǎo wán, fun), 女儿 (nǚ ér, daughter), 小时 (xiǎo shí, hour), 小学 (xiǎo xué, elementary school), 可能 (kě néng, maybe). This page has all 49 on the HSK 1 to 4 lists that we have checked recordings of.
How many tone pairs are there in Mandarin?
Twenty. Each of the four tones can be followed by any of the four, which makes 16, and each can be followed by the neutral tone, which makes 4 more.
Practise the pairs
Pinyin test: one word for each of the 20 pairs, one score. Tone practice: say a word and see your tones over a native speaker’s. Pinyin trainer: more of the pairs you miss until they stick.
Voices by ElevenLabs, the same two as the app’s word cards.