Tone pair chart · 3–N
Third + neutral tone words
All 12 HSK 1–4 words with a third tone then a neutral tone, each to hear in a female or male voice. Tap a word to hear it, again for slower.
The 12 words
How 3–N is said
The third tone stays low and doesn’t come back up, then the neutral tone is short and light. Its height comes from the tone before it: after a third tone it sits high, as in 饺子 jiǎo zi.
Questions
What are some third + neutral tone words?
饺子 (jiǎo zi, dumpling), 你们 (nǐ men, you), 晚上 (wǎn shang, evening), 我们 (wǒ men, we), 椅子 (yǐ zi, chair), 有的 (yǒu de, some). This page has all 12 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.