---
title: "Mandarin Fourth Tone Practice: Say It, See Your Pitch | Mandarin The WildYour pitch over the speaker’s"
description: "Free Mandarin fourth tone practice with your voice: hear a real word, say it, and see your pitch over a native speaker’s. 713 HSK 1–4 words, and how the fourth tone is said (it falls from high to low)."
canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone"
author: "Mandarin The Wild"
---

[Tone practice](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice) · 4

# Fourth tone practice

The fourth tone falls from high to low. Hear a word with it, say it, and see your pitch drawn over a native speaker’s.

Streak 0

Two syllables · HSK 1–2

没事

méi shì

it doesn't matter

PanggeYou

Voice

Syllables

Words

Your voice stays on this device. Nothing is recorded or sent.

## How the fourth tone is said

Start high and drop fast, as in a firm English “No!”: 是 shì, 去 qù. It is short and strong. Before another fourth tone, the first falls only half way: 睡觉 shuìjiào.

## The usual mistake

Starting in the middle, so it falls only a little and sounds flat. Start at the top of your voice and fall all the way down.

## Words to start with

All 713 words here have the fourth tone. Pick one to say it now.

- [爱 ài to love](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E7%88%B1)
- [半 bàn half](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E5%8D%8A)
- [病 bìng illness](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E7%97%85)
- [不 bù not](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E4%B8%8D)
- [菜 cài vegetable](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E8%8F%9C)
- [唱 chàng to sing](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E5%94%B1)
- [爸爸 bà ba dad](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E7%88%B8%E7%88%B8)
- [超市 chāo shì supermarket](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E8%B6%85%E5%B8%82)
- [大家 dà jiā everyone](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E5%A4%A7%E5%AE%B6)
- [大学 dà xué university](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E5%A4%A7%E5%AD%A6)
- [弟弟 dì di younger brother](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E5%BC%9F%E5%BC%9F)
- [电话 diàn huà telephone](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/fourth-tone?word=%E7%94%B5%E8%AF%9D)

## Questions

### How do you say the fourth tone in Mandarin?

The fourth tone falls from high to low. Start high and drop fast, as in a firm English “No!”: 是 shì, 去 qù. It is short and strong.

### Why does my fourth tone sound wrong?

It starts too low, so it barely falls. Start at the top of your voice and drop all the way.

## More free tools

[Chinese shadowing](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-shadowing): whole sentences, your pitch over the narrator’s. [Listening practice](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-listening-practice): type what you hear, every word checked. [Pinyin trainer](https://mandarinthewild.com/pinyin-trainer): name the tones you hear. [Pinyin test](https://mandarinthewild.com/pinyin-test): twenty words, one score. [Tone pair chart](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-pairs): all 20 pairs, a word to hear for each. [Pinyin chart](https://mandarinthewild.com/pinyin-chart): every syllable, all four tones. [Chinese tongue twisters](https://mandarinthewild.com/chinese-tongue-twisters): the tones at speed.

Voices by ElevenLabs, the same two as the app’s word cards. The pitch check is ours and runs in your browser.