---
title: "Mandarin Third Tone Practice: Say It, See Your Pitch | Mandarin The WildYour pitch over the speaker’s"
description: "Free Mandarin third tone practice with your voice: hear a real word, say it, and see your pitch over a native speaker’s. 409 HSK 1–4 words, and how the third tone is said (it dips low)."
canonical: "https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone"
author: "Mandarin The Wild"
---

[Tone practice](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice) · 3

# Third tone practice

The third tone dips 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

电脑

diàn nǎo

computer

PanggeYou

Voice

Syllables

Words

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

## How the third tone is said

Go down to the bottom of your voice and stay there: 好 hǎo, 我 wǒ. Said alone or at the end of a sentence it comes back up a little at the end. Before another tone it stays low and doesn’t come back up (米饭 mǐfàn), and before another third tone it is said as a second: 你好 is written nǐ hǎo and said ní hǎo.

## The usual mistake

A big dip and rise in the middle of a phrase. Most third tones are just low: think “low”, not “dip”, and let your voice go deep, even a little creaky. Say the full dip only when the word is alone or last.

## Words to start with

All 409 words here have the third tone. Pick one to say it now.

- [百 bǎi hundred](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E7%99%BE)
- [本 běn root](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E6%9C%AC)
- [点 diǎn point](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E7%82%B9)
- [狗 gǒu dog](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E7%8B%97)
- [很 hěn very](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E5%BE%88)
- [口 kǒu mouth](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E5%8F%A3)
- [电脑 diàn nǎo computer](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E7%94%B5%E8%84%91)
- [电影 diàn yǐng movie](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E7%94%B5%E5%BD%B1)
- [好看 hǎo kàn good-looking](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E5%A5%BD%E7%9C%8B)
- [好玩 hǎo wán fun](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E5%A5%BD%E7%8E%A9)
- [饺子 jiǎo zi dumpling](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E9%A5%BA%E5%AD%90)
- [可以 ké yǐ can](https://mandarinthewild.com/tone-practice/third-tone?word=%E5%8F%AF%E4%BB%A5)

## Questions

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

The third tone dips low. Go down to the bottom of your voice and stay there: 好 hǎo, 我 wǒ. Said alone or at the end of a sentence it comes back up a little at the end.

### Why does my third tone sound wrong?

It dips and rises too much. In most words a third tone is simply low; save the rise for a word said alone or at the end.

## 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.