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
本
root
Press Hear it, then Hold to say.
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.
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: whole sentences, your pitch over the narrator’s. Listening practice: type what you hear, every word checked. Pinyin trainer: name the tones you hear. Pinyin test: twenty words, one score. Tone pair chart: all 20 pairs, a word to hear for each. Pinyin chart: every syllable, all four tones. 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.