Chinese Basics for VIPKID Teachers: Pinyin, Consonant Pronunciation
November 06, 2017For the most part, it's easy. There's no real tricks or absurdity like there are when trying to read English! However, you do need to learn how each letter is pronounced, as some of them are not quite as a native North American English speaker would read them.
Pronounced the same as in English: 👍
- f
- k
- l
- m
- n
- p
- s
- t
Pronounced *almost* the same as in English: ☝
- b (voiceless, may sound like a 'p' to beginners)
- d (voiceless, may sound like a 't' to beginners)
- g (voiceless, may sound like a 'k' to beginners)
- h (sometimes pronounced further back in the throat, making it sound 'raspy')
NOT Pronounced as in English!~!!!: ✋
- c (pronounced "ts" as in cats)
- z (pronounced "dz" as in kids, with the d unvoiced)
- x (pronounced like "sh" but with the tip of your tongue below your lower front teeth and the middle of your tongue should rise up to the roof of your mouth. It's not a sound we have in English, so it takes some practice to get used to!)
- q (basically like the "x" sound above, but with a slight "t" sound in front, like txi)
- j (pronounced like the English "j" but with the tip of your tongue below your lower front teeth again)
Unvoiced (aka voiceless) consonants are those that don't use your vocal cords to make sound, it's only your tongue, lips and teeth, like the English sounds "s", "sh", and "th" (for example).
Retroflex sounds: 👅
In addition to that last batch of letters, there are some others that are exceptionally different from their English equivalents, and that's because they are retroflex.
Mandarin Chinese has several retroflex sounds. That means you'll need to point the tip of your tongue up to the center of the top of your mouth (see image below)
Here are the sounds that are retroflex in Mandarin:
- r
- It sounds similar to a "j" or the 's' in 'pleasure' to English speakers-- but the tip of your tongue should point a little further back.
- Many native Chinese speakers can't hear a difference between a "r" and "j" sound when pronounced retroflex like this, though native English speakers can!
- ch
- Similar to the English "ch", but with your tongue in retroflex position!
- sh
- Similar to the English "sh", but with your tongue in retroflex position!
- zh
- Similar to the English "j", but with your tongue in retroflex position!
And there you have it! Consonant pronunciation in Pinyin. In the next part of this series we'll learn vowel pronunciation and start putting them together! :)
Pt. 2: Pinyin, Consonant Pronunciation
Pt. 3: Vowel Pronunciation
🍎🍏🍎🍏🍎,
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