WHAT DOES CHINESE SOUND LIKE TO A NON-NATIVE SPEAKER?
Today I'm gonna try and teach you how to understand and interpret some basic phonics in Chinese. This isn’t a strict Mandarin pronunciation guide, but it’s a general idea on how to pronounce some Chinese words.
The ‘X’ and ‘Z’ sounds are particularly hard consonants to get right, but the vowels are where it gets even harder, not just because of the tones, but also because of the inconsistencies.
CONSONANTS IN MANDARIN CHINESE
'C' is pronounced similarly to the English /ts/ in ‘its', like this word [Láncāng River - 澜沧江], it's "Láncāng".
'Q' is pronounced similarly to the English /ʧ/ in ‘chair', like this word [Qín - 秦], it's "Qín".
'X' is pronounced like a blend of the English /ʃ/ in 'she', and the /s/ in ‘see’, like this word [Xī'ān - 西安], it's "Xī'ān".
'Z' is pronounced similarly to the English /dz/ in ‘lads', like this word [Jiǎozi - 饺子], it's "Jiǎozi".
'Zh' is pronounced similarly to the English /ʤ/ in ‘Joe', like this word [Zhāng - 张], it's "Zhāng".
‘W’ is often not really pronounced at all, like in this word [Wǔ - 五], it’s “Wǔ”.
VOWELS IN MANDARIN CHINESE
'A' is pronounced similarly to the British English /ɑː/ in ‘car’, like this word [Hán - 韩], it’s “Hán”.
‘Ai’ is pronounced similarly to the English /aɪ/ in ‘aisle’, like this word [Tàishān - 泰山], it’s “Tàishān”.
‘E’ is pronounced similarly to the English /ʊ/ in ‘book’, like in this word [Héběi - 河北], it’s “Héběi”.
‘En’ is pronounced similarly to the English ‘ɒ’, like in ‘on’.But ‘Eng’ is pronounced similarly to the English /ʌ/ in ‘sun’, like in this word [Děng - 等], it’s “Děng”.
‘O’ is pronounced similarly to the British English /ɔː/ in ‘law’, like in this word [Bó hǎi - 博海], it’s “Bó hǎi”.
‘Ou’ is pronounced similarly to the English /əʊ/ in ‘so’, like in this word [Zhōu- 周], it’s “Zhōu”.
‘Yu’ is pronounced like a blend between the English /j/ in ‘you’, and /r/ in ‘red’, like in this word [Yuán - 元], it’s “Yuán”.
‘I’ is usually pronounced similarly to the English /iː/ in ‘see’, like in this word [Xī'ān - 西安], it's "Xī'ān".
But there are cases where it has an /ɜː/ sound or other sounds, where the letter ‘I’ is used as a placeholder and only the consonant before it counts… this happens a lot in Chinese—some vowel sounds change depending on what consonants are in front of them.
