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The Four Tones
Mandarin is a tonal language where a syllable has different
meanings when pronounced in different tones. For further details, please
refer to the table below:
Tone mark Tone level
Chinese
syllable
Chinese
character
Meaning
_
1
st
tone
m
ā
mother
/
2
nd
tone
má
numb
v
3
rd
tone
m
ǎ
horse
\
4
th
tone
mà
to scold
From the table above, there are four basic tones in Mandarin, and
“
four tones
”
is pronounced as
“
sì
shēng”
which literally means four
tones. Each level of tone is represented respectively by the tone marks
in the table above. The tone level of a syllable will change the meaning
of the represented Chinese character.
Mandarin for All : Book 1 (Second Edition)