Single Tones

Pitch Contours of Mandarin Tones

Mandarin has four basic tones* , the pitch contours of which are shown below.

* The Chinese for the four tones are 一聲, 二聲, 三聲, and 四聲. (聲: shēng)

Tone Marks 

Tones in Combination

The Neutral Tone

 The second characters in the word below are all pronounced in the neutral tone -- "輕聲"
(qīngshēng) in Chinese.

  The tone mark is usually omitted to indicate that a certain syllable has a neutral tone.
Many dictionaries and textbooks also put a dot before a syllable in the neutral tone -- in
this web site, we will follow this convention.

桌子 (zhuō.zi; desk) 耳朵 (ěr.duo; ear)

誰的 (shéi.de; 記得 (jì.de;
whose) remember)
The Full 3rd Tone and the Half 3rd Tone

A full third toneshould begin from mid-low to low and then rise to mid-high pitch. But in spontaneous speech,
the third tone is rarely pronounced in full. Say the following phrases/words as naturally as you can. 

特別好 (tèbié hǎo) 三百 (sānbǎi) 課本 (kèběn)

(exceptionally good) (three hundred years) (textbook)

You will probably find that "hǎo", "bǎi", and "běn" did not rise at all when you said them. Instead, they
started and stopped low. A third tone pronounced in this fashion is called a half third tone, because only the
2-1 part of the 2-1-4 full third tone contour is produced. Nevertheless, the tone mark remains the same in
writing.

3rd + non-3rd Combination

First, think about the tonal contour of the full third tone, and pronounce "好" (good; hǎo).
Now say the four words below, paying special attention to how you pronounce"好" in these words.
好吃 (3rd + 1st) 好看 (3rd + 4th)
(tasty; hǎochī) (pretty; hǎokàn)

好人 (3rd + 2nd) 好吧 (3rd + neutral)

(nice person; hǎorén) (all right; hǎo.ba)

You will find that in these four words, "好" is pronounced in the half third tone -- there is no rising. Examples
like this abound in speech: "每年" (měinián; every year), "老師" (lǎoshī; teacher), "眼睛" (yǎn.jing; eye) ...

Conclusion:
In speech, 3rd + non-3rd => half 3rd + non-3rd.
The tone mark remains the same in writing.

3rd + 3rd Combination

Now try these:

很好 (hěn hǎ 老虎.(lǎohǔ)
o) (tiger)
(very good)

The "很" and "老" are neither pronounced in a full third tone, nor in a half third tone. Instead, their tonal
pitch contour is the same as that of a second tone, like "來" (lái; come). And notice that 好 (hǎo) and 虎.
(hǔ) are both in the half third tone. 
Conclusion:
In speech, 3rd + 3rd => 2nd + 3rd.
The tone mark remains the same in writing.

4th + 4th Combination

You may have noticed that the two fourth tones in

作業 (zuòy 漢字 (Hàn zì) 做夢 (zuòmèng)

è) (Chinese character) (to dream)
(homework)

are slightly different -- the second syllable sounds more "emphatic". You are right.

When one 4th tone is followed by another in a word, the first has a 5-3 pitch contour instead of a 5-5 one.
Again, the tone mark does not change in writing.

"一" (yī; one) and "不" (bù; no/not)

(1) 一/不 + 4th => 2nd yí/bú + 4th 

一萬 (yíwàn) 一半 (yíbàn) 不對 (búduì)

(ten thousand) ( a half) (not correct)

一塊 (yíkuài) 不貴 (búguì) 不慢 (búmàn) (2) 一/不 + non-4th => 4th

(one dollar) (not expensive) (not slow) yì/bù + non-4th

一天 (yìtiān) 一年 (yìnián) 一晚 (yìwǎn) ***

(a day) (a year) (one night) * "一" is pronounced in the
first tone (yī) when it refers
一生 (yìshēng) 一群 (yíqún) 一早 (yìzǎo) to "1", the number. 
(one's whole life) (a group of) (early in the morning) ** Both the original first
tone of "一" and the actual
不多 (bùduō) 不難 (bùnán) 不晚 (bùwǎn) tone in speech are
(not many/much) (not difficult) (not late) accepted in writing. The
same holds for "不".
不吃 (bùchī) 不忙 (bùmáng) 不早 (bùzǎo) *** 晚 (wǎn) and 早 (zǎo
(not eat) (not busy) (not early) ) are pronounced in the half
third tone here.

Chinese numbers
Number Chinese Pinyin  
0 ; zero 零/〇 líng

1 ; one 一 yī

2 ; two 二 èr
 3 ; three 三 sān

4 ; four 四 sì

5 ; five 五 wǔ

6 ; six 六 liù

7 ; seven 七 qī

8 ; eight 八 bā

9 ; nine 九 jiǔ

10 ; ten ; tenth 十 shí

Number Chinese Pinyin  

20 ; twenty 二十 èr shí

30 ; thirty 三十 sān shí

40 ; forty 四十 sì shí

50 ; fifty 五十 wǔ shí

60 ; sixty 六十 liù shí

70 ; seventy 七十 qī shí

80 ; eighty 八十 bā shí

90 ; ninety 九十 jiǔ shí

Number Chinese Pinyin  

11 ; eleven ; (10 + 1) 十一 shí yī

12 ; twelve ; (10 + 2) 十二 shí èr

13 ; thirteen ; (10 + 3) 十三 shí sān

24 ; twenty-four ; (2 x 10 + 4) 二十四 èr shí sì

38 ; thirty-eight ; (3 x 10 + 8) 三十八 sān shí bā

45; forty-five ; (4 x 10 + 5) 四十五 sì shí wǔ

55 ; fifty-five ; (50 x 10 + 5) 五十五 wǔ shí wǔ

63 ; sisty-five ; (6 x 10 + 3) 六十三 liù shí sān

72 ; seventy-two ; (6 x 10 + 2) 七十二 qī shí èr

81 ; eighty-one ; (8 x 10 + 1) 八十一 bā shí yī

99 ; ninety-nine ; (9 x 10 + 9) 九十九 jiǔ shí jiǔ

Chinese Pinyin Translation  

百 bǎi hundred (100)

千 qiān thousand (1.000)

 万 wàn ten thousand (10.000)

亿 yì hundreds of millions (100.000.000)

Translation Chinese Pinyin  

100 ; one hundred 一百 yī bǎi

200 ; two hundred 二百 èr bǎi

1.000 ; one thousand 一千 yī qiān

3.000 ; three thousand 三千 sān qiān

9.999 九千九百九十九 jiǔ qiān jiǔ bǎi jiǔ shí jiǔ

10.000 ; ten thousand 一万 yī wàn

40.000 ; forty thousand 四万 sì wàn

100.000 ; one hundred thousand; (10 x 10.000) 十万 shí wàn

500.000 ;five hundred thousand 五十万 wǔ shí wàn

1.000.000 ; one million ; (100 x 10.000) 一百万 yī bǎi wàn

6.000.000 ; six million 六百万 liù bǎi wàn

10.000.000 ; ten million (1.000 x 10.000) 一千万 yī qiān wàn

70.000.000 ; seventy million 七千万 qī qiān wàn

100.000.000 ; one hundred million 一亿 yī yì

800.000.000 ; eight hundred million 八亿 bā yì

1.000.000.000 ; one billion ; 
(10 x 100.000.000) 十亿 shí yì

In Chinese, if there is a zero (0) between two categories of units, it is written and pronounced (once).
 108 = 一百〇八 ‹ yī bǎi líng bā ›
and not 一百八

 10.050.082 = 一千〇五万〇八十二 ‹ yīqiān líng wǔwàn líng bā shí èr ›

and not 一千五万八十二

 1.006 = 一千〇六 ‹ yī qiān líng liù ›

and not 一千六 ou 一千〇〇六

Years, phone n°, ...

- When we convey a year or a number (phone number or registration number for example), it must be done digit by
digit.

- For number enumerations like a phone number, the Chinese often replace 一 by 幺 ‹ yāo › in spoken.

(year) 2014 = 二〇一四(年) ‹ èr líng yī sì (nián) ›

and not 二千〇一十四

Number with hand signs
The Chinese do not use the same hand signs for counting than we do, or to confer a number between 1 and 10. In
fact, our "2" for example may look like the Chinese "8". In addition, the number 10 may vary according to the
region.

一
 

二
 

四 五 六

 
七 八 九
 
十 十 十