2. PINYIN The most commonly system to transcribe the Chinese sounds Nǐhǎo Chóngqìng jiāngběizuǐ
3. Is it possible to pronounce every single sound out there in English? No. Because you can practically throw any letters together to make up new words, such as GOOGLE, BLOG
4. But in Chinese, YES WE CAN! TOTAL 409 Chinese sounds (not considering tones) http://www.chinesehour.com/site_media/home/misc/pinyinchart.swf So if you have mastered all these 409 sounds in Chinese, then you are able to pounce every single sound in Chinese.
5. Something important to remember Even though pinyin uses the same letters as European languages, the sounds those letters represent are the sounds of Mandarin Chinese. So you cannot pronounce Pinyin as if they were English
6. For example “hē” does not sound like the English word “he” “Ē” in Chinese sounds like “uh” in English Mr. Zhang “zh” – “dge” in “judge”; or “ge” in “George” “ang” sounds like “ahng” (open your mouth wide) “dge” + “ahng” = Zhang
7. One Chinese sound is associated with one syllable One syllable can be made up of 3 parts Initial Final Tone 你nǐ N – Initial; I –Final; Tones
8. WHAT IS A TONE? Chinese language is a tonal language If you assign different tones to the same pronunciation, it can totally mean different things: Chōu slap (1st tone) Chǒuargly (3rd tone) http://www.learn-chinese-language-online.com/chinese-tones.html Tones are extremely important!!!
9. 1st tone: Flat Tone (Sounds like singing; no sound variation; high pitch) 中zhōng（middle) 吃 chī (eat)
10. 2nd tone: Rising Tone 2nd tone: Rising Tone (sounds like what?) Zhōngguó中国 （china) Zhōngwén中文 (Chinese language)
