Monday, May 27, 2013

Mandarin Chinese tones

In Mandarin Chinese, there are four tones. The examples for the Chinese word ma are below.

In the first tone, mā means mother
In the second tone, má means hemp
In the third tone, mǎ means horse
In the fourth tone, mà means scold

When there is no tone mark, it is sometimes referred to as a neutral tone or fifth tone. If there is no tone mark, ma means a question.

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