The Killer Trio Part I: Difference between G, K, H Sound

I wish I could give all Chinese 4 Tones for G, K, H sound, but that is not possible. Many tones are missing or do not exist as Chinese words. Therefore, I could only provide a single tone from each G, K, H sound.

In this listening and Pinyin pronunciation practice, I provide as many sounds as possible in different tones. If you have arrived here from the previous post of Differentiating between B, P, D, T Sound and the G and K sound has the same concept of keeping and releasing the air.

Difference between G and K Sound

When pronouncing Chinese words with G sound, do not release too much air. On the contrary, with the K sound, force out the air when you read the words. The method is to place your palm in front of your mouth. If you pronounce the G sound correctly, there should be no air on your palm. For the K, you must feel a burst of air coming out.

Pronouncing the H Consonant

The H sound has a release of air too. You pronounce it like the English alphabet H, akin to ‘her’ and ‘ha’. It is easy to get this intonation correct. When you place the G, K, H sound together, it is more challenging to differentiate them. Nevertheless, with more Pinyin pronunciation practice, you will master it effortlessly. If you have a problem to hear the difference between G, K, H sound, turn up the volume.

The vowel ‘ang’ is a nasal vowel. It is rather similar to the English word ‘angst’, without pronouncing the ‘st’.

In most instances except Chinese consonants b, f, m and p  [ bo fo mo fo ], the rest of the consonants do not have the vowel ‘o’ in them. Thus, there is no Chinese Pinyin and character with “Go”. We use [ ou ] to replace ‘o’.

Pronounce [ ou ] like the English alphabet ‘O’.

Here is another nasal sound ‘ong’.

In this group of sound with ‘uan’, pronounce it like the English word “want”. Imagine the pronunciation to be Gwant, Kwant, Hwant. Other similar Chinese words which you can pronounce it with a “want” sound are ‘Cuan, Duan, Luan, Nuan, Ruan, Suan, Tuan and Zuan’.

Another group of ‘uan’ sounds below cannot be pronounced with the “want” sound. Instead, they bear the resemblance sound of the Pinyin “Yuan” because they derive from the word ‘üan’. ü contains the ‘yu’ sound. They have a sound closer (but not exactly) to the English word (Japanese) ‘Yen’. This group of Chinese Pinyin is ‘Juan, Quan, Xuan and Yuan’.

Next Pinyin Pronunciation Practice

Killer Trio Part II: Difference between J, Q and X Sound. How to pronounce them with the right positioning of the mouth shape?

The Killer Trio Part II: Difference between J, Q, X Sound

Difference between J, Q, X sound is the second part of the Killer Trio. They are the Killer Trio because like Part I – G, K, H sound, the phonetics are very close to one another.

I like to ask my students to use their palms to test for the exhalation of air when they pronounce certain Pinyin words with some Chinese consonants.

Out of the J, Q, X sound, J sound exhales no air when you pronounce the Chinese Pinyin whereas Q sound produces the most. The amount of air released by the X sound is in between J and Q depending on which vowels go with the X consonant.

How to Pronounce J, Q, X Sound?

Think about ‘Romeo and Juliet’. You can associate the J sound with the English alphabet J. Likewise for the X sound, it sounds the closest to the ‘xi’ sound in the English word “axis”.

All Pinyin Q Sounds are not pronounced like the English Q which comes mostly with the vowel ‘u’. Examples are ‘quad’ and ‘quay’. The Chinese Pinyin “Quan” will be pronounced differently from the English word “Quad”.

You will hear how we pronounce the “Quan” word below. Neither is the Chinese Pinyin articulated like the English “Qa” sound ‘Qatar’. You can resonate the Chinese Q sound with familiar words like ‘Qing Dynasty’ and ‘Qigong’.

What Vowels Go with J, Q, X Sound?

An interesting to note is that this group of consonants J, Q, X only goes with the Chinese vowels [ i ] and [ u ]. It will not start with any other vowels.

When J Sound meets Vowel [ i ]

When J sound meets the vowel [ i ], widen your mouth to pronounce the words as shown in the photo.

For practice purpose, maintain your mouth position as in the photo and pronounce all 21 Pinyin words at one go by just adjusting your tongue. If you can read all the above words without moving your mouth, it means you have got the technique and sound correct.

J Sound Exception with Vowel [ i ]

There are 9 Chinese Pinyin that have exceptions with words starting with ‘ji, qi and xi’. You have to move your mouth in order to pronounce these words below.

When J Sound meets Vowel [ u ]

When J sound meets the vowel [ u ] which is in fact, an [ ü | yu ] sound, always protrude your mouth when you read the words below.

For practice, maintain your mouth position as in the photo and pronounce all 12 Pinyin words at one go by pouting your mouth. You can move your mouth during the pronunciation. The crucial thing is that you will start and end the mouth shape in the same ‘O’ position if you get the practice right.

Next Pinyin Pronunciation Practice

For the next post on the Difference between Z, C, S and Zh, Ch, Sh Sound, we have something more challenging. We will extract one tone from each sound  Z, C, S like the one that you see above and put them into one group. Concurrently, we have another group using the same vowels but with an ‘h’ sound. There will be images to show you too.

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How to Pronounce Z, C, S and Zh, Ch, Sh Sound Correctly in Chinese Pinyin?

What is the difference between Z, C, S and Zh, Ch, Sh sound in Chinese Pinyin Pronunciation? It is tricky for Chinese learners when an ‘h’ sound is being introduced after the Z, C, S consonants, making them Zh, Ch and Sh.

If I put the two sounds together, one without ‘h’ and one with it, I am rather sure that you would be able to hear the difference immediately.

It might be harder to learn the group of sounds on its own without making an appropriate comparison. Students would always be unsure whether they have pronounced the words correctly with and without the ‘h’ sound for a start.

As compared to the B, P and D, T sound which I have provided all the Chinese 4 Tones, this article will be more challenging.

I could not use the 4-Chinese Tones method as many tones in ‘Z, C, S and Zh, Ch, Sh’ are missing. It means the Chinese words do not exist in the Chinese dictionary or so rarely used that Google does not have the sound file for it.

Instead, I arrange the words in the first tone [ ¯ ] as much as possible since traditionally, the first or neutral sound is always used for the Chinese consonants practice.

What is the Trick to Pronounce Z, C, S and Zh, Ch, Sh Sound with Chinese Vowels [ a e i ]?

One simple trick is to adjust the shape of your mouth to get the correct sound with the Chinese vowels that contain [ a e i ] after the z, c, s and zh, ch, sh consonants.

Examples are za – zha | ze – zhe | zi – zhi | zan – zhan – zang – zhang (and so on).

Pinyin Pronunciation Z, C, S and Zh, Ch, Sh Sound with Chinese Vowels [ a e i ]

How to Pronounce Z, C, S Sound with Chinese Vowels [ a e i ]?

Look at the photo below.

1. Lengthen your mouth as long as possible and show your teeth.
2. Listen to the audio below and pronounce all the 9 Chinese Pinyin sounds without shortening your mouth shape.
3. In another word, maintain the mouth position at all times when pronouncing all the words at one go.

Once you can do this, you can do the same for longer words starting with the z, c, s consonants.

How to Pronounce Zh, Ch, Sh Sound with Chinese Vowels [ a e i ]?

Look at the photo below.

1. Pout your mouth or make mouth in a round shape. Bite your teeth.
2. Listen to the audio below and pronounce all the 9 Chinese Pinyin sounds by always maintaining an “O” shaped mouth.
3. For exercising purpose, always start the pronunciation by biting your teeth first before you read the word aloud.

If you can do it right, the distance between the teeth will not open wide and move much. You can even pronounce ‘zhi chi shi” while biting your teeth at all times!

Pinyin Pronunciation Z, C, S and Zh, Ch, Sh Sound with Chinese Vowels [ o u ]

The rule of the mouth shape for vowels [ a e i ] that we discussed above cannot be applied when Z, C, S and Zh, Ch, Sh meets with vowels [ o u ].

The mouth shape for pronouncing these 6 Chinese Pinyin is always in the pout position. That is to protrude your mouth when you articulate them. Since there is no difference in the mouth shape, the trick lies in the placement of the tongue.

How to Pronounce Z, C, S Sound with Chinese Vowels [ o u ] with Low Position of the Tongue?

1. Place the tip of your tongue behind your lower teeth.
2. Pronounce all Chinese Pinyin words below without moving your tongue.

See if you can pronounce all 21 of the Z, C, S Pinyin below without removing away your tongue behind your lower teeth.

How to Pronounce Zh, Ch, Sh Sound with Chinese Vowels [ o u ] in High Tongue Position?

1. Place the position of the tongue higher to pronounce the Zh, Ch Pinyin to achieve the desired sound. The tongue position is the lowest for Sh sounds, around mid-position but not touching the base.
2. Often, the inner tongue is in contact with the hard palate, or rub against them during the pronunciation.
3. Sometimes, the tip of the tongue will touch the incisive papilla depending on which words you are pronouncing.

Moreover, since there is an ‘h’ sound like the English word “her”, the Pinyin sound will contain a light ‘her’ sound. For words starting with ‘Sh’, it has the sound “Shhh” as if you are asking someone to keep quiet.

The emphasis on the last group of sound ‘Zhuang Chuang Shuang‘ is on the intonation of the ‘ang‘ sound. It has the same sound as the English word ‘angst’.

Something more interesting? How to introduce yourself in Chinese? I have provided a few audio speech examples on self-introduction so you could hear them.

How to Pronounce B, P and D, T Sound Correctly in Chinese Pinyin?

What is the difference between B, P and D, T sound in Chinese Pinyin Pronunciation? B, P, D, T are Chinese consonants. Are you already familiar with the Hanyu Pinyin vowels and the consonants?

Also, you may like to refer to the previous article on the introduction of Chinese 4 Tones to listen to 25 audio and get a few practices. We look more deeply into the Pinyin sound of B, P, D and T and how to pronounce them more accurately.

Can You Hear the Difference between B, P and D, T Sound?

Listen to the four examples below. Can you hear the different sound between B and P or D and T?

The first 4 Chinese consonants are b, p, m, f but we are going to group the b, p and d, t together for discussing how to get a distinctive pronunciation between them, especially the group of B, P and D, T.

Many Chinese learners that I know off cannot hear the difference between B and P or D and T when they begin to learn Chinese.

What is the Difference between B, P and D, T Sound?

The Chinese Pinyin sound pronunciation is similar to that of English alphabet B, P, D and T. How would you say the following in English?

• B – Bee
• P – Pee
• D – Dee
• T – Tee

There is not much difference in relating the Chinese consonants to that of English if you are an English speaker. In fact, it is not that complicated. Despite the similarity, confusion arises when they look at the Chinese Pinyin.

Suddenly, they forget that the Chinese consonants have the same connotation as English which is what they are familiar with in the first place.

Please note that Chinese Pinyin ‘Bi’ and ‘Di’ above are not pronounced the same way as ‘Bee’ and ‘Dee’. You exert more force to say out ‘Bi’ and ‘Di’. On the other hand, ‘Pi’ and ‘Ti’ have similar pronunciation like the English ‘Pee’ and Tee’.

So, What is the Similarity?

The secret trick lies with the amount of air released from your mouth when you pronounce these four consonants.

Step 1
1. Place your hand in front of your mouth but not covering it.
2. Pronounce Bee and Dee.

Result: You will feel a little bit of air on your palm and sometimes almost no air depending on the consonant and vowel combination. One such example given below is ‘Beng’.

Step 2
Repeat Step 1 but with Pee and Tee this time.

Result: You feel more air emitting out as compared to Bee and Dee.

With the same theory in mind for the Chinese Pinyin, you have to control the airflow and not discharge too much air on your palm when you pronounce Bi and Di. Vice versa for Pi and Ti.

More Intonation Examples of B, P and D, T

Now, you have a better understanding of the concept of the air discharge appropriately. Have a go and try out more examples below. The exercise is relevant for achieving the correct sound of these four consonants when you learn more words later.

The ‘Diao’ group of words are omitted out intentionally because there is no Chinese word for the second tone, ‘diáo’.

An interesting group of Pinyin where the 4 groups of words have very close sounds to the extent of being similar. However, do note that the Chinese Pinyin ‘Do’ and ‘To’ do not exist in the Chinese Pinyin dictionary.

One tone each from ‘Deng‘ and ‘Teng‘ does not exist. Therefore, I have removed them. The suffix ends with ‘eng’. Pay attention to the tail sound ending with ‘ng’ as compared to Pinyin ending with ‘en’ below. One tone from ‘ben‘ and ‘pen‘ is also not available.

Next Pinyin Pronunciation Practice

The next Pinyin practice is on the Chinese consonants G, K, H sound and then J, Q, X sound. The G and K sound is very similar to each other, just like the B, P and D, T sound.

Practice Your Chinese Pinyin Pronunciation with Chinese 4 Tones Audio

Having a strong foundation of Chinese Pinyin pronunciation is so vital if you want to speak perfect Chinese in the long run. Without the fundamental basis of getting the Chinese vowels and consonants sound right, your Mandarin pronunciation will never improve.

I have prepared some Chinese Pinyin pronunciation on the Chinese 4 Tones. You have to hear them as many times as possible. Not only that, you have to say it out loud and listen to your intonation.

The best way to improve your Chinese Pinyin is to look at the Pinyin spelling while you listen. Over time, your brain can associate the sound along with the orthography. This method can help you pick up the pronunciation of new words faster.

Chinese Pinyin Pronunciation Guide

The Chinese accent marks are placed on the vowel in Hanyu Pinyin. If there are two vowels, place it on the one that comes first in the [ a o e i u ü ] sequence.

0. Neutral Tone – Example [ Ma | 吗 ]

No marked accent. The sound is lighter than the first Chinese tone, but it doesn’t make much difference. The sound effect is gentle and airy which you utter it softly.

1. [ ¯ ] A straight line – Example [ā]

The pronunciation of the first Chinese tone should be light and airy. Use a higher pitch to pronounce it. The straight line indicates that the tone of the sound should remain constant from start to end. Do not apply force when pronouncing it. Drag the sound a little bit longer than the other three tones.

2. [ ′ ] : A tick – Example [ó]

The tick sign symbolizes that the sound rises from low to high. The second Chinese vowel sound starts with a lower tone than the first one above. Increase the pitch of the tone gradually. Apply a slight force in pronouncing the word. You should hear that the ending tone is higher than the start.

3. [ v ] : A small v – Example [ ě ]

The sound dives down to a medium and then raise up again. It is not so easy to feel the dip and rise of this tone. Speak and pronounce the word slowly so you can hear the difference. Dictate this third vowel in a lower pitch. The overall sound should be on a lower note than the first two above.

4. [ `] : A dip – Example [ ì ] [ ù ]

A dip down which is a direct contrast to the second Chinese tone. Apply all your force to pronounce the sound firmly and sharply. Do not drag the pronunciation of this tone. End it off abruptly so you can get the correct intonation. The fourth tone of the vowel has the lowest pitch among all.

Tip: Remember the four Chinese accents as
{ line, tick, v, dip }.

How to Improve Chinese Pinyin Pronunciation Intonation?

I have given you some unorthodox ways to handle the Chinese 4 Tones. Hope you are still alive by now. To make you understand better, I have prepared 25 audio files on Chinese intonation examples.

What you have to do daily, and I really mean every day, is to pick any examples and repeat the sound over and over again until you can distinguish and say out the Chinese 4 Tones correctly and with ease.

If you practice and improve on this simple tonal language exercise, you are going to amaze the world with your perfect Chinese diction which is what most non-Chinese learners cannot do it.

How well you pronounce a Chinese word is dependent on how well you have heard it. That was what my Dutch teacher specializing in logopedics told us.

You can practice while going to work, at home or whenever you can to the extent of the hearing the Chinese 4 Tones ringing in your ears.

Ready for the Pinyin Tones Challenge?

Note: The first sound may be cut-off at times. If this happens, you have to play another time to get the first sound out.

Want More Chinese Pinyin Pronunciation Practice?

Do you like these audio files? In the next few articles, we will dissect further and distinguish the difference between a few consonants that sound alike. I will share with you how to pronounce more distinctively for B, P and D, T sound. It is especially useful if you have a problem getting the Chinese pronunciation right.

Chinese Tones are the Most Difficult when Learning to Speak Mandarin

Chinese Pronunciation

If you are serious to learn the Chinese language, in the long run, you have to practice the 4 Chinese Tones religiously until you can hum them in tune without speaking a word. Oh yes, I can intone them with a closed mouth like a hummingbird 😛

In the first article, I have highlighted 5 Points Why Learning Chinese is Easy. The motive is to encourage people to speak Mandarin and not to give up despite its difficulty. No language is easy to master for any foreigner, isn’t it?

Subsequently, I have also introduced briefly to the Hanyu Pinyin formation which Chinese vowels and consonants are combined to help people identify and pronounce a Chinese character. The knowledge on the Chinese consonants helps people to type Chinese text on the mobile by keying the first two alphabets.

Many non-Chinese people have attempted to say out some Chinese sentences with ease. However, most people that I came across had the same problem. They could not pronounce the 4 Chinese tones accurately.

In such a situation, others might still understand you, but the intonation will sound flat and not as refined and pleasing to the ears as it should be. Sometimes, the meaning of a word changes because in the same tone you can have many different ways of writing. (Eg. wěi)

One example of the same tone sound above (wěi) needs to have one or more word accompanying it to become a vocabulary or a noun. If you ask a Chinese, what is the meaning of “wěi”? No can tell you precisely what that word means because it can have several meanings unless you show them the word in writing.

Simply said, the accuracy of the four Chinese tones requires a lot of time and practice. Just like someone who learns to sing but out of tune or could not hit a note, he or she has to practice until the perfect pitch is hit.

How Many Chinese Tones are there?

Chinese is a tonal language where the highlight of perfect spoken Mandarin for foreigners is the mastery of the Chinese intonation. There are 4 Chinese tones plus 1 neutral tone.

All the tones have an accent [ ¯ ′ ˇ ` ] marked on top of the vowels – a, o, e, i, u, ü. The Chinese accent marked [ – / v ] indicates the pitch and stress of a word. The number 1 2 3 4 are sometimes written to represent the four tones instead of the Chinese accents in writing.

The first tone with [ – ] 1 starts with a long, airy and high pitch sound and ends at 4 [ ] with a shorter, lower and stronger pitch. The fifth tone which is a neutral tone has no accent on it. It is not often used and there are not many Chinese words with a neutral tone. It sounds softer than the first tone.

Two Familiar neutral words: Ma and Zi

Many non-Chinese speakers have some problems pronouncing the 4 Chinese tones distinctively. Most can only make out 3 Chinese intonations. The common mistake is pronouncing 2 tones with the same stress.

Why is Chinese Intonation Important?

As mentioned in the previous article, Chinese can understand a sentence from a non-native speaker if they can understand the meaning from the context of the entire Chinese sentence. In another word, the shorter the Chinese sentence, the more difficult it is for the Chinese to understand the meaning if the intonation is not correct.

In another word, the shorter the Chinese sentence, the more difficult it is for the Chinese to understand the meaning if the intonation is not correct.

Let’s look at a few examples of fun Chinese sentences below: –

“Ma” in Chinese

First Example

*If you do not pronounce it with the correct tone on the two “ma”, it will end up as…

 
Second Example

The third “吗 ma” is a neutral tone. “吗 ma” is always placed at the end of the Chinese sentence when asking a question. Hence, after “吗 ma”, the correct punctuation mark used will always be a question mark.

In the short and simple sentence structure above, it contains already 3 Chinese “ma” sound. Practise it and try asking your Chinese friends what they interpret from your sentence when you read it to them.

 
Third Example

My friends and I often joked around with the sentence below when someone said that they are going on a cruise or going to bed. When someone did not pronounce 船 and 床 clearly, it gave an opportunity for us to make a little joke out of it although it was just an innocent sleep.

The above sentence construction is not an idiom or has any meaning. It is merely a tongue twister for practising your Chinese tone pronunciation and diction. There is a total use of 3 “Chuan” and 1 “Chuang”. Out of the 3 “Chuan”, two of them has the same tone.

Practice Your Chinese Tones Pronunciation

The clear intonation of the Chinese pronunciation of every word will determine the spoken Chinese standard and experience for those learning Mandarin. The differentiation of the Chinese tones is not easy for many Westerners, as English and other European languages have no variation of tones in their pronunciation.

Some friends who speak in certain languages have a problem pronouncing the “ü / yu” sound. They pronounce with a “woo” sound. French and Dutch language has the “ü / yu” sound in their letter “u”, so it not a problem for them to pronounce Chinese words with that sound.

We will listen to the Chinese Pinyin Pronunciation and Practise Chinese 4 Tones together in the next post on Intonation Examples which I have prepared the audio files to help you accustomed to the sound. The more you hear them regularly, the better you can differentiate the different tones and speak better in the long run.

What is Hanyu Pinyin?

Hanyu Pinyin (literally written as 汉语拼音）means “Chinese Spell-Out Sound”. It is more commonly called “Pinyin” for short. The Hanyu Pinyin system uses a series of consonants and vowels to spell out the Mandarin pronunciation of a Chinese character.

The Hanyu Pinyin system was created by the Chinese linguists during the 1950s for a Chinese Government project. One of them is Zhou Yaoguang and also known as the “Father of Pinyin”, who passed away in 2017 (Age: 111). The inauguration of the first version of Hanyu Pinyin was on 11 February 1958 at the Fifth Session of the 1st National People’s Congress.

Because of the existence of this brilliant system to romanise the Chinese characters phonetically, it opens up the opportunity for foreigners to learn Chinese in a much simpler way with English alphabets that are familiar to many of them.

Learning how to read Hanyu Pinyin is essential for everyone learning a new Chinese character or phrase. With the Pinyin alphabet English spelling in place, anyone can learn to pronounce a new word or sentence just by looking at the Pinyin even when no one is there to teach you how to pronounce.

What are the Chinese Vowels and Chinese 4 Tones?

The Chinese vowels are characterized by one of the Chinese 4 Tones with an accent mark [ ¯ ′ ˇ ` ] or none for words with a neutral tone. Sometimes, for ease of writing and reading, we use the number 1, 2, 3, 4 to represent the Chinese accents accordingly.

Note: In all my posts, I will only use Hanyu Pinyin with Chinese accents because this is the traditional way and a proper method of learning. The more you look at these Chinese Pinyin words with accent marks, the faster you will recognize them in future.

• Single Vowel: a、o、e、i、u、ü
• Double Vowel: ai、ei、 ui、ao、 ou、iu、ie、üe、 er
• Nasal Vowel: an、en、in、un、ün、ang、eng、 ing、ong

What is the Accent Placement Rule for Chinese Pinyin with more than one vowel?

The accents are always placed on top of the Chinese vowels in Hanyu Pinyin. If [simple_tooltip content=’diphthong’] two vowels[/simple_tooltip] meet, put the accent on the vowel that comes first in the following Chinese vowel sequence of [ a o e i u ü ].

Yào 要 (means ‘want’). The [ a ] comes before [ o ].
Ruò 弱 (means ‘weak’). The [ o ] comes before [ u ].

* It is also worthwhile to note that two vowels – [ a ] and [ e ] will never meet together in the same pinyin word.

What are Chinese Consonants?

A consonant is a basic speech sound in which the breath is partly obstructed and can be used by adding a vowel to form a syllable.

There are arguments on whether there are 21 or 23 Chinese consonants in Hanyu Pinyin system. Officially, it is 21 Chinese consonants and later, [ y ] and [ w ] is added.

The [ y ] sounds like [ i ], and [ w ] sounds like [ u ] as the Singular vowel. When practising the sound of the Chinese consonants, [ y ] and [ w ] should be included because they can be combined with other vowels to form another sound.

The 23 Chinese consonants are b, p, m, f, d, t, n, l, g, k, h, j, q, x, zh, ch, sh, r, z, c, s, y and w.

The consonants are divided into groups of words with the same suffixes. Take a look at the Chinese consonants on the left column of Mandarin Chinese Pinyin Chart with Audio to have an idea of the similar types of suffix family.

How to Type Chinese on Phone with Consonants?

Another useful aspect of learning the Chinese Pinyin is to make use of the first consonant letter to type out the whole Chinese sentence quickly without spelling out all the Pinyin when you are typing out a Chinese text using your mobile phone.

I am not able to capture a screenshot from my phone to show you because the function does not allow. However, I have done an example of the screenshot from Google Translate on my desktop to show you below.

Do note that the phone function supporting the Chinese text typing might not allow you to form many words at one time. Only three words are shown each time from my Sony Xperia phone.

After a few more seconds of waiting, my mobile phone displayed the entire text like the image above, provided that the consonant alphabets make sense to the Pinyin system for forming a ‘commonly used sentence’.

This function will help you to type the Chinese texts very fast. Not only that, it helps people who have a problem with the full Hanyu Pinyin spelling. You only have to remember the first or first two alphabets to form most words.

Youtube Video of Chinese Vowels and Consonants

Here is a Youtube video that would help you greatly to practice Chinese vowels and consonants. Before learning to speak Mandarin, they have to get the basic sound right to handle more complex Chinese syllabus later.

In school during the start of every Chinese lesson, we have to read out all the vowels and consonants every day as a warm-up and get all the sounds ingrained into our brain.

You should try and make it a habit to practice them as much as you can as to improve the fluency of spoken Mandarin fast. That was what we do in school so you could also do the same.

Now that you have a sound understanding of the Chinese vowels and consonants, the next post will explain why you have to Pay Attention to the Chinese Tones and Accent if You are Serious to Learn Mandarin in the long run.