Introduction of Chinese Pinyin Tones

Tones are an important part of Chinese, which are the variation of pitch within a syllable and are used to distinguish words with same Pinyin. There are basiclly four tones and one neutral tone in Mandarin Chinese. The following chart illustates the four basic tones.

Basic Four Tone Marks

Tones Tone Marks Descriptons Examples
1st tone  阴平   high level dā 耷(drop down)
2nd tone  阳平 high rising dá 答(answer)
3rd tone  上声  low dipping dǎ 打(hit)
4th tone  去声   high falling dà 大(big)

Tone Mark Placement

The tone mark is placed over the vowel if there is only one vowel letter.

bù  nà tè

If there are two vowels, the tone mark is placed on the first, unless the this first vowel is i or u.

kǎi hēi qiú tuī

If there are three vowels in a syllable, the tone mark is placed on the middle one.

qióng zhuāng  chuán

When the tone mark is place on i, the small dot is removed.

bù nà tè