Umlaut Ü in Mandarin Chinese - How to Pronounce

Today I'm going to teach you how to pronounce Mandarin umlaut u, that is the u with the two dots on it. Keep in mind that there are two u's in Mandarin. There's the normal u and there's the u with the two dots, the umlaut. Today we're going to talk about the u that has the two dots on it. Okay, so how do you pronounce this umlaut u, this u with the two dots on it? Well, this umlaut u represents a sound that isn't present in English, so I can't really give you an example in English and tell you that this is the sound that it represents, so we're going to have to go about it a different way. I'm going to start by giving you a sound that is similar to umlaut u, a sound from English, and then we're going to make some adjustments to that sound. The adjustment that we're going to make comes in the form of lip rounding. First, a little bit about lip rounding. What exactly is lip rounding? Well, when we say vowels in a language, there are basically two basic configurations for the lips. The lips can be spread like this, or they can be bunched up around it like this. When I say something like ee, ee, you can see that the lips are spread, right? Ee. And when I say something like oo, you can see that the lips are rounded. Oo, oo. Okay, spread lips, ee, and rounded lips, oo. Again, spread lips, ee, and rounded lips, oo. Okay, I hope you now know the difference between spread and round when it comes to the shape of the lips. What does that have to do with pronunciation of umlaut u? Well, to produce this umlaut u, I'd like you to start with an ee sound, an ee sound in English. So go ee, again, ee, and then say the same sound, this time with your lips rounded. Okay, I'm going to start with ee, and then round my lips, ee. Okay, ee, ee, ee, and then round your lips, ee. Okay, so the umlaut u is basically an ee sound with your lips rounded. Again, ee, round your lips, ee. Okay, that's all there is to it. Round your lips when you say the ee sound, ee, oo. Let's try it with a few words. Okay, so the word for force or power in Chinese is li, with spread lips, li. Now, if we round our lips, we get lu, which is the color green. Okay, let's try that. Ee, with rounded lips, with an l in front of it, lu, lu. Okay, spread and then round, spread, li, rounded, lu, spread, li, rounded, lu. Okay, let's try another one. I'm going to put an n in front of it now. Okay, when you have n in front of an ee, that is the second person pronoun, you, ni, ni, and then I'm going to round my lips, and that's going to give you the word for female, nü, nü. Again, spread lips, nü, rounded lips, nü, spread lips, nü, rounded lips, nü. Now, of course, Mandarin isn't the only language that has this rounded ü sound. If you speak French or German, you'll find it in these languages too. So, for example, in the French word for you, the word uses the ü vowel. In the German word for, which in German is für, okay, the ü vowel appears there also. So, if you know French or German, it'll be a little bit easier for you, but if not, we're going to use the method of producing the ee sound and rounding your lips. Let's try that again. There you go. Umlaut ü is basically ü with the lips rounded. Thank you for watching, and if you've enjoyed today's video, don't forget to subscribe.