How to pronounce Chinese Pinyin - Learn Chinese with Candice.

Hello guys, welcome to my channel Learn Chinese with Candice. This is Candice, Lao Shi. In this video, we are officially starting the course of HSK level 1. As what I mentioned in my last video, the introduction of HSK, the HSK level 1 focuses on the ability of candidates to understand and use simple Chinese words and sentences. This level is mainly aimed at beginners with preliminary Chinese listening and reading abilities. So in this first teaching video for HSK level 1, I'm gonna focus on teaching you guys how to pronounce Chinese. Chinese pronunciation is based on pinyin. So after learning these classes, you're gonna acquire the whole structure of pinyin system and you can flexibly use pinyin to read Chinese fluently. If you find this video helpful, remember to take a note and repeat them after me. If you like the video, don't forget to subscribe and turn on the notification. Okay, let's start. Let's look at this example of pinyin. It's pronounced as nǐ hǎo. I know, you must be confused now how I did it and why it pronounced like this. Don't worry. Let's check how the pinyin looks like first. Normally, the pinyin is put on the top of Chinese words to help learners to read. And we call it Chinese syllables. Generally speaking, one Chinese character corresponds to one syllable. A Chinese syllable is usually made up of an initial, a final, and a tone. In which the final and the tone must be included, but the initial sometimes may not be included. Look at this slide. I'm gonna introduce 14 initials first. Please read after me. n, n, l, l, g, g, k, k, h, h, j, j, x, x, x Well done, guys. You did a very good job. Let's learn another 7 initials, which may be a little bit more difficult than the others we just learned. First one, j, j. We call it curcuminal. The tongue tip needs to be turned up and coordinated with the front part of the heart palate. When we say j, the tongue tip first touches the heart palate and then opens a gap to let the air flow. Let's put the hand nearby the mouth to feel the air. Follow me. Did you feel that? I know you guys may find this difficult. It's normal. Even we Chinese find it's difficult. We just need more practice and patience. Look at this initial z. It's z without the h. But the pronunciation sounds so similar with the z. We call it dental. When pronouncing z, the front part of the tongue tip touches the inner surface of the upper tip and then immediately parts with it, forming the gap in between. Follow me. This initial pronounced as ch, ch. It's also the curcuminal. The difference between ch and ch is that when we're pronouncing ch, it comes with a much, much stronger airflow than z. Let's feel it. You feel that? Good. Next one is c. This one also comes with a stronger airflow than z. See? This one we pronounce as sh. The tongue tip does not touch the heart palate, leaving a gap all along. No touching. The next one is s. When pronouncing s, the front part of the tongue tip stays away from the inner surface of the upper tip all along, leaving a gap for the airflow to get through. The last one pronounced as r. This one is pronounced with the vocal cords vibrating. Let's put the hand on your throat and try to feel it. You feel that? Good. Congratulations, guys. We have already finished learning the initials in pinyin. Now we're gonna start learning the finals in pinyin. Nice, guys. We just finished learning 18 finals in pinyin. It's the first tone. It is also called flat tone. See? It's a straight line. It's the second tone. We also call it rising tone. You're gonna raise the pitch a little bit. It's the third tone. It's kind of like a u-turn. Your pitch goes down first, then goes up. The fourth tone, also being called falling tone. It's the neutral tone. It's also the lowest sound tone. Well done, guys. We finished learning the Chinese pinyin, the initials, finals, and tones. Let's practice some words together and to see whether you guys understand it or not. It means pain. It means cat. It means coffee. Means color. It means map. It means airplane. It means mom. It means grandpa. One thing about Chinese pronunciation is complicated. It's that the tone sometimes gonna be changed under specific circumstances. We call it tone sundial rule. In this video, since we just started the course, so I'm gonna only teach you guys one rule about the third tone changing rule. In this rule, when two third tone syllables are read in sequence, the first syllable turns into the second tone. However, when put in the written form, the original tone is kept. Let's look at the example. Although the tone all showed up as third one, but we pronounce the first syllable as the second tone. Congratulations, guys. We have already finished 21 initials, 18 finals, and 5 tones in pinyin. You can try to use pinyin to pronounce any Chinese you want. You can share the video with your friends who are interested in learning Chinese. And you are also welcome to give your suggestions about the video down below the comment. Don't forget to subscribe and turn on the notification. See you guys in my next video.