0.4 All Sixteen Tone Pairs — Epoché
What you will be able to do Read the whole grid of sixteen tone combinations aloud, with three real words in each cell. Hear a two-syllable word and name its combination, using the two questions of direction and ending height. Pick out the two or three combinations that are your own weak spots, instead of drilling all sixteen equally. Say why the grid has sixteen cells and not twenty-five, and what is missing from it. Prerequisites : 0.3, since you need all four tones before the grid means anything. See lesson 0.3 Sounds and Tones . Four tones on the first syllable and four on the second give sixteen combinations, and almost every two-syllable Mandarin word falls into one of them. Together with the toneless syllable of lesson 0.5, that is the basic inventory of two-syllable tone shapes, which is a comforting thought after the first three lessons; lesson 0.5 also adds the few changes that happen when certain tones meet. It is also the point at which the usual advice becomes wasteful. Learners drill all sixteen equally, which spends most of the effort on combinations they already say correctly. The better plan is to work through the grid once, find the two or three cells where your own voice fails, and drill only those. Two remarks before the grid. First, it has sixteen cells rather than twenty-five because the fifth possibility, the toneless or neutral syllable, behaves differently from the other four and gets its own lesson. Words such as 妈妈 māma , whose second syllable has no tone at all, are therefore not in the grid. Second, the 3-3 cell is not pronounced the way it is written: when two third tones meet, the first becomes a second tone. The cell is still worth having, because that is how the word is spelled and how the dictionary lists it, but say the first syllable as a rise. Lesson 0.5 takes both of these up properly. The sounds in a table Three words for each combination, all of them everyday words, so none of it is wasted effort. Where the traditional form of a word differs it follows in brackets. Work through one table at a time, aloud, and mark the rows that give you trouble. Words that begin on tone 1 Tones Three words What they mean 1-1 今天 jīntiān, 星期 xīngqī, 开车 （ 開車 ）kāichē today, week, to drive 1-2 中国 （ 中國 ）Zhōngguó, 中文 Zhōngwén, 英文 Yīngwén China, the Chinese language, the English language 1-3 开始 （ 開始 ）kāishǐ, 经理 （ 經理 ）jīnglǐ, 中午 zhōngwǔ to begin, a manager, midday 1-4 天气 （ 天氣 ）tiānqì, 工作 gōngzuò, 生日 shēngrì weather, work, birthday Words that begin on tone 2 Tones Three words What they mean 2-1 明天 míngtiān, 时间 （ 時間 ）shíjiān, 前天 qiántiān tomorrow, time, the day before yesterday 2-2 学习 （ 學習 ）xuéxí, 同学 （ 同學 ）tóngxué, 回来 （ 回來 ）huílái to study, a classmate, to come back 2-3 苹果 （ 蘋果 ）píngguǒ, 没有 （ 沒有 ）méiyǒu, 门口 （ 門口 ）ménkǒu apple, to not have, a doorway 2-4 回去 huíqù, 同意 tóngyì, 学校 （ 學校 ）xuéxiào to go back, to agree, a school Words that begin on tone 3 Tones Three words What they mean 3-1 老师 （ 老師 ）lǎoshī, 手机 （ 手機 ）shǒujī, 小说 （ 小說 ）xiǎoshuō teacher, mobile phone, a novel 3-2 美国 （ 美國 ）Měiguó, 小学 （ 小學 ）xiǎoxué, 法国 （ 法國 ）Fǎguó the United States, primary school, France 3-3 你好 nǐ hǎo, 很好 hěn hǎo, 可以 kěyǐ hello, fine, may or can 3-4 请问 （ 請問 ）qǐngwèn, 好看 hǎokàn, 可是 kěshì may I ask, good-looking, but Words that begin on tone 4 Tones Three words What they mean 4-1 大家 dàjiā, 上班 shàngbān, 汽车 （ 汽車 ）qìchē everyone, to go to work, a car 4-2 外国 （ 外國 ）wàiguó, 大学 （ 大學 ）dàxué, 后来 （ 後來 ）hòulái a foreign country, university, afterwards 4-3 电影 （ 電影 ）diànyǐng, 电脑 （ 電腦 ）diànnǎo, 汉语 （ 漢語 ）Hànyǔ a film, a computer, the Chinese language 4-4 电话 （ 電話 ）diànhuà, 再见 （ 再見 ）zàijiàn, 现在 （ 現在 ）xiànzài telephone, goodbye, now Read each table twice: once down the column of words, and once with the meanings covered, saying only the Chinese. The second pass is the one that counts, because reading a translation next to a word lets you guess the tone from memory of the meaning rather than produce it from the mark. Naming a combination by ear To identify a word you hear, you do not need to judge four tones at once. Two questions are enough in almost every case, and each has only a few answers. The first question is where the word ends . If the last syllable finishes high, it is a first tone if it stayed level all the way and a second tone if it climbed there from the middle. If the word finishes at the bottom of your range, the last syllable is a third tone if it got there gently and stayed, and a fourth tone if it arrived there from a height in a hurry. The second question is whether the first syllable moved. A first tone does not move. A fourth tone moves a long way downwards and fast. A second tone moves upwards and takes its time. A third tone hardly moves at all but sits noticeably lower than everything around it. In practice you will find that your own errors cluster: most learners can hear the first syllable perfectly and guess wildly about the second, or the reverse, and knowing which half of the word you are bad at is worth more than another hour of drilling. Finding your own weak pairs Here is a cheap self-test that needs nothing but the grid and your own voice. Say all sixteen combinations in order, using the first word in each cell, and record yourself if you can. Then play the recording back a day later, with the grid covered, and write down what you hear. The cells you get wrong on your own recording are the cells to work on, and there will usually be two or three of them rather than ten. A handful of cells account for most of the trouble, and it is worth knowing why each is hard, because the reason tells you what to practise. 4-1 and 4-2 both require a jump back up after a fall to the bottom of the range, and English does not ask for that inside a word; the cure is to practise the two syllables separately and then join them. 2-3 and 3-2 are the pair most often confused with each other, because each contains a rise and a low patch and only the order differs; the cure is the ending test, since a 2-3 word ends