Question Owner

From :   cheekySEEKy

Date : 2008-06-17 / 10:00AM

i’m not sure what those marks are called so i’ll call them tone markers.

in ZHE GE and NA GE they all have tone markers pointing the same way but how come the GE tone is different in sound from ZHA and NA? same with WO.. some WO (I) sounds different in some sentences. this is what confuses me about chinese.

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benny

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2007-01-01
Language : English, Mandarin Chinese
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 Benny the Mandarin Teacher bennysland.com 
2008-06-17 / 02:53PM

Hi CheekySEEKy, in fact the “gè” sounds like no tone which we call it toneless. “wǒ” which means “I or me”, when we speak fast, it sounds like second tone, this is why you get confused

Benny



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cheekySEEKy

Chinese Mandarin :Chinese Mandarin Level
Registered on : 2008-05-28
Language : None
Posts : 1
Responses : 2
Comments : 0
 cheekySEEKy yahoo.com 
2008-06-17 / 06:08PM

aw, i see. i thought you guys just change the tone sometimes because it sounds better. my native language is tonal, sometimes, we change the tones of some words ONLY when it sounds better and flows better. that doesn’t happen too often though.

anyway, back to the subject. when you say

“wǒ” which means “I or me”, when we speak fast, it sounds like second tone…

so, are you trying to say, “wo” SHOULDN’T sound like the second tone traditionally (but people do it anyway), or it’s okay and acceptable by society that “wo” may sound like the second tone?

sorry that my computer can not do the little tone markers. i live in america and we don’t use those too often.

thank you benny, for your answer. i appreciate it very very much. :)

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