Many students struggle with learning tones, and often, when they discover that some tones can change depending on the tone that follows, they feel like giving up entirely. However, the truth is, there aren't that many rules to learn! Most common tone changes happen in specific situations, and I’ll explain those here to make it easier for you.

1. Third Tone Changes

Two consecutive 3rd Tones: First 3rd Tone becomes 2nd Tone.

Keep in mind that this tone change only happens in spoken Mandarin. When writing the tones, we don’t mark these changes. However, in the examples below, I’ve marked the changes to make them easier for you to understand.

Examples:

你好 (nǐ hǎo) → (ní hǎo) – hi, hello

可以 (kě yǐ) → (ké yǐ) – can, may

有点 (yǒu diǎn) → (yóu diǎn) – a little bit

2. Tone Changes with 一 (yī)

(Unlike the earlier examples, the tone changes for 不 and 一 are actually reflected in writing as well.)

一 (yī, one) changes depending on the following tone:

Before 1st, 2nd, or 3rd tone: 一 becomes 4th tone (yì)

Examples:

一天 (yī tiān) → (yì tiān) - one day

一条 (yī tiáo) → (yì tiáo) - one (long) piece

一起 (yī qǐ) → (yì qǐ) - together

Before 4th tone: 一 becomes 2nd tone (yí)

Examples:

一次 (yī cì) → (yí cì) - once

一块 (yī kuài) → (yí kuài) - one piece

一定 (yī dìng) → (yí dìng) - sure

3. Tone Changes with 不 (bù)

Before 4th tone 不 (bù) becomes 2nd tone (bú)

Examples:

• 不是 (bù shì) → (bú shì) - not

• 不见 (bù jiàn) → (bú jiàn) - not see

• 不要 (bù yào) → (bú yào) - not want

Keep an eye out for my next video this week, where I’ll share examples of tone changes with 不!

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