The Chinese Tone Change Conundrum

Author

Sandy Cheng
March 17, 2025

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One of the trickiest aspects of Mandarin pronunciation is tone sandhi—the way tones shift in certain situations. Today, I’ll talk about what happens when two third-tone characters come together—and what changes when a third one joins the mix!

1. When Two Third Tones Meet


Imagine you’re saying "very good" (hěn hǎo - 很好). If you follow the textbook rule, both 很 (hěn) and 好 (hǎo) should be in the third tone, but in reality, that’s not how it’s pronounced!

When two third-tone syllables are next to each other, the first one changes into a second tone. So instead of saying hěn hǎo, it actually sounds like hén hǎo (rising tone + falling-rising tone).

This makes the sentence flow more smoothly and is one of the most important tone sandhi rules in Mandarin!

Here are some other common examples:

  • 老鼠 (lǎo shǔ) → láo shǔ (mouse/rat)

  • 水果 (shuǐ guǒ) → shuí guǒ (fruit)

  • 美好 (měi hǎo) → méi hǎo (beautiful, wonderful)

  • 想法 (xiǎng fǎ) → xiáng fǎ (idea, way of thinking)

  • 挺好 (tǐng hǎo) → tíng hǎo (quite good)

2. What Happens with Three Third-Tone Characters?


When we add one more third-tone syllable, things get a little more complicated. First, we need to look at whether certain characters form a compound word or naturally belong together.

Take 展览馆 (zhǎn lǎn guǎn) as an example:

  • The first two characters, 展览 (zhǎn lǎn), form a compound word meaning exhibition.

  • As we’ve learned, when two third-tone characters are next to each other, the first one changes to second tone: 展览 (zhán lǎn).

  • Now, we add 馆 (guǎn) to the end: 展览馆 (zhán lǎn guǎn).

  • Again, we have two third tones next to each other (lǎn + guǎn), so we apply the same rule, changing lǎn to second tone: 展览馆 (zhán lán guǎn).

Step-by-step breakdown:

  1. 展览 (zhǎn lǎn) → (zhán lǎn)

  2. 展览馆 (zhán lǎn guǎn) → (zhán lán guǎn)

Similarly, if the last two characters form a unit, the tone change happens there first.

For example, 买水饺 (mǎi shuǐ jiǎo):

  • The last two characters, 水饺, form the word dumpling, so we apply the two-third-tone rule to them first: 水饺 (shuǐ jiǎo) → (shuí jiǎo).

  • Now, when we add 买 (mǎi) before 水饺 (shuí jiǎo), there’s no need for further tone changes since no two third tones are next to each other anymore.

Step-by-step breakdown:

  1.  水饺 (shuǐ jiǎo) → (shuí jiǎo)

  2.  买水饺 (mǎi shuí jiǎo) – no additional tone change needed.

This pattern applies to many three-character phrases, and once you recognize which characters belong together, predicting the tone changes becomes much easier! I’ll be covering the three third-tone conundrum in one of my new videos coming out this week, so keep an eye out for that!

Tone sandhi can feel overwhelming at first, but don’t let it discourage you! Even native speakers follow these rules without thinking, and with practice, you will too.

Think of it like muscle memory—after hearing and using these tone changes in real conversations, it will become second nature. So keep listening, practicing, and most importantly, enjoy the process of learning Chinese! 💪😃

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