4 Changing Rules of Tones in Pinyin:
| Rules No.1 Tone Changing of 一 (yī) ： |
| When 一 (yī) is used before the 1st tone, 2nd tone and the 3rd tone, yī will change to the fourth tone yì, which is a falling tone. |  | | Examples: | | yī xiē |  | yìxiē | 一些 | adj./n. some | | yī zhí | | yìzhí | 一直 | adv. all the time | | yī qǐ | | yìqǐ | 一起 | adv. altogether |
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| Rules No.2 Tone Changing of 一 (yī)： |
| When 一 (yī) is used before the 4th tone, yī will change to the 2nd tone yí, which is a rising tone. |  | | Examples: | | yī bàn | | yíbàn | 一半 | adj./n. half | | yī qiè | | yíqiè | 一切 | pron. everything |
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| Rules No.3 Tone Changing of 不 (bù) ： |
| When 不 (bù) is used before the 4th tone, bù will change to the 2nd tone bú, which is a rising tone. |  | | Examples: | | bù cuò | | búcuò | 不错 | not bad | | bù yào | | búyào | 不要 | not want |
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| Rules No. 4 Tone Changing of 3+3 → 2+3 ： |
| When a 3rd tone is followed by another 3rd tone, the former 3rd tone will change to the 2nd tone, a rising tone. |  | | Examples: | | nǐ hǎo | | níhǎo | 你好 | hello |
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Drills of Tone Changes:
Listen to the audio first, and then repeat with the audio to practice the tone changes in Pinyin.
Note: Generally,you don't have to write the tone change, and here we write it out to make it clear for you.
« Chinese Pinyin Lesson 11 | Initials: z, c, s, y, w
